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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Other types of music
Marvelous Rise of Superheroes in Cinema: Evolution of the Genre
from Sequels to Universes addresses the superhero movie genre's
transformation between 1978 and 2019. To emphasize and illustrate
the conceptual and thematic transformation, the main conventions of
the genre are scanned through several periods, focusing on the
developmental age of the genre, including the dominant period of DC
Comics-based superhero movies (1978-1997) and the Marvel "boom"
(2000-2007), and the contemporary age. For this purpose, the book
traces the fundamentals of superheroes from the first appearance of
Superman in Action Comics #1 (1938) to the final installment of the
MCU's Phase 3, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The transformation
has two significant points. First, the genre's main conventions
have been in a change. Second, the genre's focus has changed from
sequel filmmaking to the universe concept. The study investigates
the Marvel Cinematic Universe's dominant, leading, and major role
in the genre's evolutionary process. Besides, the future of the
superhero movie genre is questioned through the multiverse concept
to broaden an understanding of the genre's following directions.
Wasn't That a Mighty Day: African American Blues and Gospel Songs
on Disaster takes a comprehensive look at sacred and secular
disaster songs, shining a spotlight on their historical and
cultural importance. Featuring newly transcribed lyrics, the book
offers sustained attention to how both Black and white communities
responded to many of the tragic events that occurred before the
mid-1950s. Through detailed textual analysis, Luigi Monge explores
songs on natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and
earthquakes); accidental disasters (sinkings, fires, train wrecks,
explosions, and air disasters); and infestations, epidemics, and
diseases (the boll weevil, the jake leg, and influenza). Analyzed
songs cover some of the most well-known disasters of the time
period from the sinking of the Titanic and the 1930 drought to the
Hindenburg accident, and more. Thirty previously unreleased African
American disaster songs appear in this volume for the first time,
revealing their pertinence to the relevant disasters. By comparing
the song lyrics to critical moments in history, Monge is able to
explore how deeply and directly these catastrophes affected Black
communities; how African Americans in general, and blues and gospel
singers in particular, faced and reacted to disaster; whether these
collective tragedies prompted different reactions among white
people and, if so, why; and more broadly, how the role of memory in
recounting and commenting on historical and cultural facts shaped
African American society from 1879 to 1955.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States extended
its empire into the Philippines while subjugating Black Americans
in the Jim Crow South. And yet, one of the most popular musical
acts was a band of "little brown men," Filipino musicians led by an
African American conductor playing European and American music. The
Philippine Constabulary Band and Lt. Walter H. Loving entertained
thousands in concert halls and world's fairs, held a place of honor
in William Howard Taft's presidential parade, and garnered praise
by bandmaster John Philip Sousa-all the while facing beliefs and
policies that Filipinos and African Americans were "uncivilized."
Author Mary Talusan draws on hundreds of newspaper accounts and
exclusive interviews with band members and their descendants to
compose the story from the band's own voices. She sounds out the
meanings of Americans' responses to the band and identifies a
desire to mitigate racial and cultural anxieties during an era of
overseas expansion and increasing immigration of nonwhites, and the
growing "threat" of ragtime with its roots in Black culture. The
spectacle of the band, its performance and promotion, emphasized a
racial stereotype of Filipinos as "natural musicians" and the
beneficiaries of benevolent assimilation and colonial tutelage.
Unable to fit Loving's leadership of the band into this narrative,
newspapers dodged and erased his identity as a Black American
officer. The untold story of the Philippine Constabulary Band
offers a unique opportunity to examine the limits and porousness of
America's racial ideologies, exploring musical pleasure at the
intersection of Euro-American cultural hegemony, racialization, and
US colonization of the Philippines.
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