Todd Decker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520282322
- eISBN:
- 9780520966543
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520282322.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Hymns for the Fallen listens closely to forty years of Hollywood combat films produced after Vietnam. Ever a noisy genre, post-Vietnam war films have deployed music and sound to place the audience in ...
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Hymns for the Fallen listens closely to forty years of Hollywood combat films produced after Vietnam. Ever a noisy genre, post-Vietnam war films have deployed music and sound to place the audience in the midst of battle and to stimulate reflection on the experience of combat. Considering landmark movies—such as Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Black Hawk Down, The Hurt Locker, and American Sniper—as well as lesser known films, Todd Decker shows how the domain of sound, an experientially rich, culturally resonant aspect of the cinema, not only invokes the realities of war, but also shapes the American audience’s engagement with soldiers and veterans as flesh-and-blood representatives of the nation. Hymns for the Fallen explores all three elements of film sound—dialogue, sound effects, music—and considers how expressive and formal choices on the soundtrack have turned the serious war film into a patriotic ritual enacted in the commercial space of the cinema.Less
Hymns for the Fallen listens closely to forty years of Hollywood combat films produced after Vietnam. Ever a noisy genre, post-Vietnam war films have deployed music and sound to place the audience in the midst of battle and to stimulate reflection on the experience of combat. Considering landmark movies—such as Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Black Hawk Down, The Hurt Locker, and American Sniper—as well as lesser known films, Todd Decker shows how the domain of sound, an experientially rich, culturally resonant aspect of the cinema, not only invokes the realities of war, but also shapes the American audience’s engagement with soldiers and veterans as flesh-and-blood representatives of the nation. Hymns for the Fallen explores all three elements of film sound—dialogue, sound effects, music—and considers how expressive and formal choices on the soundtrack have turned the serious war film into a patriotic ritual enacted in the commercial space of the cinema.
Pamela Burnard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199583942
- eISBN:
- 9780191740671
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583942.003.0009
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter investigates an understanding of user-generated and collective creativities, which are related to how audio designers work with musicians. It presents accounts of two audio designers who ...
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This chapter investigates an understanding of user-generated and collective creativities, which are related to how audio designers work with musicians. It presents accounts of two audio designers who create video game soundtracks and music scores for well-known computer games. This helps show how the many forms of creativity co-exist in their work, as well as its interplay between individual and social creativities.Less
This chapter investigates an understanding of user-generated and collective creativities, which are related to how audio designers work with musicians. It presents accounts of two audio designers who create video game soundtracks and music scores for well-known computer games. This helps show how the many forms of creativity co-exist in their work, as well as its interplay between individual and social creativities.
Kiri Miller
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199753451
- eISBN:
- 9780199932979
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753451.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter focuses on musical experience in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. By withholding conventional soundtrack music and giving players control over an in-game radio system, the game designers ...
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This chapter focuses on musical experience in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. By withholding conventional soundtrack music and giving players control over an in-game radio system, the game designers draw attention to music’s capacity to channel emotional experience, match or clash with narrative situations, and alter the passage of time. The radio invites players to explore the role of music in their navigation of an unfamiliar landscape and their occupation of a foreign persona. A web of interconnected songs writes the history and shapes the cultural landscape of San Andreas, reaching beyond the borders of the gameworld to make connections with real-life songs, cities, and musical canons. While the radio system puts forward “classics” in many genres, it is African-American music (especially hip-hop) that receives the richest, most thorough, and most historically-aware treatment.Less
This chapter focuses on musical experience in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. By withholding conventional soundtrack music and giving players control over an in-game radio system, the game designers draw attention to music’s capacity to channel emotional experience, match or clash with narrative situations, and alter the passage of time. The radio invites players to explore the role of music in their navigation of an unfamiliar landscape and their occupation of a foreign persona. A web of interconnected songs writes the history and shapes the cultural landscape of San Andreas, reaching beyond the borders of the gameworld to make connections with real-life songs, cities, and musical canons. While the radio system puts forward “classics” in many genres, it is African-American music (especially hip-hop) that receives the richest, most thorough, and most historically-aware treatment.
Peter Franklin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195383454
- eISBN:
- 9780199897032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383454.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, Western
The “history” of film is reengaged through music, specifically the symphony and its modes of internalized and visualized reception in the nineteenth century. The argument hinges upon an extended ...
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The “history” of film is reengaged through music, specifically the symphony and its modes of internalized and visualized reception in the nineteenth century. The argument hinges upon an extended critique of the implications of Carolyn Abbate's notions of narrative, referentiality, and what she calls the “normal musical state,” specifically at a point in her argument in Unsung Voices where she invokes film. Examples of nineteenth-century “programmatic” description of symphonies are examined for their visual and protofilmic character. It is proposed that “epic” narrative films retrospectively illuminate the fissures and fabrications of so-called symphonic argument. The chapter closes with three extended film(-musical) analyses: Anthony Adverse (Korngold 1936), Gone with the Wind (Steiner 1939), and Kings Row (Korngold 1941), referring to the novels on which these films were based and the CD “soundtrack” recordings that have more recently become available.Less
The “history” of film is reengaged through music, specifically the symphony and its modes of internalized and visualized reception in the nineteenth century. The argument hinges upon an extended critique of the implications of Carolyn Abbate's notions of narrative, referentiality, and what she calls the “normal musical state,” specifically at a point in her argument in Unsung Voices where she invokes film. Examples of nineteenth-century “programmatic” description of symphonies are examined for their visual and protofilmic character. It is proposed that “epic” narrative films retrospectively illuminate the fissures and fabrications of so-called symphonic argument. The chapter closes with three extended film(-musical) analyses: Anthony Adverse (Korngold 1936), Gone with the Wind (Steiner 1939), and Kings Row (Korngold 1941), referring to the novels on which these films were based and the CD “soundtrack” recordings that have more recently become available.
Nathan Platte
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- November 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199371112
- eISBN:
- 9780199371136
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199371112.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood explores the network of musicians and filmmakers whose work defined the sound of Hollywood’s golden age (c. 1920s–1950s). The book’s central character is producer ...
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Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood explores the network of musicians and filmmakers whose work defined the sound of Hollywood’s golden age (c. 1920s–1950s). The book’s central character is producer David O. Selznick, who immersed himself in the music of his films, serving as manager, critic, and advocate. By demonstrating music’s value in film and encouraging its distribution through sheet music, concerts, radio broadcasts, and soundtrack albums, Selznick cultivated audiences’ relationship to movie music. But he did not do it alone. Selznick’s films depended upon the men and women who brought the music to life. This book shows how a range of specialists, including composers (Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and others), orchestrators, music directors (Lou Forbes), editors (Audray Granville), writers, instrumentalists, singers, and publicists, helped make the music for Selznick’s films stand apart from competitors’. Drawing upon thousands of archival documents, this book offers a tour of American cinema through its music. By investigating Selznick’s efforts in the late silent era, his work at three major Hollywood studios, and his accomplishments as an independent producer (including his films with Alfred Hitchcock), this book reveals how the music was made for iconic films like King Kong (1933), A Star is Born (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gone with the Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), The Third Man (1948), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).Less
Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood explores the network of musicians and filmmakers whose work defined the sound of Hollywood’s golden age (c. 1920s–1950s). The book’s central character is producer David O. Selznick, who immersed himself in the music of his films, serving as manager, critic, and advocate. By demonstrating music’s value in film and encouraging its distribution through sheet music, concerts, radio broadcasts, and soundtrack albums, Selznick cultivated audiences’ relationship to movie music. But he did not do it alone. Selznick’s films depended upon the men and women who brought the music to life. This book shows how a range of specialists, including composers (Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, and others), orchestrators, music directors (Lou Forbes), editors (Audray Granville), writers, instrumentalists, singers, and publicists, helped make the music for Selznick’s films stand apart from competitors’. Drawing upon thousands of archival documents, this book offers a tour of American cinema through its music. By investigating Selznick’s efforts in the late silent era, his work at three major Hollywood studios, and his accomplishments as an independent producer (including his films with Alfred Hitchcock), this book reveals how the music was made for iconic films like King Kong (1933), A Star is Born (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), Gone with the Wind (1939), Rebecca (1940), Spellbound (1945), The Third Man (1948), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).
James Buhler
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- November 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199371075
- eISBN:
- 9780199371105
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199371075.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
This book is concerned with summarizing and critiquing theories of the soundtrack from roughly 1929 until today. A theory of the soundtrack is concerned with what belongs to it, how it is effectively ...
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This book is concerned with summarizing and critiquing theories of the soundtrack from roughly 1929 until today. A theory of the soundtrack is concerned with what belongs to it, how it is effectively organized, how its status in a multimedia object affects the nature of the object, the tools available for its analysis, and the interpretive regime that the theory mandates for determining the meaning, sense, and structure that sound and music bring to film and other audiovisual media. Beyond that, a theory may also delineate the range of possible uses of sound (and music), classify the types of relations that films have used for image and sound, identify the central problems, and reflect on and describe effective uses of sound in film. This book does not provide an exhaustive historical survey but rather sketches out the range of theoretical approaches that have been applied to the soundtrack over time. For each approach, it presents the basic theoretical framework, considers explicit and implicit claims about the soundtrack, and then works to open the theories to new questions about film sound, often by putting the theories into dialogue with one another. The organization is both chronological and topical: the former in that the chapters move steadily from early film theory through models of the classical system to more recent critical theories; the latter in that the chapters highlight central issues for each generation: the problem of film itself, then of image and sound, then of adequate analytical-descriptive models, and finally of critical-interpretative models.Less
This book is concerned with summarizing and critiquing theories of the soundtrack from roughly 1929 until today. A theory of the soundtrack is concerned with what belongs to it, how it is effectively organized, how its status in a multimedia object affects the nature of the object, the tools available for its analysis, and the interpretive regime that the theory mandates for determining the meaning, sense, and structure that sound and music bring to film and other audiovisual media. Beyond that, a theory may also delineate the range of possible uses of sound (and music), classify the types of relations that films have used for image and sound, identify the central problems, and reflect on and describe effective uses of sound in film. This book does not provide an exhaustive historical survey but rather sketches out the range of theoretical approaches that have been applied to the soundtrack over time. For each approach, it presents the basic theoretical framework, considers explicit and implicit claims about the soundtrack, and then works to open the theories to new questions about film sound, often by putting the theories into dialogue with one another. The organization is both chronological and topical: the former in that the chapters move steadily from early film theory through models of the classical system to more recent critical theories; the latter in that the chapters highlight central issues for each generation: the problem of film itself, then of image and sound, then of adequate analytical-descriptive models, and finally of critical-interpretative models.
Scott D. Lipscomb and David E. Tolchinsky
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198529361
- eISBN:
- 9780191689628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198529361.003.0018
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology
This chapter explores musical communication in a cinematic context. It presents empirical and theoretical models of film music perception and the role of music in film. It illustrates some of the ...
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This chapter explores musical communication in a cinematic context. It presents empirical and theoretical models of film music perception and the role of music in film. It illustrates some of the ways in which a film's soundtrack can not only contribute towards but also expand upon the meaning of a film's narrative, and on what it communicates to the audience.Less
This chapter explores musical communication in a cinematic context. It presents empirical and theoretical models of film music perception and the role of music in film. It illustrates some of the ways in which a film's soundtrack can not only contribute towards but also expand upon the meaning of a film's narrative, and on what it communicates to the audience.
Jennifer O'Meara
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474420624
- eISBN:
- 9781474449564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474420624.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter considers dialogue in relation to the film soundtrack as a whole, arguing that careful approaches to dialogue in American independent cinema extend to include a creative strategy when ...
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This chapter considers dialogue in relation to the film soundtrack as a whole, arguing that careful approaches to dialogue in American independent cinema extend to include a creative strategy when combining dialogue, music and sound effects. Analysis of the interaction of music and sound effects with dialogue includes: how musical choices made by characters are verbally contextualised, and how indie filmmakers blur the boundaries between sound effects and dialogue. It is argued that by incorporating portions of inaudible dialogue, American independent cinema can position audience members as eavesdroppers rather than sanctioned listeners – calling on us to listen selectively, and engaging us in the process. The chapter extends Claudia Gorbman’s concept of ‘melomania’ by thinking about characters’ discussion of music as related to her focus on music loving directors. The examination of the integrated soundtrack also considers lyrical speech in relation to polyglot (multilingual) cinema and repetition. Through a case study of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), the chapter also theorises the links between both language and music as markers of time.Less
This chapter considers dialogue in relation to the film soundtrack as a whole, arguing that careful approaches to dialogue in American independent cinema extend to include a creative strategy when combining dialogue, music and sound effects. Analysis of the interaction of music and sound effects with dialogue includes: how musical choices made by characters are verbally contextualised, and how indie filmmakers blur the boundaries between sound effects and dialogue. It is argued that by incorporating portions of inaudible dialogue, American independent cinema can position audience members as eavesdroppers rather than sanctioned listeners – calling on us to listen selectively, and engaging us in the process. The chapter extends Claudia Gorbman’s concept of ‘melomania’ by thinking about characters’ discussion of music as related to her focus on music loving directors. The examination of the integrated soundtrack also considers lyrical speech in relation to polyglot (multilingual) cinema and repetition. Through a case study of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), the chapter also theorises the links between both language and music as markers of time.
Annabel J. Cohen
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199230143
- eISBN:
- 9780191696435
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199230143.003.0031
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology
This chapter aims to support the argument that music is one of the
strongest sources of emotion in film and open doors to further empirical
work that explains why this is so. The chapter is divided ...
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This chapter aims to support the argument that music is one of the
strongest sources of emotion in film and open doors to further empirical
work that explains why this is so. The chapter is divided into five
sections. Section 31.1 briefly establishes a context for discussing
emotion in music and film. Section 31.2 focuses on music in film, first
establishing a historical perspective and then examining the role of
music at the interface of the fictional and non-fictional elements of
film. It continues with empirical studies of music as a source of
inference and structure, and then summarizes functions that music serves
for film. Section 31.3 presents a cognitive framework for understanding
musical soundtrack phenomena previously described. Section 31.4
considers the role of the composer as the origin of the source of
musical emotion for film. Conclusions are drawn and future directions
are suggested in Section 31.5.Less
This chapter aims to support the argument that music is one of the
strongest sources of emotion in film and open doors to further empirical
work that explains why this is so. The chapter is divided into five
sections. Section 31.1 briefly establishes a context for discussing
emotion in music and film. Section 31.2 focuses on music in film, first
establishing a historical perspective and then examining the role of
music at the interface of the fictional and non-fictional elements of
film. It continues with empirical studies of music as a source of
inference and structure, and then summarizes functions that music serves
for film. Section 31.3 presents a cognitive framework for understanding
musical soundtrack phenomena previously described. Section 31.4
considers the role of the composer as the origin of the source of
musical emotion for film. Conclusions are drawn and future directions
are suggested in Section 31.5.
Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623440
- eISBN:
- 9780748651115
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623440.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The scope of this collection is indicative of the breadth and diversity of music's role in cinema, as is its emphasis on musical contributions to ‘non-musical’ films. This book brings together ...
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The scope of this collection is indicative of the breadth and diversity of music's role in cinema, as is its emphasis on musical contributions to ‘non-musical’ films. This book brings together chapters that are concerned both with the relationship between performance, music and film and the specificity of national, historical, social and cultural contexts. The book is organised into four sections: the first which is about music, film and culture focuses on cinema representations of music forms; the second explores stars, fan cultures and intertextuality; The third section considers the importance of popular music to contemporary cinema; and the final section looks to specific national contexts. Chapters detail jazz and animation, the country and western biopic, cult musicals and fandom, the importance of the soundtrack movie, and musicals from the former East Germany.Less
The scope of this collection is indicative of the breadth and diversity of music's role in cinema, as is its emphasis on musical contributions to ‘non-musical’ films. This book brings together chapters that are concerned both with the relationship between performance, music and film and the specificity of national, historical, social and cultural contexts. The book is organised into four sections: the first which is about music, film and culture focuses on cinema representations of music forms; the second explores stars, fan cultures and intertextuality; The third section considers the importance of popular music to contemporary cinema; and the final section looks to specific national contexts. Chapters detail jazz and animation, the country and western biopic, cult musicals and fandom, the importance of the soundtrack movie, and musicals from the former East Germany.
Estella Tincknell
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748623440
- eISBN:
- 9780748651115
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748623440.003.0010
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores the relationship between musical performance and popular culture, where nostalgia can be central to the construction of meaning. It considers some of the cultural implications ...
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This chapter explores the relationship between musical performance and popular culture, where nostalgia can be central to the construction of meaning. It considers some of the cultural implications of the emergence of the soundtrack as a vital element in contemporary popular cinema. With specific reference to three films from the 1990s, Forrest Gump (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Boogie Nights (1998), it examines the ways in which such films mobilise their soundtrack to produce particular cultural associations and a preferred history of the late twentieth century. The chapter points out that the soundtrack film has been part of a wider process whereby the canon of ‘classic’ pop has been raided and repackaged. Finally, it argues that borrowed music can create meanings that exceed the initial level of the narrative.Less
This chapter explores the relationship between musical performance and popular culture, where nostalgia can be central to the construction of meaning. It considers some of the cultural implications of the emergence of the soundtrack as a vital element in contemporary popular cinema. With specific reference to three films from the 1990s, Forrest Gump (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Boogie Nights (1998), it examines the ways in which such films mobilise their soundtrack to produce particular cultural associations and a preferred history of the late twentieth century. The chapter points out that the soundtrack film has been part of a wider process whereby the canon of ‘classic’ pop has been raided and repackaged. Finally, it argues that borrowed music can create meanings that exceed the initial level of the narrative.
T. Austin Graham
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199862115
- eISBN:
- 9780199332748
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199862115.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter studies F. Scott Fitzgerald and the concept of “the literary soundtrack”—that is, a series of identifiable, well-known pieces of music that punctuate literary plots and are intended to ...
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This chapter studies F. Scott Fitzgerald and the concept of “the literary soundtrack”—that is, a series of identifiable, well-known pieces of music that punctuate literary plots and are intended to be listened to in conjunction with the reading act. Fitzgerald was fascinated by the ways that music could intrude upon or harmonize with narrative, and his novels often seem to emulate the method of the Broadway stage, the techniques of silent film, and the musically allusive, magpie-like aesthetic of James Joyce's novels. The resulting textual experience can be ecstatic, insidious, immediate, or ineffable in Fitzgerald's hands, but in all cases his fiction is strikingly audible, existing in states of cross-aesthetic tension that demand to be physically heard and responded to as well as read.Less
This chapter studies F. Scott Fitzgerald and the concept of “the literary soundtrack”—that is, a series of identifiable, well-known pieces of music that punctuate literary plots and are intended to be listened to in conjunction with the reading act. Fitzgerald was fascinated by the ways that music could intrude upon or harmonize with narrative, and his novels often seem to emulate the method of the Broadway stage, the techniques of silent film, and the musically allusive, magpie-like aesthetic of James Joyce's novels. The resulting textual experience can be ecstatic, insidious, immediate, or ineffable in Fitzgerald's hands, but in all cases his fiction is strikingly audible, existing in states of cross-aesthetic tension that demand to be physically heard and responded to as well as read.
Norie Neumark
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036139
- eISBN:
- 9780262339834
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036139.003.0005
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter introduces the figure unvoice to listen to works where the usual relationship between soundtrack and image track is disturbed and disturbing. As unvoicing breaks the usual ...
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This chapter introduces the figure unvoice to listen to works where the usual relationship between soundtrack and image track is disturbed and disturbing. As unvoicing breaks the usual synchronization and hierarchy of image over sound, their very relationship becomes audible. The chapter works with the figures of ‘un,’ medianatures, minor aesthetics, and ekphrasis, bringing them into conversation with works ranging from YouTube lip-syncing remixes to artful animations, from machinima to cat videos, from video artworks to installations. It encounters unvoicing in works of portraiture and subtitling. Whether accidental or purposeful, unvoicing thinks the relations of voice, soundtrack and imagetrack anew.Less
This chapter introduces the figure unvoice to listen to works where the usual relationship between soundtrack and image track is disturbed and disturbing. As unvoicing breaks the usual synchronization and hierarchy of image over sound, their very relationship becomes audible. The chapter works with the figures of ‘un,’ medianatures, minor aesthetics, and ekphrasis, bringing them into conversation with works ranging from YouTube lip-syncing remixes to artful animations, from machinima to cat videos, from video artworks to installations. It encounters unvoicing in works of portraiture and subtitling. Whether accidental or purposeful, unvoicing thinks the relations of voice, soundtrack and imagetrack anew.
Vibert C. Cambridge
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628460117
- eISBN:
- 9781626746480
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628460117.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This chapter explains how five governors ruled British Guiana between 1900 and 1920, and how the responses of these proconsuls to the colony's complex set of challenges influenced Guyana's economic, ...
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This chapter explains how five governors ruled British Guiana between 1900 and 1920, and how the responses of these proconsuls to the colony's complex set of challenges influenced Guyana's economic, political, social, and cultural life—including its musical life—for the majority of the twentieth century. These challenges had international and domestic dimensions. On the international level, the governors had to respond to the demands of Britain's policy of new imperialism. On the domestic front, the governors faced demands of opening up the hinterland as a strategy for diversifying the economy. The chapter also shows how the colony's urban soundtrack during this period involved multiple styles and several musical communities. However, despite this diversity, the governance practices of the colony state ensured that these musical aesthetics reflected the ideology of the ruling class and its allies.Less
This chapter explains how five governors ruled British Guiana between 1900 and 1920, and how the responses of these proconsuls to the colony's complex set of challenges influenced Guyana's economic, political, social, and cultural life—including its musical life—for the majority of the twentieth century. These challenges had international and domestic dimensions. On the international level, the governors had to respond to the demands of Britain's policy of new imperialism. On the domestic front, the governors faced demands of opening up the hinterland as a strategy for diversifying the economy. The chapter also shows how the colony's urban soundtrack during this period involved multiple styles and several musical communities. However, despite this diversity, the governance practices of the colony state ensured that these musical aesthetics reflected the ideology of the ruling class and its allies.
Todd Decker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520282322
- eISBN:
- 9780520966543
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520282322.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The introduction lays out the structure of Hymns for the Fallen in broad strokes, noting the chronological scope of the study (35 war films made after the close of the Vietnam War), the subgenre ...
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The introduction lays out the structure of Hymns for the Fallen in broad strokes, noting the chronological scope of the study (35 war films made after the close of the Vietnam War), the subgenre (prestige combat films) and the book’s larger approach to film sound and film music. The three elements of the soundtrack—dialogue, sound effects, and music—and their relationship analytically within the book are also introduced. The book’s larger analogy between serious war films and war memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is drawn by comparison of scenes from Hamburger Hill (1987) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). The formative impact of the Vietnam War on Hollywood combat film production is also noted. The figures of the American soldier and veteran are presented as central both to combat film narratives and to the target audiences for these films.Less
The introduction lays out the structure of Hymns for the Fallen in broad strokes, noting the chronological scope of the study (35 war films made after the close of the Vietnam War), the subgenre (prestige combat films) and the book’s larger approach to film sound and film music. The three elements of the soundtrack—dialogue, sound effects, and music—and their relationship analytically within the book are also introduced. The book’s larger analogy between serious war films and war memorials, such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, is drawn by comparison of scenes from Hamburger Hill (1987) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). The formative impact of the Vietnam War on Hollywood combat film production is also noted. The figures of the American soldier and veteran are presented as central both to combat film narratives and to the target audiences for these films.
Todd Decker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520282322
- eISBN:
- 9780520966543
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520282322.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter describes the large-scale narrative and musical patterns of serious Hollywood combat films made after Vietnam. Two larger narrative shapes are identified: two-part forms (such as ...
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This chapter describes the large-scale narrative and musical patterns of serious Hollywood combat films made after Vietnam. Two larger narrative shapes are identified: two-part forms (such as training camp followed by battlefield) and alternating action-reflection forms. Then, the overall shape and content of combat film musical scores are described in a comparative context. Four strategies for the use of music in war films are described: films with very little music of any sort, films which alternate between scored and unscored scenes (Saving Private Ryan), music-laden films with music noticeably present much of the time (Born on the Fourth of July), and films with almost continuous music. The frequently blurry distinctions between sound effects and music, the role of popular music (Full Metal Jacket), the importance of diegetic silence, the ambiguous authorship of some film scores (Apocalypse Now, The Hurt Locker), and the shifting nature of the soundtrack mix are also considered.Less
This chapter describes the large-scale narrative and musical patterns of serious Hollywood combat films made after Vietnam. Two larger narrative shapes are identified: two-part forms (such as training camp followed by battlefield) and alternating action-reflection forms. Then, the overall shape and content of combat film musical scores are described in a comparative context. Four strategies for the use of music in war films are described: films with very little music of any sort, films which alternate between scored and unscored scenes (Saving Private Ryan), music-laden films with music noticeably present much of the time (Born on the Fourth of July), and films with almost continuous music. The frequently blurry distinctions between sound effects and music, the role of popular music (Full Metal Jacket), the importance of diegetic silence, the ambiguous authorship of some film scores (Apocalypse Now, The Hurt Locker), and the shifting nature of the soundtrack mix are also considered.
Carol Vernallis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199766994
- eISBN:
- 9780199369010
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766994.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
This book argues that we’re on the crest of a new international, intermedial style in which sonic and visual parameters become heightened and accelerated. This audiovisual turn, driven by digital ...
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This book argues that we’re on the crest of a new international, intermedial style in which sonic and visual parameters become heightened and accelerated. This audiovisual turn, driven by digital technologies and socioeconomic changes, calls for new forms of attention. Post-classical cinema, with its multiplot narratives and flashy style, fragments under the influence of audiovisual numbers and music-video-like sync. Music video, after migrating to the web, becomes more than a way of selling songs. YouTube’s brief and low-res clips encompass many forms and foreground reiteration, graphic values, and affective intensity. All three of these media are riven by one another: a trajectory from YouTube through music video to the new digital cinema reveals structural commonalities, especially in the realms of rhythm, texture, and form. Music video, YouTube, and post-classical cinema remain undertheorized. This book describes the current audiovisual landscape across media and platforms—it characterizes the audiovisual swirl. Unruly Media provides both new theoretical models and readings of many current multimedia works. It also includes several chapters devoted to the oeuvre of popular directors, including their films, commercials, and music videos. The book further argues that attending equally to the soundtrack and the image can show how these media work as well as the ways they both mirror and shape our experience.Less
This book argues that we’re on the crest of a new international, intermedial style in which sonic and visual parameters become heightened and accelerated. This audiovisual turn, driven by digital technologies and socioeconomic changes, calls for new forms of attention. Post-classical cinema, with its multiplot narratives and flashy style, fragments under the influence of audiovisual numbers and music-video-like sync. Music video, after migrating to the web, becomes more than a way of selling songs. YouTube’s brief and low-res clips encompass many forms and foreground reiteration, graphic values, and affective intensity. All three of these media are riven by one another: a trajectory from YouTube through music video to the new digital cinema reveals structural commonalities, especially in the realms of rhythm, texture, and form. Music video, YouTube, and post-classical cinema remain undertheorized. This book describes the current audiovisual landscape across media and platforms—it characterizes the audiovisual swirl. Unruly Media provides both new theoretical models and readings of many current multimedia works. It also includes several chapters devoted to the oeuvre of popular directors, including their films, commercials, and music videos. The book further argues that attending equally to the soundtrack and the image can show how these media work as well as the ways they both mirror and shape our experience.
Nessa Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190261122
- eISBN:
- 9780190261153
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190261122.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, History, American, History, Western
Shot on digital video during and after Israel’s aerial bombardment of Lebanon in 2006, Philippe Arachtingi’s Under the Bombs (2007) uses actors to play the lead characters in a fictitious narrative, ...
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Shot on digital video during and after Israel’s aerial bombardment of Lebanon in 2006, Philippe Arachtingi’s Under the Bombs (2007) uses actors to play the lead characters in a fictitious narrative, interacting with bystanders and using a real war as its setting and backdrop. Johnston argues that the soundtrack, particularly the voice, has an important role to play in creating and enabling this hybrid of fiction, documentary, and news footage. The verbal and nonverbal vocal elements of the soundtrack provide a tactile embodiment of the performers visible on screen. Furthermore, synchronized location-recorded sound simultaneously authenticates the reality of the moment, and initiates a felt emotional response. Using analysis of key scenes in the film, and focusing on nonsemantic characteristics of voice, the chapter considers the role of sound technologies in the mediation of screen performance, experienced as embodied aural encounters.Less
Shot on digital video during and after Israel’s aerial bombardment of Lebanon in 2006, Philippe Arachtingi’s Under the Bombs (2007) uses actors to play the lead characters in a fictitious narrative, interacting with bystanders and using a real war as its setting and backdrop. Johnston argues that the soundtrack, particularly the voice, has an important role to play in creating and enabling this hybrid of fiction, documentary, and news footage. The verbal and nonverbal vocal elements of the soundtrack provide a tactile embodiment of the performers visible on screen. Furthermore, synchronized location-recorded sound simultaneously authenticates the reality of the moment, and initiates a felt emotional response. Using analysis of key scenes in the film, and focusing on nonsemantic characteristics of voice, the chapter considers the role of sound technologies in the mediation of screen performance, experienced as embodied aural encounters.
Carol Vernallis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199766994
- eISBN:
- 9780199369010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766994.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
Music video aesthetics have seeped into other genres, and music video directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze are altering the landscape of feature films. But there are no archives for music ...
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Music video aesthetics have seeped into other genres, and music video directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze are altering the landscape of feature films. But there are no archives for music video, and music video’s history remains uncharted. Focusing on the Palm DVD Music Video Director Series, this chapter considers music video directors as auteurs. Music video has become a site for directors to develop style and technique. Directors have a hand in every phase of production: the making of storyboards, the casting of extras, shooting, and editing. Directorial styles diverge because there are no schools for making music videos nor industry internship programs, nor are there communal video-making practices like making music videos in garages. This chapter examines differences among the Palm Series directors (Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze, and Hype Williams) in order to argue for the value and limits of music video auteurship.Less
Music video aesthetics have seeped into other genres, and music video directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze are altering the landscape of feature films. But there are no archives for music video, and music video’s history remains uncharted. Focusing on the Palm DVD Music Video Director Series, this chapter considers music video directors as auteurs. Music video has become a site for directors to develop style and technique. Directors have a hand in every phase of production: the making of storyboards, the casting of extras, shooting, and editing. Directorial styles diverge because there are no schools for making music videos nor industry internship programs, nor are there communal video-making practices like making music videos in garages. This chapter examines differences among the Palm Series directors (Mark Romanek, Michel Gondry, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze, and Hype Williams) in order to argue for the value and limits of music video auteurship.
Carol Vernallis
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199766994
- eISBN:
- 9780199369010
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766994.003.0000
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
The Introduction begins with the problem of defining post-classical cinema, music video, and the YouTube clip. It advances definitions of these genres through consideration of stylistic features, ...
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The Introduction begins with the problem of defining post-classical cinema, music video, and the YouTube clip. It advances definitions of these genres through consideration of stylistic features, length, budget, format, platform, production practices, and audiences. It also attempts to describe each genre’s current state of affairs in relation to its past, and to characterize the relations between these genres. Through consideration of specific examples, the Introduction suggests that accelerating rates of interpenetration and intertextuality will increasingly blur boundaries among platforms and genres. An overview of the book’s project and a description of individual chapters is included.Less
The Introduction begins with the problem of defining post-classical cinema, music video, and the YouTube clip. It advances definitions of these genres through consideration of stylistic features, length, budget, format, platform, production practices, and audiences. It also attempts to describe each genre’s current state of affairs in relation to its past, and to characterize the relations between these genres. Through consideration of specific examples, the Introduction suggests that accelerating rates of interpenetration and intertextuality will increasingly blur boundaries among platforms and genres. An overview of the book’s project and a description of individual chapters is included.
