Authors
Alyxandra Vesey
Publication date
2019/12/1
Journal
Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies
Volume
34
Issue
3
Pages
157-167
Publisher
Duke University Press
Description
This article argues that more scholarly attention should be paid to women’s contributions to the practice of “theme singing,” or the textual and industrial practices of using vocalists as sonic proxies for television characters by articulating programs’ thematic concerns and embodying their tonal dimension in television shows’ credit sequences and soundtracks. Though vulnerable to muting and time shifting, female recording artists—and black women in particular—have always been a fixture of US television production by helping build televisual worlds as theme singers. These professionals help cultivate television programs’ aural sensibilities by literally giving voice to a show’s premise and, in so doing, raise the volume on women’s place in television storytelling as otherwise marginalized subjects. This essay identifies three different types of theme singing that are especially common in television storytelling: theme …
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