Sirens are sounds that confront us in daily life, from the sounds of police cars and fire engines to, less often, tornado warnings. Ideologies of sirens embody the protective, the seductive and the dangerous elements of siren sounds – from the US Cold War public training exercises in the 1950s and 1960s to the seductive power of the sirens entrenched in popular culture: from Wagner to Dizzee Rascal, from Kafka to Kurt Vonnegut, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney. This book argues, using a wide array of theorists from Adorno to Bloch and Kittler, that we should understand ‘siren sounds’ in terms of their myth and materiality, and that sirens represent a sonic confluence of power, gender and destructiveness embedded in core Western ideologies to the present day. Bull poses the question of whether we can rely on sirens, both in their mythic meanings and in their material meanings in contemporary culture.
| ISBN: | 9781501305009 |
| Publication date: | 6th February 2020 |
| Author: | Michael University of Sussex, UK Bull |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic USA an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 144 pages |
| Series: | The Study of Sound |
| Genres: |
Theory of music and musicology Music: styles and genres Cultural studies |
Sirens are sounds that confront us in daily life, from the sounds of police cars and fire engines to, less often, tornado warnings. Ideologies of sirens embody the protective, the seductive and the dangerous elements of siren sounds – from the US Cold War public training exercises in the 1950s and 1960s to the seductive power of the sirens entrenched in popular culture: from Wagner to Dizzee Rascal, from Kafka to Kurt Vonnegut, from Hans Christian Andersen to Walt Disney. This book argues, using a wide array of theorists from Adorno to Bloch and Kittler, that we should understand ‘siren sounds’ in terms of their myth and materiality, and that sirens represent a sonic confluence of power, gender and destructiveness embedded in core Western ideologies to the present day. Bull poses the question of whether we can rely on sirens, both in their mythic meanings and in their material meanings in contemporary culture.
Sirens features in the following genres: Theory of music and musicology, Music: styles and genres, Cultural studies
Sirens is available in Hardback
Sirens was written by Michael University of Sussex, UK Bull and published by Bloomsbury Academic USA an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Sirens has 144 pages
Yes it is part of The Study of Sound series