Say it with songs: Popular music in Hollywood cinema during the transition to sound, 1927--1931

This dissertation examines the commercial and narrative functions of popular songs in films produced by Hollywood's major studios during the transition to sound (1927-1931). Drawing on research of trade journals, studio documents, and motion pictures, it shows how changes in the relationship between the industries of film and music influenced early sound film advertising and narrative form. Whereas previous studies of film music of the transitional era focus on the genre of the musical, this project explores the widespread incorporation of songs in films belonging to a variety of narrative genres, including melodramas, comedies, and Westerns. The first chapter discusses the prominence of popular songs on three types of transitional-era soundtracks: scored features, part-talkies, and all-talkies. Chapter Two outlines the institutional context for the rise of the motion picture song vogue and shows how Hollywood's major studios capitalized on the commercial and aesthetic appeal of songs by obtaining control over the production and distribution of popular music. Chapter Three examines the roots of song promotion, or "plugging," in the 20th century and its influence on film form in the early sound era. Analyses of Applause (1929) and Weary River (1929) demonstrate how an aesthetic centered on song plugging privileged the presentation of songs over narrative flow and diegetic continuity. Chapter Four describes the strategies by which filmmakers attempted to integrate songs but which resulted in cumbersome narrative situations, as in Check and Double Check (1930) and Possessed (1931). Chapter Five traces the demise of the song vogue in institutional and aesthetic terms. Analyses of In Old Arizona (1929), Arrowsmith (1931), and Safe in Hell (1930) reveal strategies of song integration that maintain narrative flow. I conclude the chapter by suggesting that the so-called threat posed by motion picture songs to norms of classical narration led to a clearer distinction between musical and non-musical genres. Studied in this way, the transition to sound can be seen to occupy a unique and remarkable period in both the history of film music and in the history of collusion between the industries of film and music.