Books with soundtracks?

It's one of the things that took me out of Wicked Lovely and kept me from enjoying it. The playlist/soundtrack listed in the back struck me as a cool touch, but referencing specific songs in text didn't really fit for me.

The same actually went for If I Stay, though not as badly since many of the characters were musicians.

The only book I've read recently where it did fit was Five Flavors of Dumb, but that's a contemporary about music and it focused on legendary Seattle bands (because of the setting).

I usually ignore the song references if they are songs I don't know. And it annoys me if the music isn't central to the plot. But when it is important to the plot/character - ie, After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson - then it can work well.

A recent book with a lot of song/artist references that worked really well for me because it was central to the plot was last year's Sister Mischief, by Laura Goode.

~suki

I could list off about ten albums that directly influenced my book. I listened to them all the time while writing it -- kind of my inspiration/mood music. Sometimes I'd even start a chapter with a lyric at the top that inspired it. But I took it all out once the chapter was written. I feel like people's musical tastes are so varied that it's not fair to impose your own preferences on them. They're going to see it how they want to, and if they don't share your taste it's actually going to work against you. I feel like it's something you could suggest outside of the book, like maybe in a blog post about what inspired you. I can only imagine a lot of people would be interested in that kind of info, but I think it's unfair to do it inside the book.

If your plot is directly influenced by a specific song, that could be different. I think it's when you tell your reader what they should be hearing in their head while they read your book that you start to stray into preachy territory.

Having said all that, I do still fantasize about my book being made into a movie and them letting me hand-select the entire soundtrack

This thread is interesting to me, because at some point in volume 2 of my series, i am going to have my MC pick up an iPod with a playlist on it titled her name, and her open it and browse through the songs, all of them with meaning. But i think i'm only going to name the one she opens and listens to, which I found great inspiration from while writing many of their scenes together.

Also, as bonus material, i think i'll compose the full soundtrack and post it. In hopes that some other music lovers will find it interesting, and maybe even look up the songs and listen to them, to relate further with the characters.

John Green and David Levithan collab novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson referenced a lot of music, particularly Neutral Milk Hotel's cult classic album In an Aeroplane Over the Sea. I loved it because it got me into a seriously awesome band.

suki said:

A recent book with a lot of song/artist references that worked really well for me because it was central to the plot was last year's Sister Mischief, by Laura Goode.

~suki

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Oh yeah! I only knew about a third of those references, but it didn't bother me. What an awesome book! I loved all the MC's rap songs--the author is a poet so she was totally workin it. In general I think dropping lots of music references works if a) they aren't necessary to understand the scenes and b) they add extra bonus goodness if the reader actually does knew them.

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist is another one.

Becca C. said:

John Green and David Levithan collab novel Will Grayson, Will Grayson referenced a lot of music, particularly Neutral Milk Hotel's cult classic album In an Aeroplane Over the Sea. I loved it because it got me into a seriously awesome band.

Click to expand...

ROFL! Aaaaaaaand over here, I was 99% sure that was a made-up band (like "Where's Fluffy?" in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist--another good book full of music references it is not necessary to get. Also Kat Dennings is super hot. Excuse my derail but it needed to be said.)

I try to make all musical/TV/Movie references pertain to the narrative. Example: In Whispering Willows, my MC and her LI are trying to find common ground when it comes to their tastes in music. Even then I only reference bands that have had staying power over the years.

Just Listen and This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen does a really good job of balancing it.

Not a fan personally. I think it has potential to seriously date a book. Some songs are classics that will always be instantly recognisable and playing in someone's head as soon as they read the song title of course, but a lot of the songs we're listening to today won't be memorable in 5 years' time. Especially in the YA market where the 14yo reading it was 9 when the songs were hits. A song title that the reader doesn't recognise will be meaningless to them (or even alienating because they'll think they're missing out on something), and youtubing it while reading would be a distraction taking them out of the story, I think. Songs that aren't classics may be old hat even by the time a book comes out after the year between contract and release.

Putting a playlist on the book's page on your website is a better way to go imo.