Book Review
Oct. 5th, 2019 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Spectre of Sound: Music in Film and Television
by Kevin Donnelly
This book discusses the role and use of music in film and television. Donnelly explores a few different ideas about his topic, including the ways music is used to manage and manipulate the emotional reactions of the audience, the increasing use and influence of pop music, and music's presence as another element of a film. Unfortunately, the discussion of all these different things does make the book lack unity. The most interesting of Donnelly's ideas is the concept of film music as a kind of specter or ghost that haunts the visuals and narrative, bringing the other and the otherworldly into play. I really liked the chapters on horror music and the music in The Shining, not least because this is where Donnelly most fully and convincingly explores this concept. Donnelly's exploration of the growing use of pop music in film was also interesting, if not quite as fleshed out as I would like. I especially would have liked more discussion of the interaction between this development and commercial concerns.
by Kevin Donnelly
This book discusses the role and use of music in film and television. Donnelly explores a few different ideas about his topic, including the ways music is used to manage and manipulate the emotional reactions of the audience, the increasing use and influence of pop music, and music's presence as another element of a film. Unfortunately, the discussion of all these different things does make the book lack unity. The most interesting of Donnelly's ideas is the concept of film music as a kind of specter or ghost that haunts the visuals and narrative, bringing the other and the otherworldly into play. I really liked the chapters on horror music and the music in The Shining, not least because this is where Donnelly most fully and convincingly explores this concept. Donnelly's exploration of the growing use of pop music in film was also interesting, if not quite as fleshed out as I would like. I especially would have liked more discussion of the interaction between this development and commercial concerns.
