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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.
List of contents
Introduction: Listening to Media Part 1: Case Studies 1. The Soundtrack in Transition: The Many Objects of Paul Simon’s One-Trick Pony 2. It’s a Kind of Soundtrack: Queen, Highlander, and the "Unofficial Soundtrack Album" 3. Super Fly and the Sound of Seventies Blaxploitation Cinema 4. Signifyin(g) on the Soundtrack Album? OutKast’s Idlewild Project Part 2: Brands 5. Learning from Sesame Street Soundtrack Albums 6. Creazioni Artistiche Musicali and Italian Cinema after World War II 7. King of the Whole Wide World: Elvis, RCA Camden, and the Non-Filmic "Budget" Soundtrack Album 8. Sing Along with Hitch: Musically Marketing the Master of Suspense Part 3: Formats 9. Fixing the Brand: The Sonic Branding of Adult Swim 10. Video Game Soundtrack Albums and the Digital Revolution 11. Tracking Hypernostalgia: Soundtrack Albums and the Return of the Cassette in American Film and Television Part 4: New Directions 12. Now—For Even Greater Enjoyment…The Home Movie Soundtrack Album 13. A Brief Hearing for the Unified Soundtrack Album
About the author
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.
Summary
The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media offers the first sustained exploration of the soundtrack album as a distinctive form of media.
