The intense and continuing popularity of the long-running television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) has long been matched by the range and depth of the academic critical response. This volume, the first devoted to the show's imaginative and widely varied use of music, sound, and silence, helps to develop an increasingly important and inadequately covered area of research - the many roles of music in contemporary television. In addressing this significant gap, this book provides an exemplary overview of the functions of music and sound in the interpretation of a television show. This is done through analyses that focus on scoring and source music, the title theme, the music production process, the critically acclaimed musical episode (voted number 13 in Channel Four's One Hundred Greatest Musicals), the symbolic and dramatic use of silence, and the popular reception of the show by its international fan base. In keeping with contemporary trends in the study of popular musics, a variety of critical approaches are taken from musicology, cultural studies, and media and communication studies, specifically employing critique, musical analysis, industry studies, and hermeneutics.

About the Author
Paul Attinello is based in the School of Arts and Cultures at the University of Newcastle, UK, Janet K. Halfyard is Head of Undergraduate Studies at the UCE Birmingham Conservatoire, UK and Vanessa Knights formerly University of Newcastle, UK.

Reviews
Prize: Winner of the Long Mr. Pointy Award for Buffy Studies Scholarship (2011), awarded by the Whedon Studies Association. '[T]he volume is a delightful and challenging read, with some flashes of brilliance.' Notes



Book Information
ISBN 9780754660422
Author Janet K. Halfyard
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 566g