Discussion Music and Fanfic Discussion Thread

That brought back personal memories--I recorded "Down by the Water" off the radio when it was in constant rotation, which meant waiting around, with the cassette tape in place, ready to press the record button the instant it came on. I was nineteen. (Well, oops--it looks like I gave my age away.)

Since I should return to the topic, I have something from the 90s that has been lurking around my fanfictional music background of late:

 

Well since the fic that I am writing is more concentrated on action I tend to listen to epic music like: Two Steps From Hell, Immediate Music, etc. some movie soundtracks or war/battle related songs/tunes.

I don't mind if the song that I listen to has lyrics, since some of them give me ideas like for the last chapter that I wrote I listened to When the Tigers Broke Free by Pink Floyd and in a sense the whole chapter was modelled after the song.

 

Taking a break from Fatboy Slim, and trying Carl Cox, though I am finding his Tomorrowland sets for 2015 and '16 very repetitive.

EDIT: Absolutely nothing to do with fics, but this Youtube singer (so my friend tells me), served me coffee on her last day on the job: Sarah Williams White.

 

Hello fellow writers and readers!

Music is one of the most powerful art forms available, thus I try to use it as inspiration for my writing. That may sound weird, but let me explain.

I primarily listen to Heavy Metal - raw, majestic, emotional music. We all know the feeling that listening to to your favourite lyric in a song gives us, that giddy rush of emotion and power. It's this feeling that makes me use lyrical and musical themes and ideas from music in my writing.

For example, one of my all time favourite songs; "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Metallica contains this lyric:

"Take a look to the sky just before you die, it's the last time you will"​

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To me, this lyric is overwhelmingly powerful when read, never mind when accompanied by thunderous guitars and drums. I can take the themes of finality and death, and incorporate it into writing. Perhaps a characters perspective just before they're executed, or a wounded soldier breathing his last breath.​

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I could turn to the speed and power of Iron Maiden's classic war song "The Trooper". Ignoring it's magnificent lyrics, the guitar work is astounding at capturing not only the rhythm of the poem it's based on, but the rhythm of cavalry charging without fear into certain death.​

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So, do you ever use music to inspire your writing. If so, how so? ​

 

Shekel_1383 I have merged you thread with another thread almost identical in nature. Before starting a new thread, please take a look at the first few pages of Writing Resource, just to make sure there isn't a semi-active discussion already started.

 

It's fine, my mistake for only looking at page one. Thanks Briannakin

 

I am blind to lyrics in music. I don't know what happened to me; I once had to be persuaded to listen hard to music to detect, and it seems that I automatically tune words out.

I know that in my first twenty years, I knew about lyrics, could hear and appreciate them fine, and my last known song where I knew the words was the theme to the James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only. After that, I just heard the beats, the music, etc.

So no, I can write to music, but it doesn't tell a story to me.

 

I think Shekel just brought up something as intriguing. Not all of us consider the same kind of stuff as emotional, most likely. What's emotional to one person might be mundane to the other, and that's the beauty of it.

I get a lot from musicians who are storytellers and those who focus on the non-physical things. Or both, if possible. They're my favourites. I do care about the lyrics, but not always. My mother always asks me how can I work with loud music playing, I tell her that it does not distract me. On top of it, I can write a sad thing while listening to a ridiculously uplifting song such as, say, Wham's Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go. Music gets me moving and that's what matters most sometimes.

As far as powerful guitar solos go: here are my two RSD:
Not all of those are intended to be a vulgar display of power, by any means. Many guitarists are sensitive, complex people and not the guitar heroes that their fans want them to be. Some guitarists have taken the instrument far beyond the scope of what's necessarily considered rock and it's still emotional.

Anyway, a song I did not like the first time I saw the music video as a twelve-year-old currently strikes me as one of the most beautiful ones ever written. It was only recently that I noticed that the chorus is "these words: you will be mine" and not "this world, it will be mine" and that had me google the lyrics...a powerful, wonderful delusion explored, right there. One of the things I wish I had written myself.



Another song I've had on heavy rotation is Masquerade's Guardian Angel. The late Drafi Deutscher had one of the nicest baritones in popular music.

Forgot to respond this. I did record Down by the Water the same way as you, but I was weeks from turning...twelve! I gave my age, too...not that it was ever a secret.

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Mazzy Star. Hope Sandoval is like a dark fairy and the things she writes are so beautiful and strange.

 

My latest dirty pleasure: Solomun.



Just helped me to add 590 words to my French Literature Challenge effort.


EDIT (12/08/17):

This Carl Cox set has been helping me this weekend, with writing and production of two story-related GIFs, and two for OCs.

 

I have not listened to any music during my "down" period. But when I write, listening to music is inevitable.

Right now, my choices are odd. I did a lot of Jandek (google that and be very confused) while fine-tuning my new epic, as well as rediscovering the beauty that is Heather Nova (already mentioned in this thread) and, right now, since I woke up and can't go back to sleep, I am on a Human League binge.

Sent from my SM-T310 using Tapatalk

 

I made a playlist for Darth Vader.

It has a lot of dramatic and/or gloomy sounding classical music, and a lot of metal. (Mostly AC/DC)

There are also some other songs that the lyrics just resonated in some way.

Darth Vader Playlist

 

Now I feel like AC/DC. And I normally don't go for metal.

 

Right now I'm taking a break from fanfiction writing. I have been taking that break for almost a year, to be serious. xD
But when I did write fanfiction back, what it feels like ages ago, I usually listen to a bit more modern music; hip pop, pop, yeah...You all got the idea.

 

Jedi Master Kenobiwan ...it was you who opened this thread.

 

Yup, five years ago, lol. My music tastes change almost every two years, lol.

 

Last week's playlist - mostly 2016 and 201yuck albums that I had missed, plus the first album in one artist's catalogue and one leak:

1. HAIM - Something to Tell You (201yuck)
2. Julia Michaels - Nervous System EP (201yuck)
3. Lorde - Melodrama (201yuck)
4. Frankie Rose - Cage Tropical (201yuck)
5. Greywind - Afterthoughts (201yuck)
6. Tobin Sprout - The Universe and Me (201yuck)
7. Taylor Swift - Reputation (201yuck)
8. Amy Shark - Night Thinker EP (201yuck)
9. Francesco Gabbani - Eternamente Ora (2016)
10. Francesco Gabbani - Magellano (201yuck)
11. Björk - Utopia (2018)
12. Boss Hog - Brood X (201yuck)
13. Francesco Gabbani - Greitist Iz (2014)

I need Boss Hog's Brood Star EP (2016) so badly.

This week's playlist - a mix of various things I missed recently and not-so-recently, the farewell album from this Catalan band that I didn't know existed until @Jordi hooked me up with it, and older stuff from an artist I listened to last week:

1. La Sera - Music For Listening to Music to (2016)
2. Antonia Font - Vostè és aquí (2012)
3. Descendents - Hypercaffium Spazzinate (2016)
4. Julia Michaels - Born to Party single (2010)
5. Julia Michaels - Futuristic EP (2012)
6. Katy Goodman and Greta Morgan - Take It, It's Yours (2016)
7. Lady Gaga - Joanne (2016)
8. Salvador Sobral - Excuse Me (2016)
9. Springtime Carnivore - Midnight Room (2016)
10. Jem - Beachwood Canyon (2016)
11. Blonde Redhead - 3 O'Clock EP (201yuck)
12. Alva Noto - Xerrox Vol.3 (2015)
13. of Montreal - Rune Husk EP (201yuck)

And this doesn't take into account stuff on constant rotation...

 

I've been listening to a trio of female DJs recently, starting with a Deborah De Luca playing at this beautiful French palace, but I think I have listened so often that the music has palled beyond the beat-ty first few minutes.

My current go-to artiste, is Candy Cox, playing at Happy Techno:

 

Looks like I have a second playlist for this week.

1. Alice Francis - St. James Ballroom (2012)
2. Alice Francis - Shoot Him Down single [Parov Stellar Versions] (2012)
3. Alice Francis - Gangsterlove single (2013)
4. Halsey - Room 93 EP (2014)
5. Halsey - BADLANDS (2015)
6. Halsey - Room 93: The Remixes (2015)
7. Halsey - Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (20yuck)
8. Best Coast - California Nights (2015)
9. Emma - Adesso (2015)
10. Katy Steele - Human (2016)
11. Katy Steele - Fire Me Up [non album-track] (2016)
12. Masquerade - The Sound of Masquerade (1984)
13. Youth Lagoon - Daydream (Perfect Lines Remix) (2011)
14. Youth Lagoon - Worms single (2014)
15. Youth Lagoon - Savage Hills Ballroom (2015)

I'm enjoying Halsey very much, especially those three remixes. And to think that I had downloaded her music accidentally when recommended Eisley...

 

Some stuff from my playlist for an action/adventure fic with the classic "why don't you dramatic idiots just tell each other how you feel" lol i didn't realize how eclectic my muse was until i wrote this out and realized there are power ballads and ariana grande christmas songs right next to indie synthpop

1. Beat Of My Drum -- Powers
2. Waves -- Electric Guest
3. Heavy -- Powers
4. Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now -- Starship
5. Santa Tell Me -- Ariana Grande
6. Addicted To A Memory -- Zedd
7. Home -- Dan Croll
8. I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) -- Whitney Houston
9. Pretender -- Miike Snow
10. Turning Into Stone -- Phantogram
11. I Know You're Out There Somewhere -- Moody Blues
12. Take On Me -- a-ha
13. Bad Romance -- Lady Gaga
14. Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

 

Yay, somebody replied, now I can post my fourth list.

And I have not listened to Phantogram in AGES.

1. Kristin Kontrol - X-Communicate (2016)
2. Kristin Kontrol - Concrete Love single (201x)
3. Nicky Wire - I Killed the Zeitgeist (2006)
4. Christina Stürmer - Seite an Seite (2016)
5. The Cranberries - Something Else (201x)
6. The Melismatics - Mania! (2012)
7. Train - A Girl a Bottle a Boat (201x)
8. The xx - I See You (201x)
9. The Waterboys - Modern Blues (2015)
10. The Strumbrellas - We Still Move on Dancefloors (2013)
11. The Strumbrellas - Hope (2016)
12. The Seahorses - Do It Yourself (1997)

+ whole discographies of Dolcenera and Pvris - so.good!

I wonder if I'll finally get into The xx. People keep on recommending them since, like, 2009, I never managed to see what the hype is all about. If it doesn't work this time, I'm deleting their stuff from my computer, LOL.

 

I remember The xx used to be on everyone's playlists. I really love the instrumental song, but their music always depresses me for some reason. lol

I'm creating a new Finn/Poe playlist of general songs that are not linked to any individual project but just general fanfic inspiration. I'm still working out the headspace necessary to write post-TLJ hurt/comfort, pining, making out in X-Wings, misunderstandings, etc etc. Very deep and intellectual fics, y'know!!

1. Sabotage/Home -- Kings Kaleidoscope
2. Space Cowboy -- Kacey Musgraves
3. Cut To The Feeling -- Carly Rae Jepsen
4. I Think We're Alone Now -- Tommy Jones & The Shondells
5. Thunder Clatter -- Wild Cub
6. Disparate Youth -- Santigold
7. Ways To Go -- Grouplove
8. Lost In Your Light -- Dua Lipa
9. Jealous (Ain't with it) -- Chromeo
10. Miracle Mile -- Cold War Kids
11. Out Of My League -- Fitz And The Tantrums

 

When I write Star Wars stuff I listen to the soundtracks from all the movies, but when I write battle scenes I listen to metal. When I write starfighter battles I listen to Night Witches, Aces In Exile, and Midway by Sabaton.

 

Strangely when I write space battles I listen to the BStar G soundtracks. When I can write the story I started when I met the wife and we had been dating a few months about our dating I listen to lots of varied stuff but always kick in some Alicia Keyes.

 

I used to listen to the Star Wars soundtracks. Over the years I noticed that it wasn't really inspiring for me. Now days I listen to a lot of Ed Sheeran when I write. Lots of Dire Straits and Cold Chisel. Occasionally I pop in the soundtrack to Ghost.

 

I can't listen to anything when I'm actually writing, but I like making playlists for brainstorming or getting in the mood to write. Stuff like my Finn/Poe one where it had certain themes in the lyrics, a beat and music that feels like the characters to me, and also songs that aren't associated with anything else for me. When I listen to that song, it only reminds me of that character or fic.