Introduction

This introductory chapter proposes that the soundtracked book is a distinct media form, one that has been hiding in plain sight for more than a century. A hybrid product, the soundtracked book comprises two distinct elements: a physical, print publication (or its digital analogue), and a recorded, musical soundtrack. Thus, the form not only combines two sensory modalities (the visual and the aural) but also requires the user to negotiate two separate timelines: the readtime of the printed text and the runtime of the musical recording. This temporal idiosyncrasy – or schizotemporality – re-presents the soundtracked book’s most significant formal attribute.