Music in Action Film

Music in Action Film is the first volume to address the central role of music and sound in action film-arguably the most dominant form of commercial cinema today. Bringing together 15 essays by established and emerging scholars, the book encompasses both Hollywood blockbusters and international films, from classic works such as The Seven Samurai to contemporary superhero franchises. The contributors consider action both as genre and as a mode of cinematic expression, in chapters on evolving musical conventions; politics, representation, and identity; musical affect and agency; the functional role of music and sound design in action film; and production technologies. Breaking new critical ground yet highly accessible, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of music and film studies.

James Buhler is Professor of Music Theory at the University of Texas, Austin. Mark Durrand is Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Akron.

Table of Contents Series Foreword Neil Lerner List of Contributors Preface: Sounds Like Action! James Buhler and Mark Durrand Part I: Action Scored: Politics, Representation, and Identity Favela Chic in Action Soundtracking Urban Violence in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil K.E. Goldschmitt "You're Not Gonna Get Mushy on Me, Are You?" Music and the New Man in 1990s Hollywood Action Film Rebecca Fülöp "I Am No Lady When I Fight!" Gender Politics in the Postwar Swashbuckler Score Grace Edgar Reviving the Swordplay Action Film Nature, Technology, and the Soundtrack for Seven Samurai Brooke McCorkle Okazaki Conan the Neoliberal? The Sounds of Hypermasculine Entrepreneurship in Early Reaganite Film James Deaville Part II: Action Scores: Evolving Musical Conventions Underscoring Chased Heroes and Robbing Villains Music of Immediacy in New Hollywood Action Thrillers of the late 1960s and 1970s Michael Baumgartner John Williams's Action Music in the Twenty-First Century Frank Lehman "There and Back Again" Music and Generic Transformation in Peter Jackson's Hobbit Films Stephen C. Meyer Star Trek as Action Film Reimagining The Original Series' Soundscape Paul Sommerfeld A Tale of Two Cinemas: Zashchitniki (Guardians, 2017) and Music for the New Russian Superhero Film Joan Titus Part III: Scoring Action: The Kinesthetic Experience and Production "Those Who Dance" Popular Music, Audiovisual Editing, and Meaning across the Guardians of the Galaxy Franchise Catrin Watts Toward a Musical Understanding of Cinematic Action: Two Experiments with Embodiment and Musical Vitality in Film Experience Mark Durrand Sound-Induced Visual Illusion in Film Sarah Louden "Humming the Foley, Singing the Sound" Designing Sound with a Musical Perspective Vanessa Theme Ament Music, Digital Audio, Labor: Notes on Audio and Music Production for the Contemporary Action Film James Buhler Index