Velvet Goldmine

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Professor Katherine Reed (Associate Professor of Musicology, California State University, Fullerton, USA)

Velvet Goldmine

Name: Velvet Goldmine
Price: 26.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781839027475

Professor Katherine Reed (Associate Professor of Musicology, California State University, Fullerton, USA)

$26.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

BFI Publishing
11 June 2026

Film theory & criticism; Film movie guides & reviews; Gay & Lesbian studies

Series: BFI Film Classics

It’s 1984, and investigative reporter Arthur Stuart is trying to locate Brian Slade, the glam-rock superstar who staged his own death and vanished from the spotlight ten years earlier. Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine (1998) transforms that mystery into a vivid collage of memory, fantasy and desire, creating an alternative history of rock and a landmark of queer cinema.

Velvet Goldmine divided opinion on its release, but Katherine Reed traces how the film’s fans have kept it alive through rewatches, relistens and fan fiction. Reed weaves in the history of the film with close readings of its cinematic references, songs and style. She re-evaluates Velvet Goldmine in light of Haynes’s other films, addresses its fraught production history and its allusions to David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and the ways in which Haynes reshapes those figures into a new mythology.

Reed also analyses Velvet Goldmine’s soundtrack, and examines legendary costume designer Sandy Powell’s role in creating blends of fantasy and reality in each character’s wardrobe. Like the film itself, this is not a linear history, but an exploration of how Velvet Goldmine teaches us to create anew.

By: Professor Katherine Reed (Associate Professor of Musicology California State University Fullerton USA)
Imprint: BFI Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 190mm, Width: 134mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 180g
ISBN: 9781839027475
ISBN 10: 1839027479
Series: BFI Film Classics
Pages: 112
Publication Date: 11 June 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Acknowledgments Introduction Track 1: ‘Ballad of Maxwell Demon’ Track 2: ‘Velvet Spacetime’ Track 3: ‘Satellite of Love’ Track 4: ‘2HB’ Track 5: ‘Make Me Smile’ Notes Credits Bibliography

Katherine M. Reed is Associate Professor of Musicology at California State University, Fullerton, USA. Her research explores popular music, musical semiotics and film music, particularly in the work of David Bowie and David Lynch. She is co-editor of the collection Music in Twin Peaks: Listen to the Sounds (2021) and author of David Bowie and the Moving Image: A Standing Cinema (2023).