Saying It with Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema

Saying It with Songs: Popular Music and the Coming of Sound to Hollywood Cinema is a detailed history of the integration of music within film during the 1920s and early 1930s. Dr. Katherine Spring takes a unique approach, examining both the economic implications of including music in film and the impact of the use of songs on the narrative in ‘non-musical’ films. Saying It with Songs details the pursuits and changes of the film industry from 1927 to 1931, which Spring notes is rarely studied. Citing the lack of research that combines the economic drive for including music in film and the use of songs as storytelling tools, Spring takes a scholarly approach to focus on an admittedly narrow time period to explore the intersection between economic and narrative pressures. Spring’s well-written work is accessible and enlightening to audiences from film buffs to neophytes alike and is strengthened by the thoroughness of her research. The text is separated into two parts; each section follows a logical process by focusing on a specific aspect of film, commerce or storytelling, and describing the history chronologically. Part 1 discusses the economic functions and convergence of film and music, while Part 2 highlights changes in the use of song within film as a function of storytelling. The first portion of the book details shifts in the operation of both the film and music industries. In the 1920s, to reduce the costs of including music in film, film companies began purchasing music production companies and employing songwriters directly. In addition, filmmakers increased their profits by focusing on crosspromotion of both the songs produced for films and the films themselves. Advertising specific songs on the radio as part of a film, as records, and as purchasable sheet music, allowed companies to make more money because consumers purchased both the music and tickets to see the film. The cyclic nature of movie ticket and music sales increased the popularity of a song through radio promotion and led to increases in movie ticket sales, which in turn increased the popularity of the song, and so on. Moreover, costs for theatre owners decreased as they no longer had to pay for live accompaniment. This shift also made music in film more accessible to the masses who could see films with prerecorded sound, thereby eliminating the need to travel to large theatres that could incorporate orchestral accompaniment. Songs were also promoted by emphasizing the connections between celebrities and the songs they sang in movies. Consumers liked the stars and then purchased the records and/or sheet music, which increased the profits for movie studios. Following her explanation of the general trends and changes to the economic drive behind music in film, Spring includes numerous detailed accounts of specific films and examples that support her argument regarding the impact of the pursuit of capitalism in the integration of recorded sound in film. Reviews • Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol 41 (4)