Playback Singers of Bollywood and Hollywood
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ILLUSION AND REALITY: PLAYBACK SINGERS OF BOLLYWOOD AND HOLLYWOOD By MYRNA JUNE LAYTON Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY in the subject MUSICOLOGY at the UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA. SUPERVISOR: PROF. M. DUBY JANUARY 2013 Student number: 4202027-1 I declare that ILLUSION AND REALITY: PLAYBACK SINGERS OF BOLLYWOOD AND HOLLYWOOD is my own work and that all the sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references. SIGNATURE DATE (MRS M LAYTON) Preface I would like to thank the two supervisors who worked with me at UNISA, Marie Jorritsma who got me started on my reading and writing, and Marc Duby, who saw me through to the end. Marni Nixon was most helpful to me, willing to talk with me and discuss her experiences recording songs for Hollywood studios. It was much more difficult to locate people who work in the Bollywood film industry, but two people were helpful and willing to talk to me; Craig Pruess and Deepa Nair have been very gracious about corresponding with me via email. Lastly, putting the whole document together, which seemed an overwhelming chore, was made much easier because of the expert formatting and editing of my daughter Nancy Heiss, sometimes assisted by her husband Andrew Heiss. Joe Bonyata, a good friend who also happens to be an editor and publisher, did a final read-through to look for small details I might have missed, and of course, he found plenty. For this I am grateful. I really could not have finished and been pleased with the outcome without the assistance of Joe and Nancy in particular, so I am greatly in their debt, and wish to express my appreciation. Abstract Title of Thesis: Illusion and Reality: Playback Singers of Bollywood and Hollywood Summary: India’s film production industry, referred to commonly as Bollywood, and the film production industry of America, referred to as Hollywood, have created a large number of musical films since sound was introduced into motion pictures. Both create fictional stories—illusions, if you will—through the use of prerecorded sound and playback technology coupled with lip-synching interpolated onto filmed images. While studies exist that treat the music of both production centres, there is very little research that compares both, and very little research on playback singers. Playback singers in both Bollywood and Hollywood may or may not be the actors who are seen on the screen; however, people in the Bollywood system—its directors, producers, creators, as well as the journalists who write about it—are very open about this practice, and playback singing is a highly respected career. Conversely, in the Hollywood system, playback singing that is done by an individual other than the on- screen actor remains uncredited or under-credited, and those who do the work are just hired workers; they are not respected as artists in the same way that their Bollywood counterparts are. I believe this difference has a cultural basis, shaped by variation in the way that illusion and reality are expressed by film production staff and interpreted by audiences in the two cultures. Through primary and secondary research, this project seeks to discover the differences and to understand how cultural implications of illusion and reality affect the playback singers in both film centres. Key Terms: Playback; Bollywood; Hollywood; Illusion; film music; Marni Nixon; Lata Mangeshkar; India; America; lip-synchronization; dubbing artists. Table of Contents Preface .............................................................................................................................. i Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ iii Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Bollywood ............................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Hollywood ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Meeting Bollywood ............................................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 Looking again at Hollywood ............................................................................................................................ 8 1.5 Playback, Dubbing and More: some definitions ................................................................................... 10 1.6 Picturization ........................................................................................................................................................ 14 1.7 ‘The Play’s the Thing’....................................................................................................................................... 15 1.8 Example: A Romantic Duet Comparison ................................................................................................. 19 1.9 Suspension of Disbelief................................................................................................................................... 22 1.10 Perception ......................................................................................................................................................... 24 1.11 Reality in Sight and Sound .......................................................................................................................... 26 1.12 Illusion in Sight and Sound ......................................................................................................................... 31 1.13 Western Audience Perception: Seeing is Believing .......................................................................... 32 1.14 Overview of Contents ................................................................................................................................... 33 1.14.1 Chapter Two: Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 34 1.14.2 Chapter Three: Research Design and Methodology ........................................................................ 34 1.14.3 Chapter Four: Lip-Synching to the Music ............................................................................................ 34 1.14.4 Chapter Five: Lata Mangeshkar ............................................................................................................... 36 1.14.5 Chapter Six: Marni Nixon ............................................................................................................................ 37 1.14.6 Chapter Seven: Conclusion and Recommendations ........................................................................ 38 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................... 39 2.1 Bollywood Film Music ..................................................................................................................................... 41 2.2 Hollywood Film Music .................................................................................................................................... 53 2.3 Sound Technology ............................................................................................................................................ 55 2.4 Bollywood and Playback Technology ....................................................................................................... 59 2.5 Hollywood and Playback Technology ...................................................................................................... 64 2.6 Bollywood Audience Response to Playback Technology ................................................................. 78 2.7 Bollywood and Hollywood Compared ..................................................................................................... 81 2.8 Lata Mangeshkar ............................................................................................................................................... 90 2.9 Marni Nixon ......................................................................................................................................................... 91 2.10 Illusion and Reality ........................................................................................................................................ 93 2.11 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................... 95 Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology ................................................................ 97 3.1 Research Method and Design Appropriateness ................................................................................... 99 3.2 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................................ 100 3.3 Scope and Limitation of the Study ........................................................................................................... 100