Kate Bush and the Moving Image

Book excerpt: In this unique study, Stephen Glynn demonstrates that Kate Bush’s work, in both sound and vision, has long been influenced and characterised by, and at times aimed at, film and television media. The volume explores in depth Bush’s ‘music of allusion’ and analyses first the significance of film and television references throughout the lyrics and settings of her songs, beginning with her breakthrough hit ‘Wuthering Heights’. It also surveys the shaping presence of film and television in the look, narrative and artistry of her music videos, including the examination of celebrated works such as ‘Cloudbusting’ and ‘Hounds of Love’. Finally, the book assesses Bush’s most intensive cinematic undertaking, her 1993 album The Red Shoes, with its evident homage to the 1948 film of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and its concurrent visual reworking as Bush’s sole film venture, The Line, The Cross & The Curve. Thus, with its deployment across music, video and film, Glynn demonstrates the centrality of Kate Bush’s cinephilia to her work. Accessible yet academically rigorous, Kate Bush and the Moving Image is a stand-out study of the iconic singer-songwriter’s discography and cinematic ventures. It will appeal to both students and scholars of Film, Television, Media, Cultural and Popular Music Studies.