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Musically Conceived Sound Design, Musicalization of Speech and the Breakdown of Film Soundtrack Hierarchy

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The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media

Abstract

Kulezic-Wilson explores the growing trend of disrupting the traditional hierarchical relationships between speech and music in film soundtracks manifested in the musical use of the spoken word. By using examples from several recent films with strong musical underpinnings—Drake Doremus’ Breathe In (2013), Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers (2012) and Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color (2013), Kulezic-Wilson identifies the main strategies involved in the musicalization of film speech and argues that undermining the narrative sovereignty of the spoken word and endorsing the interchangeability of speech and music promote modes of perception which can change our expectations of narrative film and emphasize its musical and sensuous qualities.

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Kulezic-Wilson, D. (2016). Musically Conceived Sound Design, Musicalization of Speech and the Breakdown of Film Soundtrack Hierarchy. In: Greene, L., Kulezic-Wilson, D. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sound Design and Music in Screen Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51680-0_30

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