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Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz

Online ISBN:
9780199366514
Print ISBN:
9780199366484
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz

Jennifer Fleeger
Jennifer Fleeger

Assistant Professor of Media Studies

Ursinus College
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Published online:
19 June 2014
Published in print:
2 June 2014
Online ISBN:
9780199366514
Print ISBN:
9780199366484
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz examines the interactions between musical form, film technology, and discourses of race, ethnicity, and the nation during the American cinema’s conversion to sound (1926–1932). It argues that each of the major studios constructed its own version of an ideal American voice that was intricately linked to the capabilities of its sound technology and articulated through its appropriation of opera and jazz. Though often neglected in studies of the film score, opera and jazz were important in defining the scope of the American soundtrack, not only during the conversion but also once sound had been standardized. To study the influence of opera and jazz, Sounding American concentrates on the musical shorts of the late 1920s and early 1930s, showing how their representations of the stage, conservatory, ballroom, and nightclub reflected what opera and jazz meant for particular groups of Americans and demonstrating how the cinema helped to shape the racial, ethnic, and national identities attached to this music. The book concludes by claiming that the classical Hollywood film is essentially an illustrated jazz-opera with a musical structure that prompts the spectator to generate imaginary spaces apart from the diegesis and patterns that refuse to be absorbed by the narrative.

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