Scoring Godzilla: An Analysis of Akira Ifukube's Musical Narratives

This work explores the life and career of the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube (1914-2006) and his musical scores in daikaijū eiga (giant monster films), such as Godzilla (1954) and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). This work argues that, through his auteurist film scoring practices, Ifukube frames daikaijū eiga as audio-cinematic texts that complicate and build upon the more traditional "nuclear horror" interpretations of these films and engages with urgent discourses on Japanese postwar ident...