Anonymous Sounds: Library Music

2026-05-15

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Today, we look at some of the hidden labor that creates the ubiquitous music that we hear all around us. Today we talk to Nessa Johnston and Jamie Sexton, co-editors (with Elodie A. Roy) of Anonymous Sounds, Library Music and Screen Cultures in the 1960s and 1970s. It's the first scholarly book that takes a comprehensive look at the early off-the-shelf music industry that soundtracked TV, movies, radio, and commercials and it argues that these anonymous individuals had a major collective impact on the music of the era. This show is part of a...

Today, we look at some of the hidden labor that creates the ubiquitous music that we hear all around us.

Today we talk to Nessa Johnston and Jamie Sexton, co-editors (with Elodie A. Roy) of Anonymous Sounds, Library Music and Screen Cultures in the 1960s and 1970s. It's the first scholarly book that takes a comprehensive look at the early off-the-shelf music industry that soundtracked TV, movies, radio, and commercials and it argues that these anonymous individuals had a major collective impact on the music of the era.

This show is part of a series of occasional episodes and newsletters about the roles that music and sound play in public space.

Nessa Johnston is lecturer in screen studies and digital media at the University of Liverpool.

Jamie Sexton is associate professor of film and television studies at North University.

If you'd like to hear the full version of our conversation, including their reading and listening recommendations, you can become a member at http://mackhagood.com.

Cited Media:

Articles / Essays:

Anahid Kassabian - "Ubiquitous Listening: Affect, Attention, and Distributed Subjectivity" (2013)

Ryan Bradley - "It’s the Music You Hear All Day, Without Ever Noticing" (New York Times Magazine, 2026)

Philip Tagg - writings on library/functional music

Books:

Nessa Johnston, Jamie Sexton & Elodie A. Roy - Anonymous Sounds: Library Music and Screen Cultures in the 1960s and 1970s (2024)

David Hollander - Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music (2018)

Simon Reynolds - Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past (2011)

Films / Documentaries:

The Library Music Film (2018)

Music:

Luciano Michelini - Frolic (1974)

John Pearson - Heavy Action (1974)

Barry 7 (of Add N to (x)) - Connectors series

Luke Vibert - Nuggets

Podcasts:

Phantom Power - The Lost Sounds of Silent Cinema: Vaudeville, Magic Lanterns, and Movie Palaces w/ Rick Altman, and Eric Dienstfrey (2019)

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
0:49 Ubiquitous Music
4:27 Meet the Guests
5:01 What is Library Music
6:54 Early History
13:35 Taste & Anonymity
27:47 The '60s & '70s Boom
32:22 Name that Tune
38:24 Crate Diggers & Sampling
45:30 AI & the Future
49:51 Outro

Click here to read the full transcript

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