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54-565: The album also served as a soundtrack album to the film of the same name , which Zappa eventually finished and released direct-to-video in 1987. The music is diverse in style, drawing from orchestral , jazz , blues and rock music . The Uncle Meat album was a commercial success upon release, and has been highly acclaimed for its innovative recording and editing techniques, including experiments in manipulation of tape speed and overdubbing , and its diverse sound. Frank Zappa, who had been interested in film since high school, decided to develop

108-460: A dialectical approach to such political stances by avant-garde artists and the avant-garde genre of art. Sociologically, as a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists, writers, architects, et al. produce artefacts — works of art, books, buildings — that intellectually and ideologically oppose the conformist value system of mainstream society. In the essay " Avant-Garde and Kitsch " (1939), Clement Greenberg said that

162-405: A 5/8 time signature, occurs much earlier in the album. Six variations of the melody appear as the album's finale, with the first establishing its simple melody, the second being a Fender Rhodes Electric Piano solo by Preston, the third showcasing a saxophone solo by Motorhead Sherwood , and the fourth featuring Bunk Gardner playing a soprano saxophone through various electronic effects that emulate

216-511: A feature film is released, or during and after a television series airs, an album in the form of a soundtrack is frequently released alongside it. A soundtrack typically contains instrumentation or alternatively a film score . But it can also feature songs that were sung or performed by characters in a scene (or a cover version of a song in the media, rerecorded by a popular artist), songs that were used as intentional or unintentional background music in important scenes, songs that were heard in

270-649: A film vehicle for the Mothers of Invention, titled Uncle Meat . The film would combine elements of science fiction and road stories inspired by the band's sexual escapades. Subsequently, Zappa began working on a project called No Commercial Potential , which eventually became the albums We're Only in It for the Money , Lumpy Gravy , Cruising with Ruben & the Jets and Uncle Meat . Zappa stated, "It's all one album. All

324-532: A guitar solo that was sped up in post production. "Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague" is delivered as a rock and roll song, with the same theme being repeated as an instrumental later in the album, performed by keyboards, percussion and acoustic guitar. The rock and roll version features three verses with the first chorus being delivered by opera singer Nelcy Walker, and the second chorus featuring sped up vocals. After

378-480: A large number of overdubs , playing unconventional instruments through studio effects, and speeding up or slowing down recordings for artistic effect. Zappa wanted to make an album that would challenge the complacency of contemporary music fans, as he felt that his fanbase was "accustomed to accepting everything that was handed to them ... politically, musically, socially – everything. Somebody would just hand it to them and they wouldn't question it. It

432-437: A minor third with a V.S.O. (variable speed oscillator). Other peculiar sounds were make[sic] on a Kalamazoo electric organ. The only equipment at our disposal for the modification of these primary sounds was a pair of Pultec Filters, two [Lang Equalizers], and three Melchor Compressors built into the mixing console . The board itself is exceptionally quiet and efficient (the only thing that allowed us to pile up so many tracks) and

486-404: A more dark thriller would compose of hard rock or urban music . In 1908, Camille Saint-Saëns composed the first music specifically for use in a motion picture (L'assasinat du duc de Guise), and releasing recordings of songs used in films became prevalent in the 1930s. Henry Mancini , who won an Emmy Award and two Grammys for his soundtrack to Peter Gunn , was the first composer to have

540-544: A motion picture or television soundtrack. Many top-charting songs were featured or released on a film or television soundtrack album. Nowadays, the term "soundtrack" sort of subsided. It now mostly commonly refers to instrumental background music used in that media. Popular songs featured in a film or television series are instead highlighted and referenced in the credits, not a part of a "soundtrack". In advertisements or store listings, soundtrack albums are sometimes confused with original cast albums . These are albums made with

594-672: A musical artist), and the songs and the soundtrack itself can also be on music charts, and win musical awards. By convention, a soundtrack record can contain any kind of music including music "inspired by" but not actually appearing in the movie; the score contains only music by the original film's composers. Contemporaneously, a soundtrack can go against normality, (most typically used in popular culture franchises) and contains recently released or exclusive never before released original pop music selections, (some of which become high-charting records on their own, which due to being released on another franchises title, peaked because of that) and

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648-549: A post-modern time when the modernist ways of thought and action and the production of art have become redundant in a capitalist economy. Parting from the claims of Greenberg in the late 1930s and the insights of Poggioli in the early 1960s, in The De-Definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks (1983), the critic Harold Rosenberg said that since the middle of the 1960s the politically progressive avant-garde ceased being adversaries to artistic commercialism and

702-502: A song recorded in 1982, "Tengo na minchia tanta", sung in Sicilian and Italian by Massimo Bassoli, who identifies the song as being translated as "I've Got a Big Bunch of Dick". Also added to the 1987 CD is over 40 minutes of sounds and dialogue from the film. The track listing programs the new tracks at the beginning of the second disc, placing the material between the album's original third and fourth sides. The original 1969 vinyl mix

756-463: A variety of music styles, including orchestral symphonies , free jazz , blues , doo wop and rock and roll . The album also contains spoken word segments featuring Suzy Creamcheese, and features a stronger focus on percussion instrumentation than previous works by Zappa, as well as emphasizing his strengths as a composer and arranger. "Nine Types of Industrial Pollution" is melodically formless, rooted in percussion instrumentation, and features

810-434: A widespread hit with a song from a soundtrack. Before the 1970s, soundtracks (with a few exceptions), accompanied towards musicals , and was an album that featured vocal and instrumental, (and instrumental versions of vocal songs) musical selections performed by cast members. Or cover versions of songs sung by another artist. After the 1970s, soundtracks started to include more diversity, and music consumers would anticipate

864-525: Is another definition of "Avant-gardism" that distinguishes it from "modernism": Peter Bürger, for example, says avant-gardism rejects the "institution of art" and challenges social and artistic values, and so necessarily involves political, social, and cultural factors. According to the composer and musicologist Larry Sitsky , modernist composers from the early 20th century who do not qualify as avant-gardists include Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Igor Stravinsky; later modernist composers who do not fall into

918-638: Is facilitated by mechanically produced art-products of mediocre quality displacing art of quality workmanship; thus, the profitability of art-as-commodity determines its artistic value. In The Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord said that the financial, commercial, and economic co-optation of the avant-garde into a commodity produced by neoliberal capitalism makes doubtful that avant-garde artists will remain culturally and intellectually relevant to their societies for preferring profit to cultural change and political progress. In The Theory-Death of

972-546: Is not reducible to a kitsch style or reactionary orientation, but can instead be used to refer to artists who engage with the legacy of the avant-garde while maintaining an awareness that doing so is in some sense anachronistic. The critic Charles Altieri argues that avant-garde and arrière-garde are interdependent: "where there is an avant-garde, there must be an arrière-garde ." Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of music working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term

1026-410: Is simply used for promotional purposes for well known artists, or new or unknown artists. These soundtracks contain music not at all heard in the film/television series, and any artistic or lyrical connection is purely coincidental. However depending on the genre of the media the soundtrack of popular songs would have a set pattern; a lighthearted romance might feature easy listening love songs, whilst

1080-605: Is the product of Mr. Lou Lindauer's imagination & workmanship." In addition to the studio recordings, Uncle Meat featured live recordings made at the Royal Albert Hall , including a recording of Don Preston playing " Louie Louie " on the Albert Hall pipe organ, at the end of which Zappa announces it as having been performed by the " London Philharmonic Orchestra ". The doo wop-influenced "Electric Aunt Jemima" refers to Zappa's guitar amplifier, equating it with

1134-615: Is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether. By this definition, some avant-garde composers of the 20th century include Arnold Schoenberg , Richard Strauss (in his earliest work), Charles Ives , Igor Stravinsky , Anton Webern , Edgard Varèse , Alban Berg , George Antheil (in his earliest works only), Henry Cowell (in his earliest works), Harry Partch , John Cage , Iannis Xenakis , Morton Feldman , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Pauline Oliveros , Philip Glass , Meredith Monk , Laurie Anderson , and Diamanda Galás . There

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1188-485: The closing credits , or songs for no apparent reason related to the media other than for promotion, that were included in a soundtrack. Before home video became widespread in the 1980s, many soundtrack albums would also feature snippets of dialogue, as this was one of the few ways to re-experience a film after its original release apart from television broadcasts or theatrical reissues. Soundtracks are usually released on major record labels (just as if they were released by

1242-592: The intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists promote progressive and radical politics and advocate for societal reform with and through works of art. In the essay "The Artist, the Scientist, and the Industrialist" (1825), Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues 's political usage of vanguard identified the moral obligation of artists to "serve as [the] avant-garde" of the people, because "the power of

1296-408: The music of Bollywood , usually sells more than Indian pop records. Avant-garde In the arts and literature , the term avant-garde (from French meaning ' advance guard ' or ' vanguard ' ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art , and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable to

1350-482: The soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show . The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney 's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , the soundtrack to the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , in 1938. The first soundtrack album of a film's orchestral score was that for Alexander Korda 's 1942 film Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book , composed by Miklós Rózsa . When

1404-497: The Avant-Garde ( Teoria dell'arte d'avanguardia , 1962), the academic Renato Poggioli provides an early analysis of the avant-garde as art and as artistic movement. Surveying the historical and social, psychological and philosophical aspects of artistic vanguardism, Poggioli's examples of avant-garde art, poetry, and music, show that avant-garde artists share some values and ideals as contemporary bohemians . In Theory of

1458-473: The Avant-Garde ( Theorie der Avantgarde , 1974), the literary critic Peter Bürger looks at The Establishment 's embrace of socially critical works of art as capitalist co-optation of the artists and the genre of avant-garde art, because "art as an institution neutralizes the political content of the individual work [of art]". In Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975 (2000), Benjamin H. D. Buchloh argues for

1512-697: The Avant-Garde (1991), Paul Mann said that the avant-garde are economically integral to the contemporary institutions of the Establishment, specifically as part of the culture industry . Noting the conceptual shift, theoreticians, such as Matei Calinescu , in Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (1987), and Hans Bertens in The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (1995), said that Western culture entered

1566-511: The Laurence Olivier Richard III , the soundtrack of which was released as a 3-LP album by RCA Victor in 1955. Sometimes tracks not in the movie are included in the album, especially on a CD release of the soundtrack as opposed to an LP. Some of these may be "outtakes" (songs or instrumental music recorded for use in the movie but "cut" in the final edit as released), or they may have been used in trailers but not in

1620-583: The Mothers' movie of the same name which we haven't got enough money to finish yet." Despite the album's experimental nature, it peaked at No. 43 on the Billboard charts. Contemporary reviews of the album were highly favorable, recognizing it as an important album in Zappa's discography. The New Rolling Stone Album Guide described the album as an "inspired monstrosity ... [an] assault of glorious noise". AllMusic writer Steve Huey wrote, "despite

1674-455: The absence of a conceptual framework, the unfocused sprawl of Uncle Meat is actually a big part of its appeal. It's exciting to hear one of the most creatively fertile minds in rock pushing restlessly into new territory, even if he isn't always quite sure where he's going." The Uncle Meat film was finally completed and released on home video in 1987. The Uncle Meat album was reissued as a double CD on Rykodisc that year. This release included

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1728-409: The advertising character Aunt Jemima . Zappa explained, "I get kind of a laugh out of the fact that other people are going to try to interpret that stuff and come up with some grotesque interpretations of it. It gives me a certain amount of satisfaction." The album concludes with "King Kong", a piece in 3/8, although the instrumental's prelude, a free jazz improvisation over a rhythm section playing in

1782-407: The artistic establishment of the time. The military metaphor of an advance guard identifies the artists and writers whose innovations in style, form, and subject-matter challenge the artistic and aesthetic validity of the established forms of art and the literary traditions of their time; thus, the artists who created the anti-novel and Surrealism were ahead of their times. As a stratum of

1836-458: The artistic vanguard oppose high culture and reject the artifice of mass culture , because the avant-garde functionally oppose the dumbing down of society — be it with low culture or with high culture . That in a capitalist society each medium of mass communication is a factory producing artworks, and is not a legitimate artistic medium; therefore, the products of mass culture are kitsch , simulations and simulacra of Art. Walter Benjamin in

1890-418: The arts is, indeed, the most immediate and fastest way" to realise social, political, and economic reforms. In the realm of culture, the artistic experiments of the avant-garde push the aesthetic boundaries of societal norms , such as the disruptions of modernism in poetry, fiction, and drama, painting, music, and architecture, that occurred in the late 19th and in the early 20th centuries. In art history

1944-416: The category of avant-gardists include Elliott Carter , Milton Babbitt , György Ligeti , Witold Lutosławski , and Luciano Berio , since "their modernism was not conceived for the purpose of goading an audience." The 1960s saw a wave of free and avant-garde music in jazz genre, embodied by artists such as Ornette Coleman , Sun Ra , Albert Ayler , Archie Shepp , John Coltrane and Miles Davis . In

1998-416: The cultural values of contemporary bourgeois society . In the U.S. of the 1960s, the post–WWII changes to American culture and society allowed avant-garde artists to produce works of art that addressed the matters of the day, usually in political and sociologic opposition to the cultural conformity inherent to popular culture and to consumerism as a way of life and as a worldview . In The Theory of

2052-514: The essay " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1939) and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) said that the artifice of mass culture voids the artistic value (the aura ) of a work of art. That the capitalist culture industry (publishing and music, radio and cinema, etc.) continually produces artificial culture for mass consumption, which

2106-444: The first three minutes, after which the dialogue was abruptly cut off and the musical score of the film took over, forcing listeners to "see the film if they wished to know what the mystery was all about." In a few rare instances, the complete soundtrack for a film — dialogue, music, sound effects, etc. — has been released. One notable example was a 3-LP set of the 1977 Rankin-Bass film The Hobbit . Because this particular film

2160-517: The material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related." According to artist Cal Schenkel , who worked extensively with Zappa, "I started working on

2214-535: The mediocrity of mass culture , which political disconnection transformed being an artist into "a profession, one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing [the profession of being an artist]." Avant-garde is frequently defined in contrast to arrière-garde , which in its original military sense refers to a rearguard force that protects the advance-guard. The term was less frequently used than "avant-garde" in 20th-century art criticism. The art historians Natalie Adamson and Toby Norris argue that arrière-garde

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2268-500: The mid-19th century, as a cultural term, avant-garde identified a genre of art that advocated art-as-politics, art as an aesthetic and political means for realising social change in a society. Since the 20th century, the art term avant-garde identifies a stratum of the Intelligentsia that comprises novelists and writers, artists and architects et al. whose creative perspectives, ideas, and experimental artworks challenge

2322-425: The movie involved in other events (example: King of Pirates , from FLCL ). The unusual first soundtrack album of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz , issued in 1956 in conjunction with the film's first telecast, was virtually a condensed version of the film, with enough dialogue on the album for the listener to be able to easily follow the plot, as was the first soundtrack album of the 1968 Romeo and Juliet , and

2376-536: The movie itself. Examples include the South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut soundtrack. Two other well-known examples are the soundtrack albums to Rodgers and Hammerstein 's Carousel and The King and I both of which include two or more songs not heard in the finished film. Soundtrack albums account for the bulk of the Indian music industry . Music from the Indian film industry , particularly

2430-417: The original stage cast of a musical , and are recorded by the cast either in live performance or in a studio, not transferred from a movie soundtrack. In some cases, recorded dialogue may be incorporated into the soundtrack album. This comes in two kinds: audio clips from the movie itself (used on the albums for Pulp Fiction and Apollo 13 , for example) or radio dramas that involve the characters from

2484-593: The rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive". Post-punk artists from the late 1970s rejected traditional rock sensibilities in favor of an avant-garde aesthetic. Whereas the avant-garde has a significant history in 20th-century music, it is more pronounced in theatre and performance art, and often in conjunction with music and sound design innovations, as well as developments in visual media design. There are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to

2538-734: The socio-cultural functions of avant-garde art trace from Dada (1915–1920s) through the Situationist International (1957–1972) to the postmodernism of the American Language poets (1960s–1970s). The French military term avant-garde (advanced guard) identified a reconnaissance unit who scouted the terrain ahead of the main force of the army. In 19th-century French politics, the term avant-garde (vanguard) identified Left-wing political reformists who agitated for radical political change in French society. In

2592-402: The sound of a contrabassoon doubling his solo lines. Two more variations conclude the piece, which include a live recorded performance featuring a saxophone solo by Ian Underwood and then finally ending with a version with sped up gongs, overblown saxophones and other instruments. Uncle Meat was released as a double album by Bizarre and Reprise Records , subtitled, "Most of the music from

2646-522: The soundtrack albums of The Taming of the Shrew (1967 version), Cromwell , and Little Big Man . In the case of Patton , the bulk of the album featured the film's musical score, while the opening and final tracks featured George C. Scott 's opening and closing speeches from the movie. The highly unusual soundtrack album of the 1972 mystery film Sleuth was designed as a sort of teaser , with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine 's voices heard for

2700-635: The story of Ruben and the Jets that is connected with the Uncle Meat story, which is this old guy turns this teenage band into these dog snout people ... We started that before it actually became Ruben and the Jets. That came out of my love for comics and that style, the anthropomorphic animals , but also it was part of a running story line." For the recording sessions, Zappa worked at Apostolic Studios in Manhattan employing an unusual and innovative 12-track machine built by Scully . Zappa included

2754-401: The third verse, the song becomes an avant-garde orchestral piece performed by percussion, keyboards and instruments; the album liner notes "The weird middle section of DOG BREATH (after the line "Ready to attack") has forty tracks built into it. Things that sound like trumpets are actually clarinets played through an electric device made by Maestro with a setting labeled Oboe D'Amore and sped up

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2808-448: Was my campaign in those days to do things that would shake people out of that complacency, or that ignorance and make them question things." By the time the album was released, Lowell George and Buzz Gardner had joined the band, and both have their names listed in the inside cover despite joining after the album was recorded. George and bassist Roy Estrada would go on to form the band Little Feat in late 1969. Uncle Meat featured

2862-449: Was produced for television, it lent itself well to the LP format: built-in commercial insert points were used to end each LP side, thus avoiding any additional editing. Another example was the above-mentioned Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet – the movie proved so popular that two years after the film's original release, an album set of the complete soundtrack was released. Still another example was

2916-500: Was reissued in 2016 as the first disc of Meat Light: The Uncle Meat Project/Object Audio Documentary . All tracks are written by Frank Zappa, except where noted The Mothers – at the time of this recording were: Special thanks to: Uncredited: Only on the CD version, also uncredited: Album – Billboard (United States) Soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from

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