1st Edition

The Soundtrack Album Listening to Media

Edited By Paul N. Reinsch, Laurel Westrup Copyright 2020
    278 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    278 Pages 20 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media offers the first sustained exploration of the soundtrack album as a distinctive form of media.

    Soundtrack albums have been part of our media and musical landscape for decades, enduring across formats from vinyl and 8-tracks to streaming playlists. This book makes the case that soundtrack albums are more than promotional tools for films, television shows, or video games— they are complex media texts that reward a detailed analysis. The collection’s contributors explore a diverse range of soundtrack albums, from Super Fly to Stranger Things, revealing how these albums change our understanding of the music and film industries and the audio-visual relationships that drive them.

    An excellent resource for students of Music, Media Studies, and Film/Screen Media courses, The Soundtrack Album offers interdisciplinary perspectives and opens new areas for exploration in music and media studies.

    Introduction: Listening to Media

    Paul N. Reinsch and Laurel Westrup

    Part 1: Case Studies

    1. The Soundtrack in Transition: The Many Objects of Paul Simon’s One-Trick Pony

    Landon Palmer

    2. It’s a Kind of Soundtrack: Queen, Highlander, and the "Unofficial Soundtrack Album"

    Ross Melnick

    3. Super Fly and the Sound of Seventies Blaxploitation Cinema

    Matthew Tchepikova-Treon

    4. Signifyin(g) on the Soundtrack Album? OutKast’s Idlewild Project

    Laurel Westrup

    Part 2: Brands

    5. Learning from Sesame Street Soundtrack Albums

    Kathryn A. Ostrofsky

    6. Creazioni Artistiche Musicali and Italian Cinema after World War II

    Roberto Calabretto

    7. King of the Whole Wide World: Elvis, RCA Camden, and the Non-Filmic "Budget"

    Soundtrack Album

    Justin Morris

    8. Sing Along with Hitch: Musically Marketing the Master of Suspense

    Richard R. Ness

    Part 3: Formats

    9. Fixing the Brand: The Sonic Branding of Adult Swim

    David Gurney

    10. Video Game Soundtrack Albums and the Digital Revolution

    Robert Cavanagh

    11. Tracking Hypernostalgia: Soundtrack Albums and the Return of the Cassette in American

    Film and Television

    Kristen Galvin

    Part 4: New Directions

    12. Now—For Even Greater Enjoyment…The Home Movie Soundtrack Album

    Liz Czach

    13. A Brief Hearing for the Unified Soundtrack Album

    Paul N. Reinsch

    Biography

    Paul N. Reinsch is Associate Professor of Practice–Cinema in the School of Theatre & Dance at Texas Tech University.

    Laurel Westrup is a Continuing Lecturer with Writing Programs and the Honors Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.