22 music and the moving image 15.1 / spring 2022 ©2022 by the board of trustees of the university of illinois Music Production Technology in New Nollywood Soundtracks: Context, Application, and the Efect of Globalization Obumneke S. Anyanwu and Emaeyak P. Sylvanus Abstract. New Nollywood refers to a segment of Nigerian cinema that began in 2012. Te industry is based in Lagos and focuses on Hollywood-style approaches to flm and flm music. Generally, very little has been written about technologies in the flm music of Nigerian cinema. Tis article is the frst to focus explicitly on the impact of modern music production technology in New Nollywood soun- dtracks. Adopting descriptive as well as survey and historical methods of research, this article reveals what the specifc and available technologies for flm music in New Nollywood were and currently are; how the practitioners have employed them; as well as how the efects of such technologies have shaped the industry’s cultural and economics choices. In addition to a review of the broad literature on cinema and flm music, the methodology also relies on studio observation sessions with current industry practitioners as well as an analysis of the New Nollywood flm Te Bling Lagosians (2019). Taken together, fndings reveal that the quality of New Nollywood flm music is fuid and refective of changes to the economic, cul- tural, and technological preferences of practitioners. about New Nollywood, including some of the (counter)positions on and around, for instance, its nomenclature and distinctive- ness from mainstream Nollywood. Second, we review the literature on global flm music production technologies for its relevance to local approaches in New Nollywood. Tird, we discuss the context(s) of application, fac- tors and fndings from studio observation sessions regarding flm music production technologies in New Nollywood. Fourth, we analyze the New Nollywood flm Te Bling Lagosians (2019), directed by Bolanle Austen-Peters, to illustrate the discussions in the previous sections, including the efects of globalization on the industry’s choice of soundtrack production technologies. Lastly, we synthesize our fndings for their geo- graphic, cultural, and aesthetic signifcance in global flm music scholarship. Introduction Generally, very little has been written about technologies in the flm music of Nigerian cinema. Tis article is the frst to focus explicitly on the impact of music production technologies in New Nollywood soundtracks. To do so, we have relied on a combination of approaches, including both descriptive and survey/historical methods of research (discussed later), and have discov- ered, among other things, what the specifc and available technologies for flm music in New Nollywood were and currently are; how the practitioners have employed them; as well as how the efects of such recording technologies shape (and have been shaped by) the industry’s cultural and business choices. As an outline, frst we present some contextual and historiographic information Downloaded from http://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/mmi/article-pdf/15/1/22/1488261/22anyanwu.pdf by guest on 05 March 2022