Consequently, I am concerned with how film music constitutes a system of control based on its ability to affect audiences in a significant manner, and to assent to or validate their emotional reactions. I am interested in music's apparent but consistently underrated role of invoking emotion in the viewer, where it becomes the carrier of the audience's primary reactions and emotional frailty. It focuses on how music works as a subtle medium of manipulation, which, while not consciously registered, undoubtedly exerts a considerable influence on film and television audiences. This book's central concern is with film and television music as scores (also known as underscores, background music, incidental music, non-diegetic music) rather than as featured music performed on screen. As such, it can seem like an artificial element, a vestige from the past or a sop to the M T V generation's desire to watch pop videos in the middle of films. It is the only element of film that emanates from outside the fiWs diegetic world, its 'reality'. While I am interested in film music - and to a lesser degree its close cousin television music - as soundtrack CDs, existing outside films as cultural items and commodities in their own right, I am most interested in screen music as a unique phenomenon 'inside' films and television. 1 This is even more remarkable, as it has taken place against a background of consistently falling record sales overall. Apparently, soundtrack album sales increased threefold during the 1990s. Now it is possible to buy CDs of old theme tunes and old film scores that have never before been available, while many films and television programmes include the release of musical recordings as an essential part of their production. Yet music on film and television increasingly has become a subject of general interest and of commerce. These have become internalised in us to the point that we never really think about them. We can recognise musical cliches, the jaunty tune that appears during a happy scene, the sombre dirge that accompanies a funereal situation. You are invited!' Alex in A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)Ĭhapter 1 Overview - 'Birdie Sings, Music Sings' The vast majority of us already know much about film music, even if we never take any notice of it. 'Music has charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak/ William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, 1697 'To establish aesthetic principles of cinema music is as dubious an enterprise as to write its history.' Hanns Eisler and Theodor Adorno, Composingfor the Films, 1947 'Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. The chapter 'Music on Television 2: Pop Music's Colonisation of Television includes material published in 'Tracking British Television: Pop Music as Stock Soundtrack to the Small Screen' in Popular Music, vol. Sincere thanks also go to anyone who has ever helped or supported me, while very special thanks go to Joan Donnelly and Mandy Marler. Thanks are due to Andrew Lockett, Sophie Contento and Tom Cabot at BFI publishing. Thanks are due to institutional support from Staffordshire University and from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. This book has had a long gestation period. ISBN 978 1 84457 026 3 eISBN 978 1 83902 061 2 ePDF 978 1 83902 062 9Īcknowledgments Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapter Chapterġ: Overview - 'Birdie Sings, Music Sings' 2: The Demon of Film Music 3: T h e Anti-Matter of Film Music: The Shining 4: The Accented Voice: Ethnic Signposts of English, Irish and American Film Music 5: Demonic Possession: Horror Film Music 6: Music on Television 1: Music for Television Drama 7: Music on Television 2: Pop Music's Colonisation of Television 8: Soundtracks without Films 9: Loose Ends and Last Words Set by Fakenham Photosetting, Fakenham, Norfolk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Donnelly2005 Cover design: ketchup Cover images: (front) Robert Blake as Mystery Man, Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997) (back) Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980). Donnellyįirst published in 2005 by the British Film Institute 21 Stephen Street, London W I T 1LN The British Film Institute promotes greater understanding of, and access to, film and moving image culture in the UK. The Spectre of Sound Music in Film and Television K. Music on Television 2: Pop Music’s Colonisation of Television Music on Television 1: Music for Television Dramaħ. The Accented Voice: Ethnic Signposts of English, Irish and American Film MusicĦ. The Anti-Matter of Film Music: The ShiningĤ.
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