A quiet revolution: Changes in American film sound practices, 1967--1979

This dissertation explores changes in American film sound practices during the period from 1967 to 1979. It does so by examining questions of film sound technology, industrial concerns, and aesthetic experiments in Hollywood, New York, and San Francisco. Technological concerns are evaluated to demonstrate how a number of innovations were either discarded or forgotten in the wake of the near-universal acceptance of Dolby Stereo in the late 1970s. Industrial concerns are addressed through shifts in the labor forces and the emergence of new roles in film sound production. The final section offers twelve case studies, each one examining a particular film and its aesthetic influence during the period.; By examining these changes, this study foregrounds the specific historical factors that shaped the Hollywood system during this time and the elements within the system that resisted the established forms of representation. During the 1967--79 period, film sound became a site for negotiation of an American identity through the reconfiguration of outdated modes of representation and their alignment with more radical political and social perspectives. Crucially, a study of the films of this period demonstrates the aesthetic potential of multi-channel sound before the conservative mixing strategies of Dolby Stereo reinstated the classic divisions of labor and concretized the rules of narrative dominance.