brilliantly underscored by Herrmann’s music. By the same token, much has been written on The Shin... more brilliantly underscored by Herrmann’s music. By the same token, much has been written on The Shining (1980), yet David J. Code’s essay finds a new approach by emphasizing the modernist pieces used in the film (by Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki), including parallels between the music and visual imagery. Many of the essays offer pointed commentary on contemporary society. In his analysis of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972), Joe Tompkins argues that the film completely upends traditional use of popular music, subverting conventional formulas of visuals, narrative, and music. Contrary to Claudia Gorbman’s assertion that film music should remain unheard, music here draws attention to itself, mostly because of its incongruous nature. The anempathetic nature of the score denies the audience the comfort afforded by traditional horror scores. Tomkins goes on to posit that the use of the banjo in this and other films of the early 1970s contributes to the “othering” of Appalachian culture, and that these films make important social commentaries on city and country culture, contravening traditional ideas of class and depictions of violence. The most interesting aspect of Claire Sisco King’s essay on The Exorcist (1973) is the parallel she draws between the crisis of the filmmakers (including the rejection of the original score by Lalo Schifrin) and the crisis of the narrative found therein. The film displays impotence on several levels. King points in particular to Father Karras’s failed patriarchy (both as a person and as a priest) as analogous to the failed patriarchy of the United States as a nation at the height of the Vietnam War. K. J. Donnelly examines the music of The Fog (1980), which was designed by the director John Carpenter, who used electronic sounds and the relatively recent Moog synthesizers. A close connection emerges between the ethereal music and the advent of the mysterious fog, rendering it a sonic threat that is as intense as that of the visuals. The non-diegetic music is thus a primary effect, in contrast to the innocuous and almost unidentifiable jazz that emerges diegetically from the radio station. James Buhler’s essay on the A Nightmare on Elm Street series (beginning in 1984) posits that the structure of slasher films differs from that of traditional horror films in many ways, establishing a generational disjunction as teens (especially female) battle evil against a backdrop of adult indifference and social regression. The music accentuates those two worlds by emphasizing the adult helplessness, teen angst, and the threat of Freddy Krueger’s monstrosity. The final two essays offer more in-depth musical analyses of specific films. James Deaville’s essay focuses on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) as an important departure from the Dracula myth. Wojciech Kilar’s thematic score for that film displays “the Beauty of Horror,” Deaville’s term for the musical representation of lavish visuals and the evil/beautiful dichotomy present in the film’s characters. And Lloyd Whitesell examines the representation of ghosts in a subgenre of horror films that he identifies as “ghost-stories-with-a-twist,” focusing on The Sixth Sense (1999) and The Other (2001). The narrative twists in these films distort and even reverse traditional horror film conventions, and are reflected in the scores, which continually reinterpret actions and characters. This collection of essays, while not comprehensive, does shed light on an important genre, and nicely complements other important works on the subject, including notably K. J. Donnelly’s The Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television (London: British Film Institute, 2005) and American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film, edited by Andrew Britton, Richard Lippe, Tony Williams, and Robin Wood (Toronto: Festival of Festivals, 1979). With the addition of this volume, skillfully edited by Neil Lerner, the analysis of horror film music takes another big step in our understanding of the genre.
Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: A... more Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: Ashgate. Bethany Klein's As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising provides an introduction into the recent history of popular music as a marketing tool in television commercials and assembles a chronological history of the most well-known usages of popular music utilized in advertising campaigns. Klein includes a series of case studies throughout this book, such as the Beatles's "Revolution," used by Nike; Iggy Pop's lyrically salacious "Lust for Life," used by Royal Caribbean Cruise; and Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son," used in a Wrangler's ad. As a media industries scholar at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, Klein's focus is on the commercialization of popular music and its involvement in other media. As such, her main goal is to create a chronological history of the significant collaborations between musicians and corporate businesses and to provide insight into the decisions, reactions, and outcomes of popular music licensers and advertising industry representatives. Framed in the rhetoric of market communication and media research, As Heard on TVs broad scope makes it best suited for an introduction to intersections between the music industry, advertising, business practices, and popular culture. As Heard on TV explores the relationships between music executives, musicians, and music business practices through various modes of communication such as e-mails, written contracts, and verbal exchanges. For each commercial discussed, Klein provides any written or verbal accounts stemming from the advertising agency's inquiry into the potential use of a band's song to the final acquisition of the music license. Much of the author's information comes from newspapers, online magazines, magazines, industry journals, scholarly books, and interviews that Klein conducted. Many of these interviews were with music supervisors, musicians, advertising "creatives," and licensing managers. These individuals serve as the basis for much of her insight into the business side of music making and is an examination of the frayed relationship between marketing executives, licensers, and the music supervisors who must create a business arrangement between the band and the product's brand name. While Klein acknowledges that these interviews are not ethnographic in scope or nature, as have been studies of American culture such as Tia DeNora's Music in Everyday Life (2000), these interviews do offer a unique insight into the advertising industry. Drawing from a range of resources that include newspaper editorials and her own interviews with musicians or music supervisors from advertising agencies, Klein gauges audience reactions to the music. She introduces reception theory as discussed by socio-musicologists Simon Frith, Sound Effects (1981) and Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop (1988), and Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), who examine the mass appeal of popular music. While I commend the author's efforts to present the historical happenings as well as the documentation from various news sources on the specific commercials that include popular music, it seems that Klein missed some opportunities to expand on the information presented from her almost thirty interviews. I wonder, for instance, what questions the author asked during their conversation, what commonalities, if any, were found in their answers, and what effect these commercials had on the person being interviewed. Subjectivity involving discussions on taste, musical style, and business ethics are expected, and Klein is well aware of this slippery slope. Still, her presentation would gain greater significance with further analyses in semiotics, as a study in hermeneutics, that specifically analyze the meaning of the song interpreted by different viewers who see the commercials. …
This paper describes the integrated content and instructional components of a new college course,... more This paper describes the integrated content and instructional components of a new college course, HNRS 3900 Math, Music, and Art, housed in Robert Morris University's Honors Program and co-taught by a mathematician and a musician. This seminar emphasized the creativity that drives advances in each discipline. We interwove material from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through thematic and chronological frames of reference, culminating in the cultural avant-garde and development of the digital computer. Assuming no particular mathematical or musical prerequisites, we used art (broadly defined) and hands-on-learning experiences to bridge the abstract worlds of theoretical mathematics and music theory. To appeal to those students with substantial mathematical and musical background, we presented advanced undergraduate material otherwise absent in our school's curriculum.
Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: A... more Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: Ashgate. Bethany Klein's As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising provides an introduction into the recent history of popular music as a marketing tool in television commercials and assembles a chronological history of the most well-known usages of popular music utilized in advertising campaigns. Klein includes a series of case studies throughout this book, such as the Beatles's "Revolution," used by Nike; Iggy Pop's lyrically salacious "Lust for Life," used by Royal Caribbean Cruise; and Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son," used in a Wrangler's ad. As a media industries scholar at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, Klein's focus is on the commercialization of popular music and its involvement in other media. As such, her main goal is to create a chronological history of the signific...
... made musIc serIes Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Ber... more ... made musIc serIes Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Berlin Joyce J. Bolden Rob Bowman Susan C ... And thanks to Ronnie and Richard Conboy, Brenda Krepol and Eddie Albert, and Pat and Ernie Pinson for making the printing of the ...
brilliantly underscored by Herrmann’s music. By the same token, much has been written on The Shin... more brilliantly underscored by Herrmann’s music. By the same token, much has been written on The Shining (1980), yet David J. Code’s essay finds a new approach by emphasizing the modernist pieces used in the film (by Béla Bartók, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki), including parallels between the music and visual imagery. Many of the essays offer pointed commentary on contemporary society. In his analysis of Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left (1972), Joe Tompkins argues that the film completely upends traditional use of popular music, subverting conventional formulas of visuals, narrative, and music. Contrary to Claudia Gorbman’s assertion that film music should remain unheard, music here draws attention to itself, mostly because of its incongruous nature. The anempathetic nature of the score denies the audience the comfort afforded by traditional horror scores. Tomkins goes on to posit that the use of the banjo in this and other films of the early 1970s contributes to the “othering” of Appalachian culture, and that these films make important social commentaries on city and country culture, contravening traditional ideas of class and depictions of violence. The most interesting aspect of Claire Sisco King’s essay on The Exorcist (1973) is the parallel she draws between the crisis of the filmmakers (including the rejection of the original score by Lalo Schifrin) and the crisis of the narrative found therein. The film displays impotence on several levels. King points in particular to Father Karras’s failed patriarchy (both as a person and as a priest) as analogous to the failed patriarchy of the United States as a nation at the height of the Vietnam War. K. J. Donnelly examines the music of The Fog (1980), which was designed by the director John Carpenter, who used electronic sounds and the relatively recent Moog synthesizers. A close connection emerges between the ethereal music and the advent of the mysterious fog, rendering it a sonic threat that is as intense as that of the visuals. The non-diegetic music is thus a primary effect, in contrast to the innocuous and almost unidentifiable jazz that emerges diegetically from the radio station. James Buhler’s essay on the A Nightmare on Elm Street series (beginning in 1984) posits that the structure of slasher films differs from that of traditional horror films in many ways, establishing a generational disjunction as teens (especially female) battle evil against a backdrop of adult indifference and social regression. The music accentuates those two worlds by emphasizing the adult helplessness, teen angst, and the threat of Freddy Krueger’s monstrosity. The final two essays offer more in-depth musical analyses of specific films. James Deaville’s essay focuses on Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) as an important departure from the Dracula myth. Wojciech Kilar’s thematic score for that film displays “the Beauty of Horror,” Deaville’s term for the musical representation of lavish visuals and the evil/beautiful dichotomy present in the film’s characters. And Lloyd Whitesell examines the representation of ghosts in a subgenre of horror films that he identifies as “ghost-stories-with-a-twist,” focusing on The Sixth Sense (1999) and The Other (2001). The narrative twists in these films distort and even reverse traditional horror film conventions, and are reflected in the scores, which continually reinterpret actions and characters. This collection of essays, while not comprehensive, does shed light on an important genre, and nicely complements other important works on the subject, including notably K. J. Donnelly’s The Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television (London: British Film Institute, 2005) and American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film, edited by Andrew Britton, Richard Lippe, Tony Williams, and Robin Wood (Toronto: Festival of Festivals, 1979). With the addition of this volume, skillfully edited by Neil Lerner, the analysis of horror film music takes another big step in our understanding of the genre.
Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: A... more Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: Ashgate. Bethany Klein's As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising provides an introduction into the recent history of popular music as a marketing tool in television commercials and assembles a chronological history of the most well-known usages of popular music utilized in advertising campaigns. Klein includes a series of case studies throughout this book, such as the Beatles's "Revolution," used by Nike; Iggy Pop's lyrically salacious "Lust for Life," used by Royal Caribbean Cruise; and Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son," used in a Wrangler's ad. As a media industries scholar at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, Klein's focus is on the commercialization of popular music and its involvement in other media. As such, her main goal is to create a chronological history of the significant collaborations between musicians and corporate businesses and to provide insight into the decisions, reactions, and outcomes of popular music licensers and advertising industry representatives. Framed in the rhetoric of market communication and media research, As Heard on TVs broad scope makes it best suited for an introduction to intersections between the music industry, advertising, business practices, and popular culture. As Heard on TV explores the relationships between music executives, musicians, and music business practices through various modes of communication such as e-mails, written contracts, and verbal exchanges. For each commercial discussed, Klein provides any written or verbal accounts stemming from the advertising agency's inquiry into the potential use of a band's song to the final acquisition of the music license. Much of the author's information comes from newspapers, online magazines, magazines, industry journals, scholarly books, and interviews that Klein conducted. Many of these interviews were with music supervisors, musicians, advertising "creatives," and licensing managers. These individuals serve as the basis for much of her insight into the business side of music making and is an examination of the frayed relationship between marketing executives, licensers, and the music supervisors who must create a business arrangement between the band and the product's brand name. While Klein acknowledges that these interviews are not ethnographic in scope or nature, as have been studies of American culture such as Tia DeNora's Music in Everyday Life (2000), these interviews do offer a unique insight into the advertising industry. Drawing from a range of resources that include newspaper editorials and her own interviews with musicians or music supervisors from advertising agencies, Klein gauges audience reactions to the music. She introduces reception theory as discussed by socio-musicologists Simon Frith, Sound Effects (1981) and Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop (1988), and Leonard B. Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), who examine the mass appeal of popular music. While I commend the author's efforts to present the historical happenings as well as the documentation from various news sources on the specific commercials that include popular music, it seems that Klein missed some opportunities to expand on the information presented from her almost thirty interviews. I wonder, for instance, what questions the author asked during their conversation, what commonalities, if any, were found in their answers, and what effect these commercials had on the person being interviewed. Subjectivity involving discussions on taste, musical style, and business ethics are expected, and Klein is well aware of this slippery slope. Still, her presentation would gain greater significance with further analyses in semiotics, as a study in hermeneutics, that specifically analyze the meaning of the song interpreted by different viewers who see the commercials. …
This paper describes the integrated content and instructional components of a new college course,... more This paper describes the integrated content and instructional components of a new college course, HNRS 3900 Math, Music, and Art, housed in Robert Morris University's Honors Program and co-taught by a mathematician and a musician. This seminar emphasized the creativity that drives advances in each discipline. We interwove material from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries through thematic and chronological frames of reference, culminating in the cultural avant-garde and development of the digital computer. Assuming no particular mathematical or musical prerequisites, we used art (broadly defined) and hands-on-learning experiences to bridge the abstract worlds of theoretical mathematics and music theory. To appeal to those students with substantial mathematical and musical background, we presented advanced undergraduate material otherwise absent in our school's curriculum.
Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: A... more Bethany Klein. 2010. As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising. Farnham and Surrey, England: Ashgate. Bethany Klein's As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising provides an introduction into the recent history of popular music as a marketing tool in television commercials and assembles a chronological history of the most well-known usages of popular music utilized in advertising campaigns. Klein includes a series of case studies throughout this book, such as the Beatles's "Revolution," used by Nike; Iggy Pop's lyrically salacious "Lust for Life," used by Royal Caribbean Cruise; and Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son," used in a Wrangler's ad. As a media industries scholar at the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds, Klein's focus is on the commercialization of popular music and its involvement in other media. As such, her main goal is to create a chronological history of the signific...
... made musIc serIes Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Ber... more ... made musIc serIes Advisory Board David Evans, General Editor Barry Jean Ancelet Edward A. Berlin Joyce J. Bolden Rob Bowman Susan C ... And thanks to Ronnie and Richard Conboy, Brenda Krepol and Eddie Albert, and Pat and Ernie Pinson for making the printing of the ...
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