ABSTRACT
One familiar version of Pop art history features Andy Warhol as a Pop artist whose works in various media often incorporated music in a multitude of ways. This chapter focuses on Warhol's film, Sleep, not commonly associated with popular music. When Sleep premiered, on January 17, 1964, it was accompanied by a radio tuned to pop music. Warhol controlled the dial, actively making his own soundtrack as the film progressed. Music operated as a soundtrack in Warhol's studio. Whether Warhol's use of a pop soundtrack was a one-time experiment or not, the ramifications of considering the work as coming with—and losing—a soundtrack is tantalizing. Warhol, turning the radio dial on January 17, 1964, produced a soundtrack of popular music touching upon its varied modes at that time. At another point early in Sleep's historiography, Warhol discussed the film as having a kind of soundtrack.
