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"Mismatched Women tells the history of sound machines through singers whose bodies and voices do not match. Jennifer Fleeger explores this phenomenon, moving from the fictional Trilby to the real-life Youtube star Susan Boyle, and demonstrating along theway that singers with voices that do not match their bodies are essential to the success of technologies for preserving and sharing music"--
List of contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Literary Divas: Trilby, Christine, and the Phantom of Phonography
- Chapter 2: Metropolitan Women: Geraldine Farrar and Marion Talley Silence Opera on Screen
- Chapter 3: Opera in Synch: Deanna Durbin and Musical Playback
- Chapter 4: The Disney Princess: Animation and Real Girls
- Chapter 5: Kate Smith: The Variety "Femcee" on Radio and Television
- Chapter 6: Susan Boyle: The Amateur in the Age of Auto-Tune
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
About the author
Jennifer Fleeger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Ursinus College where she teaches courses in the film studies program. Her first book, Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz, also appears in Oxford's Music/Media Series.
Summary
This book tells the history of sound machines through singers whose bodies and voices do not match. Jennifer Fleeger explores this phenomenon, moving from the fictional Trilby to the real-life Youtube star Susan Boyle, and demonstrating along the way that singers with voices that do not match their bodies are essential to the success of technologies for preserving and sharing music.
Additional text
Fleeger complicates previous theories of the female voice, rethinking the 'match' between sound and body, technology and voice. Linking seemingly disparate singers and modes of performance - ranging from opera to animated film to radio and reality TV - Fleeger shows the way in which mismatched women challenge gender stereotypes and mechanisms of pity associated with having, or being, the wrong body.
