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'Cue the Big Theme? The Sound of the Superhero'

This was written in response to a request from the editors for an essay examining the impact of digital technology in relation to Batman, sound and music, because of Halfyard’s previous monograph on Danny Elfman’s score for the pre-digital _Batman_ (Tim Burton, 1989). Halfyard had given a seminar paper at Keele University in 2007 on differences between the 1970s-80s Batman and Superman, and their more recent counterparts, specifically looking at the relationship between music and heroic action. In her conclusion to this paper, she had made a connection concerning the impact of CGI technology in relation to the credibility of superheroic action and the extent to which this changed the relationship between music and action; this observation became the basis of the present essay for OUP. The comic book superhero film has had a remarkable resurgence since CGI became a standard industry tool at the end of 1990s with The Matrix (1999) and X-Men (2000); whilst the idea of cinema as spectacle offers one obvious reason for this, the essay offers a parallel account for why the superhero seems to be such a prevalent figure in current cinema by examining how the music constructs the more recent cinematic incarnations of Batman and Superman in relation to contemporary cultural concerns.