Many a film fan has wondered why a genre that is considered a product of a bygone era of Hollywood – the musical – is given such a prominent platform at the Golden Globes, with the crux of the major awards split into two categories, 'Drama' and 'Musical or Comedy'. But now, finally, it has been justified, as Damien Chazelle's majestic, musical masterpiece La La Land won a record-breaking seven awards at last night's ceremony.

Yes, it's that time of year again, where asking celebrities who they are wearing is deemed a perfectly normal means of starting up a conversation, and giving a lengthy, standing ovation to Meryl Streep will take up a large chunk of many people's evenings. At the 74th annual Golden Globes, hosted by Jimmy Fallon, the latter was an inevitability, as Streep was awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award.

Talking of the inevitable: it did seem something of a given that we'd all be going gaga for La La, and Chazelle's follow-up to Whiplash took home Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy). Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling took home the best actress and actor awards (Musical or Comedy), too. To complete the rout, Damien Chazelle won Best Director, while also seeing wins in the Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Song (“City of Stars”) and Best Original Score categories. Not bad in a night's work.

Though films at the Globes are separated by genre, the award with the most gravitas is Best Motion Picture (Drama) – and that was won by Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, a stirring, emotionally charged piece of cinema that was considered unlucky to miss out in several other areas, despite being recognised in the most important one of all.

Unsurprisingly, Casey Affleck won Best Actor (Drama) for his remarkable lead turn in Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea, while Isabelle Huppert beat off favourite Natalie Portman (Jackie) to win Best Actress (Drama) for Elle – the only film other than La La Land to pick up more than one award on the night, also winning Best Motion Picture (Foreign Language).