Concert films show us how musicians make their music, but they also help us hear that music differently. In this episode, we break down how this works in the concert film classic, Talking Heads’ and Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense (1984).

More about the student team:

Luke Heying is a University of Iowa senior (’25) majoring inEconomics with a minor in Music.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa senior (’25) doublemajoring in Cinema and Journalism.

Will Sinak is a University of Iowa senior (’25) majoring inCinema.

Resources

You can explore the music discussed in this episode in thesoundtrack album to Stop Making Sense as well as Talking Heads’ studio albums Speaking in Tongues and More Songs About Buildings and Food. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, A24 completed a major restoration of Stop Making Sense in 2023. More information on that is available here.

Want to learn more about the history of concert films? Werecommend K.J. Donnelly’s chapter, “The Film Should Be Played Loud’: Rockumentary Films,” from his 2015 book, Magical Musical Tour: Rock and Pop in Film Soundtracks (Bloomsbury).

What is it like to hear and see a live musician accompany a silent film? Luke Heying, Abbie McLaren, Will Sinak, and Nathan Platte tackle that question in this episode by exploring guitarist Marc Ribot’s live musical accompaniment to Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) at FilmScene in Iowa City. We talk about the experience of drinking in Ribot’s brilliantly eclectic soundscape for a silent-era science fiction odyssey.

More about the team:

Luke Heying is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Music.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa senior double majoring in Cinema and Journalism.

Will Sinak is a University of Iowa senior majoring in Cinema.

Resources

For more on Ribot’s music for silent films, check out ShoeString Symphonettes (1997), which features an earlier accompaniment for Aelita composed for small ensemble. Listen too to his album, Silent Movies (2010), which features more of his work for the medium. Brief excerpts from both albums are heard in this episode.

For more on the expanding practice of musicians writing newmusic for silent films, see Today’s Sounds for Yesterday’s Films: Making Music for Silent Cinema, edited by K.J. Donnelly and Ann-Kristin Wallengren (Palgrave, 2016).

Special thanks to FilmScene for hosting Marc Ribot's performance and helping us get tickets to his sold-out show. Thanks also to Jean-François Charles for providing recording space for our conversation.

Sounding Cinema turns to the musical television episode! Erika Chagdes, Abbie McLaren, Caleb Payne, and Nathan Platte spotlight the unique and often comedic opportunities that arise when a TV series turns into a musical…for just one episode. By comparing “Once More, With Feeling,” the infamous musical episode from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, with “Regional Holiday Music,” Community’s glee-ful fiasco, we discover some ways in which TV musicals can teach us a lot about musicals and the episodic format of television itself.

More about the team:

Erika Chagdes graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. She is excited to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Abbie McLaren is a University of Iowa student with a double major in Cinema and Journalism and Mass Communication (production and design track). After graduating in 2025, she plans to pursue film professionally through work or graduate studies.

Caleb Payne graduated from the University of Iowa in 2024 with a BA in Cinema. He plans to attend a graduate-level studio art program in the future.

Samuel Ross, who provided original music, is a University of Iowa student drawn to both film and music. A Cinema major, Sam also composes, writes film music, and enjoys playing piano and bass.

Resources:

Kelly Kessler, Broadway in the Box: Television’s Lasting Love Affair with the Musical (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Kathryn VanArendonk, “Theorizing the Television Episode,” Narrative 27, no. 1 (2019), 65–82. Project MUSE, https://doi.org/10.1353/nar.2019.0004.

Paul Attinello, Janet K. Halfyard, and Vanessa Knights (eds.), Music, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Oxon: Taylor and Francis, 2010).