Sights & Sounds
Interrogating the Music Documentary
University of Salford
June 4-5, 2010
In the fall of 1894, W. K.L. Dickson assisted Thomas Edison in his
experimentation with sound film. He shot a sequence in which one man
plays a violin before the recording phonograph horn while two others
dance. Might this be the first music documentary?
In the years since, numerous works have been produced that consist of
narrative formulations of musical history; portraits of individuals or
groups; replications of musical events; meditations on musical genres or
transformative occasions. A number of these works have become renowned
in their own right, such as D.A. Pennebaker's Don't Look Back (1967) or
the Maysles Brothers Gimme Shelter (1970). Others have become as famous
as the events they depict, including Steve Binder's The T.A.M.I. Show
(1964) Michael Wadleigh's Woodstock (1970). Still more have placed a
name and a face to previously unknown musicians, as did Paul Justman's
Standing in the Shadow of Love (2002) with Motown Records' Funk
Brothers. Some have provoked controversy as much as they have drawn
audiences, like Ken Burns' PBS series Jazz (2001). Some have attached a
conceptual framework to a genre and a group and incorporated an argument
about that material, including Julian Temple's The Filth and the Fury
(2000).
The conference will interrogate this body of film and welcomes
submissions on works in any media: radio, television or film. We are
interested in issues that include but are not limited to narrative
strategy, visual articulation, ideological analysis, star imagery,
gender dynamics, race, We are particularly interested in studies that
challenge normative story-telling strategies, familiar and hence
deflated visual approaches, or wish to topple canonic formations of
musical production that have been perpetuated through their presentation
in various media.
The conference will feature appearances by filmmakers (to be announced)
and showings at the Cornerhouse Theatre, located in Manchester. We hope
as well to commission selected papers from the conference for
publication in a volume, the first such anthology of approaches to the
genre of music documentary.
Deadline for submissions: December 14, 2009
Announcement of program: January 4, 2010
Please send proposals of no more than 500 words by e-mail to both of the
following addresses
(d.sanjek /at/ salford.ac.uk)
(b.halligan /at/ salford.ac.uk)
Conference Chairs:
David Sanjek, Professor Music Ben Halligan. Senior
Lecturer Director, Popular Music Research Centre
School of Performance
School of Music
University of Salford
