Introduction: Screened Music, Trans-contextualisation and Ethnomusicological Approaches

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of the term ‘screened music’ as a means of encompassing a broad range of methodological approaches that emphasise agency, process and context, moving beyond the extant focus on Western musical traditions associated with film music analysis. It argues that perspectives from ethnomusicology offer new possibilities for understanding screened musics in their numerous forms. In particular, focus on practitioner perspectives and self-reflexive ethnography can provide insights into industrial and political processes as well as issues relating to ethics and responsibility. The notion of agency as embedded in processes of de- re- and trans-contextualisation offers new ways to explore the use of ‘exotic’ or hegemonic musics, as well as the emergence and development of style. This paper also considers issues of representation, including problematic stereotyping of the ‘primitive other’, national identity, code formation and viral re-signification.