21 | MUSIC IN FILM

Music in Film: Soundtracks and Synergy discusses a broad range of films – from classical Hollywood through to American independents and European art films – and offers a brief history of the development of music in film from the silent era to the present day. In particular, this book explores how music operates as a narrative device, and also emotionally and culturally. By focusing on the increasing synergy between film and music texts, it includes an extended case study of Magnolia as a film script which developed from a pop song. Emphasis is also placed on the divide between the ‘high culture’ of the orchestral score and the ‘low culture’ of the pop song.


September 2004
144 pages

978-1-903364-65-9 (pbk)

£12.99

£11.04 with 15% online discount - add to basket

Pauline Reay is a lecturer in Film and Media Studies at various UK educational institutions, with a background in the music industry.

‘The book is an invaluable contribution to widening an understanding of film music and its place within the pleasures and meanings of cinema.’
– John Mundy, Popular Music

'A thorough overview of the major developments in mainstream film music, this introduction develops into a welcome and much-needed focus on the pop score and soundtrack with excellent and original choices of case study films and performers.'
– David Butler, University of Manchester