Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack
There is very little scholarship that considers questions of queerness in relation to film music, and the scholarship that does (Paulin, 1997; Haworth et. al., 2012; Buhler, 2014; Dubowsky, 2016) tends to approach the subject from a representational standpoint, identifying instances in which the sou...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Columbia University Libraries
2020-07-01
|
| Series: | Current Musicology |
| Online Access: | https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/currentmusicology/article/view/6753 |
| _version_ | 1818521989944442880 |
|---|---|
| author | Morgan Woolsey |
| author_facet | Morgan Woolsey |
| author_sort | Morgan Woolsey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is very little scholarship that considers questions of queerness in relation to film music, and the scholarship that does (Paulin, 1997; Haworth et. al., 2012; Buhler, 2014; Dubowsky, 2016) tends to approach the subject from a representational standpoint, identifying instances in which the soundtrack participates in the representation of queerness in film. The role that the soundtrack plays in fostering queer engagement with film has been left relatively underexplored. In this essay, I assert that the theories of counteridentification and disidentification as articulated by José Esteban Muñoz in his groundbreaking queer of color critique text Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Muñoz; 1999) have much to offer scholars of film music interested in exploring questions of identification and auditory and/or emotional spectatorship. I will begin by laying out Muñoz’s formulation of these theories and then briefly sketch counteridentification’s long history within film music criticism, an academic orientation that sets up Hollywood’s musical norms as the product of an oppressive “culture industry” and the disruption of those norms through modernist European musical practices as liberatory counteridentification (Adorno/Eisler; 1947). With these understandings in place, I will move to a discussion of two U.S. films from the 1970s whose soundtracks present Black audiences with audiovisual experiences that invite counteridentification and disidentification respectively: Blacula (William Crain; 1972) and Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn; 1973). |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:58:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b0e38b8a6e1e4cd2bd037bb12d85122e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0011-3735 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T01:58:45Z |
| publishDate | 2020-07-01 |
| publisher | Columbia University Libraries |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Current Musicology |
| spelling | doaj.art-b0e38b8a6e1e4cd2bd037bb12d85122e2022-12-22T01:24:32ZengColumbia University LibrariesCurrent Musicology0011-37352020-07-0110610.7916/cm.v106iSpring.6753Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film SoundtrackMorgan WoolseyThere is very little scholarship that considers questions of queerness in relation to film music, and the scholarship that does (Paulin, 1997; Haworth et. al., 2012; Buhler, 2014; Dubowsky, 2016) tends to approach the subject from a representational standpoint, identifying instances in which the soundtrack participates in the representation of queerness in film. The role that the soundtrack plays in fostering queer engagement with film has been left relatively underexplored. In this essay, I assert that the theories of counteridentification and disidentification as articulated by José Esteban Muñoz in his groundbreaking queer of color critique text Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Muñoz; 1999) have much to offer scholars of film music interested in exploring questions of identification and auditory and/or emotional spectatorship. I will begin by laying out Muñoz’s formulation of these theories and then briefly sketch counteridentification’s long history within film music criticism, an academic orientation that sets up Hollywood’s musical norms as the product of an oppressive “culture industry” and the disruption of those norms through modernist European musical practices as liberatory counteridentification (Adorno/Eisler; 1947). With these understandings in place, I will move to a discussion of two U.S. films from the 1970s whose soundtracks present Black audiences with audiovisual experiences that invite counteridentification and disidentification respectively: Blacula (William Crain; 1972) and Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn; 1973).https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/currentmusicology/article/view/6753 |
| spellingShingle | Morgan Woolsey Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack Current Musicology |
| title | Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack |
| title_full | Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack |
| title_fullStr | Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack |
| title_short | Hearing and Feeling the Black Vampire: Queer Affects in the Film Soundtrack |
| title_sort | hearing and feeling the black vampire queer affects in the film soundtrack |
| url | https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/currentmusicology/article/view/6753 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT morganwoolsey hearingandfeelingtheblackvampirequeeraffectsinthefilmsoundtrack |