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Anonymous Sounds: Library Music and Screen Cultures in the 1960s and 1970s
This cross-disciplinary collection provides the first comprehensive study of library music practices in the 1960s and 1970s.
Library music was inexpensive, off-the-shelf music available to license for a small fee. It was widely used in television and film as a cheaper alternative to commissioned soundtracks. The book pays attention to the different individuals, groups, organisations and institutions involved in making library music, as well as to its transnational sites of production (from continental recording studios to regional cutting rooms). It addresses questions of distributed creativity, collective authorship, and agency.
Combining empirical and theoretical research, the book unveils the modus operandi of a highly secretive yet enduringly significant cultural industry. By drawing attention to the cultural ubiquity and intersectionality of library music, the collection also shifts emphasis from individual film and TV composers to the invisible community of music publishers, writers, and session musicians. It argues that the latter were collectively responsible for fashioning much of the sonic identity of 1960s and 1970s film and television. As well as providing a nuanced understanding of historical library music cultures, the collection shows how they continue to inform contemporary audiovisual cultures.
Library music was inexpensive, off-the-shelf music available to license for a small fee. It was widely used in television and film as a cheaper alternative to commissioned soundtracks. The book pays attention to the different individuals, groups, organisations and institutions involved in making library music, as well as to its transnational sites of production (from continental recording studios to regional cutting rooms). It addresses questions of distributed creativity, collective authorship, and agency.
Combining empirical and theoretical research, the book unveils the modus operandi of a highly secretive yet enduringly significant cultural industry. By drawing attention to the cultural ubiquity and intersectionality of library music, the collection also shifts emphasis from individual film and TV composers to the invisible community of music publishers, writers, and session musicians. It argues that the latter were collectively responsible for fashioning much of the sonic identity of 1960s and 1970s film and television. As well as providing a nuanced understanding of historical library music cultures, the collection shows how they continue to inform contemporary audiovisual cultures.
252 pages, Hardcover
Published February 6, 2025
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July 11, 2025
As a devoted fan of library music of long standing, this book seemed to me to promise interesting reading. Alas, it's too academic. It contains interesting bits of information here and there (for instance about Bernard Estardy), but it fails to consider the basic question of why vintage library music is still being listened to and steadily gains new fans. I'm sure part of the answer is the analog recording sound and the very human and often extremely high level of musicianship and rhythmic groove instincts among the players.
I don't regret buying this book (although it was quite expensive), but after reading it, I feel that I'm not any wiser about library music in general than I was before I read it (or that I could be by regular visits to a web forum called Library Music Themes: https://librarymusicthemes.com/index.php)
I'm not in any way anti-academy, so I applaud studies like these anyway. I hoped it would contain more specific studies (of studios, technique, musicians etc.) There is too much woollen language.
I don't regret buying this book (although it was quite expensive), but after reading it, I feel that I'm not any wiser about library music in general than I was before I read it (or that I could be by regular visits to a web forum called Library Music Themes: https://librarymusicthemes.com/index.php)
I'm not in any way anti-academy, so I applaud studies like these anyway. I hoped it would contain more specific studies (of studios, technique, musicians etc.) There is too much woollen language.
Displaying 1 of 1 review