Film Music Interest Group
Mission
For much of the 20th century "film music" and "Hollywood music" were virtually synonymous pejorative terms in the world of American art music and criticism. The scholarly study of Hollywood film music still remains on the periphery of American musicology, as most musicologists and film scholars studying music in films have tended to disdain Hollywood, preferring to focus on films made in other countries, though largely for sociopolitical reasons rather than historical and aesthetic ones. As a consequence, from a scholarly perspective, Hollywood film music--let alone American music for films made outside Hollywood--remains largely unexplored territory.
That is now changing and there is a growing interest in examining film music "Made in Hollywood, U.S.A.," as each Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios film used to say beneath the words "The End." In a tentative way, old prejudices against "Hollywood music" and Hollywood as the "Motion Picture Capitol of the World" are gradually being dispelled, and a new understanding is emerging of the traditionally maligned art of Hollywood film scoring and culture out of which it grew. The Film Music Interest Group will identify research problems and methodologies unique to the field. For example, few musicologists possess knowledge, let alone competence, in the area of film production and its historiography, often relying instead on academic film theory (secondary literature) for their knowledge of film as a cultural form rather than consulting primary source materials in libraries and special archival repositories. Source studies and bibliography are badly needed in film music research and the interest group will respond to that. It will, at the same time, report new and important research and writing in the field and compile a directory of film music scholars in America.
Resources
Film Score Monthly - Online magazine
Film Music Society - Composers & songwriters, studios, research libraries, and other organizations
Film Music World - Trade magazine with links to film music network, institute, and radio
Soundtrack.Net - News, features, reviews, resources, and podcasts
Film Music Network - News and jobs
Film Sound - A great film music bibliography
Directory/Research
Let us know what you are working on: SAM Film Music Interest Group