Introduction: Screened Music, Trans-contextualisation and Ethnomusicological Approaches

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of the term ‘screened music’ as a means of encompassing a broad range of methodological approaches that emphasise agency, process and context, moving beyond the extant focus on Western musical traditions associated with film music analysis. It argues that perspectives from ethnomusicology offer new possibilities for understanding screened musics in their numerous forms. In particular, focus on practitioner perspectives and self-reflexive ethnography can provide insights into industrial and political processes as well as issues relating to ethics and responsibility. The notion of agency as embedded in processes of de- re- and trans-contextualisation offers new ways to explore the use of ‘exotic’ or hegemonic musics, as well as the emergence and development of style. This paper also considers issues of representation, including problematic stereotyping of the ‘primitive other’, national identity, code formation and viral re-signification.

Keywords:

• Screened Music
• De-/Re-/Trans-contextualisation
• Representation
• Ethnographic Filmmaking
• (Self-reflexive) Ethnography
• Viral re-signification
• Film music

Notes

1. A ‘mondo’ film is a documentary film normally depicting sensational subjects. The genre started with the Italian film Mondo Cane (A Dog's World) made in 1962 by Paola Cavara, Gultiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi. This film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes showing cultural practices throughout the world intended to shock or surprise the mostly Western audience.

2. Collins (2008a) and Sexton (2007) are both reviewed in this volume.

3. Music, Sound and the Moving Image: http://msmi.lupjournals.org; Music and the Moving Image:http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/mmi.html ; The Soundtrack: http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=17514193.17514193(all last accessed 21 March 2009).

4. A number of the articles in this volume were first presented at the Sound, Music and Moving Image conference (2007) held at Senate House, University of London, 10–12 September, organised by Julie Brown and Miguel Mera under the auspices of the Institute of Musical Research.

5. This point is famously explored in Hobsbawm and Ranger (1992) which reveals that some of the most resilient traditions are those based upon a largely fictitious history, often involving complex processes of syncretisation and migration.

6. These issues have been discussed with respect to cassettes and their impact in a number of places around the globe (Wallis and Malm 1984; Manuel 1993). For a variety of approaches to the impact of specific ‘new’ technologies, see also, for example, Tapscott (1998), Haynes (2000), Askew and Wilk (2002), Strangelove (2005) and Collins (2008a,b).

7. For further discussion on this issue see Laing (2007).

8. See also Dana Benelli's exploration of the travelogue-expedition film's influence on Hollywood cinema (2002).

9. Mickey-mousing is a technique of close synchronisation of on-screen visual actions with musical gestures.

10. See, for example, Cohen (1991), Thornton (1995), and Toynbee (2000).

11. Harris's ethnographic study of Uyghur pop videos, global sounds, and textual meaning in urban and rural contexts (2005) is a notable exception. Also significant is Pease's study of internet fandom of Korean pop music in China (2006).

12. In terms of music, issues relating to fieldwork, representation and ethics have been the focus of two recent volumes: Barz and Cooley (1997) and Cooley's (2003) special issue of the British Journal of Ethnomusicology.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Miguel Mera

Miguel Mera is widely published in music and moving image studies, from music in historical drama to the use of popular songs in contemporary cinema. His publications include European film music (Ashgate, 2006) and Mychael Danna's The Ice Storm: A film score guide (Scarecrow, 2007). He is a Principal Lecturer in Music at Anglia Ruskin University. Miguel also composes music for film and television and his work has been screened and broadcast throughout the world

Anna Morcom

Anna Morcom works on a range of issues relating to contemporary music and dance culture in India and Tibet, including film, media, modernity, nationalism, globalisation and economic development/marginalisation. She is the author of Hindi Film Songs and the Cinema (Ashgate, 2007). She is Research Council UK Academic Fellow in the Music Department at Royal Holloway College, University of London