Fantasy has had a modern resurgence in cinema due largely to the success of superhero narratives and the two major fantasy series, the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Often regarded as mere escapism, works of both literature and cinema wishing to be taken seriously by the public, by critics and by academics have tended to shelter under the euphemistic umbrella of Magic Realism and, until very recently, there has been a general lack of serious academic work concerned with fantasy as a genre. This volume explores the way in which music and sound articulate the fantastic in cinema and...

How does music enrich and define cult television series? Analyzing theme tunes and scoring on television, the book reveals how composers construct a series' identity using musical idioms and instruments, and how characters and plot developments are enhanced by their musical accompaniment. The different scoring strategies employed in science fiction and horror-based genres, whose shows include Star Trek or Dr. Who, are considered alongside cult shows set in our reality, such as Dexter, The Sopranos, and Queer as Folk. These discussions are...