About This Activity
This class will introduce attendees to issues of cultural and musical representation in film music with a focus on Ludwig Göransson’s score for the 2018 film Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler). We will explore how the film draws on traditional modes dating back to early Hollywood films and earlier European stage and concert works. Further, in considering how the film’s music grapples with representing West Africa (via the fictional nation “Wakanda”) and Black American perspectives (via the character Killmonger), we will position the film’s music within entangled histories of global musical circulation, mediation, and representation of cultures perceived as “other.” Through this class, attendees will develop their appreciation for the way music enhances the filmic experience and also gain a critical understanding of the histories of representation that inform Hollywood films. Austin McCabe Juhnke is Assistant Teaching Professor of Musicology at the Ohio State University. His research and teaching interests include the politics of representation in American music of the 20th and 21st centuries. At Ohio State, he teaches courses on Film Music, the History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Global Music History.
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