Former Dartmouth professor Carla Freccero spoke yesterday afternoon to about 50 students and former colleagues about the cultural politics surrounding movies and their soundtracks.
She used clips from mega-hit 1990s movies "The Body Guard," "Waiting to Exhale" and "Dead Man Walking" to illustrate her belief that the narratives of movies and their pop music soundtracks do not typically correspond.
She said historically, films with soundtracks were either films that were linked inextricably to music, such as operas, or films about rock groups.
On the other hand, she called the pop music appearing in modern movies as characterized by "the domain of the female" and a "space where women can get prestige."
As a result, she said modern films are more conservative politically than the messages conveyed by the songs that accompany them.
She said "The Body Guard" was very conservative politically, depicting Kevin Costner as a heroic white man who ultimately saves Whitney Houston, a single black mother with a son. Houston needs to be shielded by Costner despite the fact that she is ambitious and successful.
Freccero said the soundtrack for the movie gives a very different message since Houston produced and starred on the sound track.
Referring to the song "I Will Always Love You," Freccero said, "As a Houston hit, it proposes the triumph of black pop gospel over white country and western, and creates a kind of tacit battle of the races through the song."
Freccero's next example was "Waiting to Exhale," which she said also demonstrates the discrepancy between movies and their music.
"There's a political gap between the movie and the soundtrack," she said.
She said the film is about materialism and the need for a good man, but the soundtrack is about more realistic problems such as race, poverty, sexuality and friendships.
"The soundtrack celebrates black women," she said. "The movie doesn't as much."
Freccero's final example was "Dead Man Walking."
Despite the fact that many people accept this film as an anti-death penalty statement, Freccero said it expresses a conservative pro-death penalty stance because the man on death row is white, despite the fact that the majority of people on death row are African-American.
"This film is about multiculturalism in denial of black men being on death row," she said.
However, she said the music plays a different role.
"The music argues against the death penalty," she said. "The songs refute the death penalty as a punishment."
Freccero said a possible reason for the discrepancy between movies' content and that of their soundtracks stems from economics.
She said movies have to appeal to broader political bases in order to make money, whereas soundtracks can make money if they only appeal to one segment of the population.
