Sounds of Fear and Wonder

Music in Cult TV

How does music enrich and define cult television series? The book analyses theme tunes and scoring on television to reveal how composers construct a series' identity using musical idioms and instruments. Characters and plot developments, similarly, are enhanced by their musical accompaniment. The different scoring strategies employed in science fiction and horror-based genres, comprising for example Star Trek or Dr. Who, are considered alongside cult shows set in our reality, such as Dexter, The Sopranos and Queer as Folk. These discussions are complimented by in-depth case studies of musical approaches in three high-profile series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica and Lost. Written from a musicological standpoint but fully accessible to non-musicologists, the book significantly advances television and music studies.