Book Review

Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice: Cinema Soundtracks in the 1980s and 1990s. By Annette Davison. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-7546-0582-5 (cloth). Pp. 232. $69.95.

For many reasons, Annette Davison’s book Hollywood Theory, Non Hollywood Practice should be essential reading for film music and music scholars. In its focus on film music in the 1980s and 1990s, this book covers territory that has seen only limited exploration. Most scholarly discussion of music in contemporary films has focused on Hollywood filmmaking and on the use of popular music. The purpose of Davison’s book is to expand our understanding of contemporary film music, both scores and soundtracks, by examining examples that lie outside the Hollywood mainstream.