Play that funky music, white girl
Like a lot of writers, I have a ‘soundtrack’ for certain books that I listen to over the course of writing it. Well, not as I’m writing it — I have a hard time writing to any kind of music with lyrics, and if it’s music with lyrics that I know, then forget about it, the writing just isn’t happening. (I can get by with classical music, though.) But I do make up a CD to stick in my car so that I’ve got the feel of the book in my head wherever I go.
Aside: This does not include the times when my daughter is also in the car, especially when she was aged 2-4. Then it was Music for Tots, all the time. I’m lucky my heroes didn’t end up with a squicky Dora fetish or something during those years.
A 2nd Aside: I also don’t think I could name very many songs recorded after the birth of said tot. She, on the other hand, has managed to learn the lyrics to Britney Spears “Circus” by heart, despite us not having that song on any of our computers…along with “Eye of the Tiger.” The second one is my fault.
So I make soundtracks — but when you’re reading, do you end up associating certain songs with books that you love?
ETA: I forgot to mention — if you’re looking for a free read to help get you through to the weekend, I put one up on my site. It’s a short (emphasis on SHORT) paranormal romance, In Sheep’s Clothing, originally in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF PARANORMAL ROMANCE.
(The rest of the post is going under the cut, because it’s long and full of videos.)
Anyway, soundtracks. For the Guardian series, I have a few songs that just fit every book, and then there are the songs that go with the individual books. The whole series theme is probably The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” and so it ends up on every soundtrack.
[YouTube link to official video.]
and Robert Miles’s “Fable” is on most of them, too, because the flow of the song feels like the structure of a story to me:
And I first heard it on the trailer for Ever After, so that doesn’t hurt.
For DEMON ANGEL, I must have played the Guns ‘N Roses cover of “Sympathy for the Devil” a gazillion times (this was the version at the end of Interview with the Vampire):
And DEMON MOON, I ended up with different songs for different characters, along with the full theme songs. Savi was Fiona Apple’s “Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)”
while Colin was a Billy Idol song (“Cradle of Love“) and the Clash (“Straight to Hell“)
and the whole book was The Beatles’ “Yesterday”
DEMON NIGHT, I went through about 5 different variations of the soundtrack, but one song that always stayed was Paula Cole’s “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”
My FIRST BLOOD novella was really the only one with a soundtrack, and it had three songs. The one that went on repeat was Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” … and, unsurprisingly, my heroine’s name was Annie.
DEMON BOUND was pretty much my hero’s soundtrack, only because I didn’t have any music weird enough for Alice. Plus, Jake was a Guardian who’d died in the late ’60s, so his music was already deep in my head (thanks Mom & Dad.) So he was CCR’s “Fortunate Son”
and Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride”
For DEMON FORGED, I had an angry, angry heroine whose song ended up being Fiona Apple’s “On the Bound” (actually, a lot of Apple’s work fit, but particularly her When The Pawn… album.) Her hero wasn’t as angry, though a bit shattered by what she could do to him, and crazy in love with her all the way through. So his was Rufus Wainwright’s cover of “Hallelujah.”
And the latest, DEMON BLOOD, was all about the heroine. “Hallelujah” ended up on this soundtrack, too (it has become another series theme) along with Dido’s “White Flag,” Lionel Richie’s “Hello,” Sarah McLachlan’s “Full of Grace” (this ends up on a lot of soundtracks, too, beginning with DEMON ANGEL) and Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work,” which always makes me tear up. Sniff sniff.
…longest post ever? Ha. How many of you are heading to iTunes?
My husband is the avid music lover in the family, and he will play a single song on repeat for days on end, until I want to jab pencils in my ears. I have a love/hate relationship with those songs. I do my reading mostly on the couch next to his office after the kids go to bed, so those songs are embedded in my memory of the books. When I hear the song again, back come the memories of the books I read during those days he played that $%@^&^% song. So now I love the song, as much as I hated hearing it over and over again then. Then I crave reading the book again. Also, I read while he plays video games later in the evenings, so I also can get songs from games associated with my books. Kingdom hearts 2 song – Ilona and Nalini’s books, Halo songs – Keri Arthur books, Star Wars something from last week – Jill’s books, and I can’t leave out all the WoW music and books (too many to list). There are some Inuyasha songs and Yoko Kanno (Rain? by some Steve guy)songs that are from several years ago that I specifically associate with the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. Weird now that I think about it.
So interesting! I actually just blogged about this at DIK the other day. More in the arena of “what music goes with the romance you’re reading right now” vein. But the same thing. I was thinking about it with particular regard to Nalini’s two series. I said if Psy/Changeling is a symphony, then Guild Hunters is rock opera.
I’m currently reading Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English mysteries and I think of the relationship between Adrien and Jake as Wicked Game by Chris Issak.
I almost always associate music with romances that I’m reading. And I *adore* it when authors post their soundtracks for each book they write. It makes it so fun to listen to them and think about how that music associates with the character and story development.
Great topic, Meljean!
I tend not to soundtrack my reading EXCEPT when a character mentions a song. The two examples of this I can think of right off the bat are Izzy Zannella from Suz Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series and Kare Marie Monings’ Mac Lane from the Fever series.
When Brockmann’s character, IZ’s wife said her fav song was “And she will be loved” by Maroon 5, and he later sang it to her, I had to listen to the song on you tube (because I rarely listen to top 40 music these days). Now when I reread that book I hear that song and it fits.
And Mac Lane has an entire soundtrack, because the character listens to her ipod constantly. But the songs fit what is going on, either as point, or counterpoint to the plot.
Thank you for introducing me to your music for characters, I now can read the books with these songs in mind as well.
When I was reading Nalini Singh’s Angel’s Blood, the song that reminded me of the book was Dark Wings by Within Temptation (who are a Goth Rock Band) –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BZRj-JYtb4&feature=related. Angels was another song by the same band that reminded of Nalini’s book – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK9qfVQ4Z04&feature=related. GREAT STUFF if you’re into rock
Yes, yes, yes!
I definitely use music to help me shape writing. I tend to use it for moods, more than characters (which I will now be noodling about for the foreseeable future). For example, I think Green Day’s Holiday is a fantastic song for a fight scene (physical or otherwise), and Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done works well for a dark mood.
I read the short story and liked it very much. The first portion of it read like a first chapter for me and I could easily see it setting up a much larger piece. Which got me thinking about first chapters and what makes them work. At some point, not necessarily today (maybe another blog topic?), I’d love to get your thoughts on what makes a good first chapter? What does it absolutely have to accomplish in order to set up the rest of the book?
Thanks.
never have done sound tracks for my reading or writing – ’til this year, when I’m in grad schoola and have NO time for my writing, suddenly I’m finding theme songs for the various characters here and there. It’s very comforting. I miss them and I enjoy the odd moments of plotting when ‘their song’ happens to come on when I’m in the car.
I kinda soundtrack books too, a certain song or album will become associated with a book in my head and from then on when I read the book again, I think of the song and decide to listen to it and when I hear the song I remember the book and decide to read it again.
So, what songs would you use for Michael’s book? *waggles eyebrows*
At least your lucky that your daughter was satisfied with Dora. Mine’s was, and I know I’m dating myself, Barney. I’d find myself humming, “I love you, You love me—” at work and would scream cause that that darn purple dinosaur just wouldn’t let me be.
This is really fun to read, knowing the books. That Dido song, it just feels so genuine and emotional and pure, sort of, it makes me even more excited for that book.
Play that funky music, dude!
[...] thought Meljean Brook had a very inspiring post over at Odd Shots yesterday – characters and the ’songs’ that seem to fit [...]
I love finding out the soundtracks that authors use to inspire themselves. To me music association is stronger than smell.
Great post and yes I did visit iTunes! (Hope you’re getting a kick-back! LOL)
Have you ever heard of E.S. Posthumus? I love to write to their music since it feels so cinematic. When I listen I see scenes in my head, and that never happens for me.
Give them a listen – if you google them, I think you can listen to some samples.
And I hope if you decide to listen that you like what you hear.
Aww! Eye of the Tiger is one of my childhood favourites… This Woman’s Work is also a favourite I have to look for next time I go CD hunting.
[...] So I’ve commented before that a lot of my books don’t necessarily have a whole soundtrack, but just one song. Meljean’s made a great post about this at Odd Shots, too. [...]