DISSERTATION ABSTRACT

Jennifer Matthews
Randy Newman's Popular Songs (1968-2008)

Randy Newman has been composing songs since the age of 15. Over the past forty years he has had many successes and failures with his songs. It wasn’t until 1980 that he expanded his compositional style to include composing for film scores but his focus still proves to be his song writing. Through the study of his vast repertory of popular songs Mr. Newman’s musical signature will be determined and the natural progression of his songs through the last forty years will be demonstrated.

Through the study of Mr. Newman’s works many tendencies will be examined such as his use of third person narration, and satire. Since many of Mr. Newman’s songs, in the past twenty years, have been composed for both film and popular dissemination it is also my intention to determine if his satirical tendencies, among others, are partially, or completely, overshadowed and/or tempered by the nature and/or subject of the film as he is composing its score.