The Myth of the Speakers: A Critical Reexamination of Dolby History

This article corrects misconceptions regarding the history of film stereo. I show that the technical and aesthetic innovations regularly credited to Dolby Stereo, to sound designers like Walter Murch, and to films like Apocalypse Now (1979) were not revolutions but extensions of surround-sound practices that Hollywood codified in prior decades. I call such historical misconceptions the “Dolby myth.” Further, I argue that practitioners circulated this myth to critics and scholars in order to elevate the value of postproduction sound labor following the industry’s transition from a studio-based economy to one dominated by independent productions.