[Commlist] CFP: Singing Out: The Musical Voice in Audiovisual Media

CFP for the edited collection,
Singing Out: The Musical Voice in Audiovisual Media/


 From the musical numbers ofThe Jazz Singerand the reality drama of BBC 
2’sThe Choir, through to the playback stars of commercial Hindi cinema 
and the competitive performance of karaoke video games, singing has and 
continues to play a central and special role in multimedia. The act of 
singing emphasises the gendered, raced, aged, and classed body, and the 
identifying markers of the voice itself. It draws attention to vocal 
production in a way that is not only sonically compelling, but also 
often emotionally acute. It can heighten communication, act as an aid to 
memory and product placement, and invite judgement from both 
professional and armchair critics – something the TV talent show has 
commodified as entertainment in itself. Singing both demarcates and 
breaks down textual and conceptual boundaries: between narrative and 
number; professional and amateur; transparency and manipulation; 
authenticity and the performative; and pathos and camp. As Laing (2000) 
argues, song ‘transfigures’ speech: it offers both performers and 
listeners an intensity of experience, of emotion, of being that gives it 
a special status both on the soundtrack and in the circulation of 
musical texts outside it.

The collection will explore a broad range of singing voices and sung 
moments, from lavish musical sequences to the ‘artless’ singing 
discussed by Gorbman (2011), and from television and cinema through to 
video games, online and mobile platforms, advertising, and multimedia 
installation work.


This is an all-singing and open call for submissions, but possible 
topics might include:

  *

    Voice casting (especially in animation)

  *

    Vocal pedagogy and training for multimedia work

  *

    Dubbing/playback singing (from both aesthetic and technical
    perspectives)

  *

    Star voices and vocal recognisability

  *

    Historical and cultural shifts in singing style

  *

    Drag as vocal performance

  *

    Singing in reality media

  *

    Singing as musical and audiovisual genre marker (vocal styles,
    musicals, singing cowboys,film noir)

  *

    Choruses and communal singing on screen

  *

    Singing as mimicry or uncanny singing

  *

    Participatory singing forms and genres

  *

    Singing as and in entertainment

  *

    Technologies of the singing voice

  *

    Singing as narrative device, structural marker, or element of
    characterisation

  *

    Sung voices as signifiers of identity

  *

    Singing and singers as creative impetus or stimulation

  *

    Singing and songs as idents, jingles, and theme tunes

  *

    Singing across cultural and national borders

We invite contributions from film, media, cultural studies, and music 
researchers, creative practitioners, and industry professionals, and are 
keen to hear from as broad and representative a range of voices as possible.

Formal proposal (c. 300 words) to be submitted by 1st May, 2021 
(tosingingcollection /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(singingcollection /at/ gmail.com)>. The 
final timeline for the project will be confirmed after discussion with 
the publisher, but chapters will be due during spring 2022.


Informal enquiries can be sent to either of the co-editors:
Dr Catherine Haworth ((c.m.haworth /at/ hud.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(c.m.haworth /at/ hud.ac.uk)>) and Dr Beth Carroll 
((e.carroll /at/ soton.ac.uk) <mailto:(e.carroll /at/ soton.ac.uk)>).

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