Unusual Sounds – The Hidden History of Library Music

It’s a genre of music that you’ve probably heard more than any other. Although you won’t know who wrote and recorded the vast majority of it. For most TV shows and low-budget movies Library Music has always been used for cost-cutting reasons. Hiring your own composer and musicians was and is very expensive. The library music line of business, however, soon took on a life of its own and became a major industry.

Some Library publishers became major financial successes, and much of the work they released was very good indeed. In fact, many of these anonymous or pseudonymous scores-on-demand were crafted by the some of the greatest musical minds of the late 20th century—expert musicians and innovative composers who reveled in the freedoms offered, paradoxically, by this most corporate of fields.

Unusual Sounds is a book written by David Hollander – an artist, filmmaker and collector of artist-made films and library music. He is a co-founder of CineMarfa, a film festival dedicated to showcasing rare and unseen films in Marfa, Texas. He lives in San Antonio.is a deep dive into a musical universe that has, until now, been accessible only to producers and record collectors; a celebration of this strange industry and an examination of its unique place at the nexus of art and commerce. Featuring original art by Robert Beatty and an introduction by George A. Romero—whose use of library music in Night of the Living Dead changed film history— Unusual Sounds is mandatory reading for anyone interested in this enigmatic field and its hidden but pervasive cultural influence.

Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music is published by Anthology Editions on 25 May http://anthology.net/books/

Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music is published by Anthology Editions on 25 May http://anthology.net/books/