Music in Star Trek: Sound, Utopia, and the Future

The tensions between utopian dreams and dystopian anxieties permeate science fiction as a genre, and nowhere is this tension more evident than in Star Trek. This book breaks new ground by exploring music and sound within the Star Trek franchise across decades and media, offering the first sustained look at the role of music in shaping this influential series. The chapters in this edited collection consider how the aural, visual, and narrative components of Star Trek combine as it constructs and deconstructs the utopian and dystopian, shedding new light on the series’ political, cultural, and aesthetic impact.

Considering how the music of Star Trek defines and interprets religion, ideology, artificial intelligence, and more, while also considering fan interactions with the show’s audio, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of music, media studies, science fiction, and popular culture.

Jessica Getman is an Assistant Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology at California State University, San Bernardino, and a film musicologist focusing on music in television and science fiction media.

Brooke McCorkle Okazaki is an Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She specializes in opera of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, film music, and the music of modern Japan.

Evan Ware is Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His scholarship focuses on reinterpretation and meaning in popular and film/television music.