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Schuelke Masters Thesis_Final_PDF.pdf (4.84 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

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Nostalgia, Race, and the Music of Cuphead

Schuelke, Patricia Rose McKown
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647626494164004

Abstract Details

2022, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music History.
When animators like the Fleischer Brothers and Tex Avery pioneered the new medium of film animation in the early twentieth century, they looked to earlier American popular culture successes like vaudeville and blackface minstrelsy to inspire their cartoons. Almost a century later, Studio MDHR remediated 1930s animation, big band jazz, the likeness of Cab Calloway, and other historical entertainment nostalgia points in their 2017 videogame Cuphead. This corresponds with a prominent trend in video games of the twenty-first century: nostalgia expression and formation through the remediation of past popular culture. Cuphead’s connections to the past include game mechanics from the 1980s and 1990s, music recorded on vintage microphones and composed with historical compositions in mind, and visual aesthetics and animation processes that reflect those of 1930s American cartoons. These nostalgia points do not come without their problems. Amination in this earlier era catered to a majority white audience, and therefore included racist caricatures of Black people and Black music, like big band jazz. Remediating these visual elements opened Studio MDHR up to criticism. Composer Kris Maddigan brought direct musical quotations into some of the pieces in Cuphead’s soundtrack, drawing on nostalgia points that have been remediation in popular culture throughout the 20th century. These examples of musical texturing connect to earlier media that bring their own baggage to the amalgam that makes up Cuphead’s sonic and visual aesthetic. A large fandom has nevertheless grown up around the game since its release in 2017, creating fan music that represents different aspects of the game they now find memorable and even nostalgic.
Ryan Ebright, PhD. (Advisor)
Katherine Meizel, PhD. (Committee Member)
102 p.
Music
jazz; videogame; race; nostalgia; remediation; fans; filk

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schuelke, P. R. M. (2022). Nostalgia, Race, and the Music of Cuphead [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647626494164004

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schuelke, Patricia. Nostalgia, Race, and the Music of Cuphead. 2022. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647626494164004.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schuelke, Patricia. "Nostalgia, Race, and the Music of Cuphead." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1647626494164004

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1647626494164004
669
© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.