Playlists

Legionsynch · Aug 27, 2007

For those of you who listen to music while you write, what do you listen to? Do you have different playlists for different scenes, or do you put the same song on repeat? What kinds of music do you listen to?

My tastes seem to change from day to day, but the general playlists last for whole sections of the novel. The last novel, everything up until the last 10 thousand words was one playlist, and then I made a 'finale' playlist that's still on the computer.

I normally listen to a lot of rock anyway, but I always end up with a few songs that fit that I wouldn't normally listen to.

The Witch Eyes Playlist

Time is Running Out - Muse
Thnks Fr th mmrs - Fallout Boy
Surrender - Evanescence
Crawling in the Dark - Hoobastank
Frozen - Within Temptation
See Through - Megan McCauley
Because the Night - 10,000 Maniacs
And the Hero Will Drown - Story of the Year

What about you?

roskoebaby · Aug 27, 2007

Falling slowly-Once soundtrack
Fix you-Coldplay
This years love-David Grey
The Scientist-Coldplay

Put this on repeat and you have my first novel.

RitrChick · Aug 27, 2007

Ooh, fun thread, Legionsynch.

OK, for my first novel, I played a song from the 70's (Go All the Way by The Raspberries) along with Rob Thomas' Ever the Same over and over and over. Just those two. Oh, and once I finally found No More Cloudy Days by the Eagles, I tossed that in, too. And while my partials are out for that one, I catch myself playing Little Wonders by Rob Thomas a lot. :tongue

For my current WIP and my blog job, I use fun, fast music. My list:

When Did Your Heart Go Missing - Rooney
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
It Ends Tonight - The All-American Rejects
Middle of Nowhere - Hot Hot Heat
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Dirty Little Secret - The All-American Rejects

And for my co-WIP, our MC has a penchant for Michael Buble and 40's music.

Tres sophisticated, no?

Shady Lane · Aug 27, 2007

roskoebaby said:
Falling slowly-Once soundtrack
Fix you-Coldplay
This years love-David Grey
The Scientist-Coldplay

Put this on repeat and you have my first novel.

Falling slowly ghhhhhhhdroooool

Okay, for this book, it's:

"Zachary the Angel"--Kilroy (my MC's name is Zachary--"Welcome home/to the place/you were born/to be raised)

"Currents"--Dashboard Confessional ("If it is born in flames/then we should let it burn/burn as brightly as we can/and if it's gotta end/then let it end in flames/let it burn all the way down." Sweet.)

"Bigger Than by Body"--John Mayer ("Guess I'm grounded/got my wings clipped/I'm surrounded/by this pavement." They're growing wings in my book.)

"Griffin's Lullaby"--Kim Taylor (Other MC is named Griffin.)

"Spidersong"--Dashboard Confessional (I was listenting to this when I got the idea...I'm growing legs/I'm the spider, I'm the spider the boys grow extra fingers and call themselves spiders. So.)

Those are the main ones.

Shady Lane · Aug 27, 2007

RitrChick said:
Ooh, fun thread, Legionsynch.

OK, for my first novel, I played a song from the 70's (Go All the Way by The Raspberries) along with Rob Thomas' Ever the Same over and over and over. Just those two. Oh, and once I finally found No More Cloudy Days by the Eagles, I tossed that in, too. And while my partials are out for that one, I catch myself playing Little Wonders by Rob Thomas a lot.

For my current WIP and my blog job, I use fun, fast music. My list:

When Did Your Heart Go Missing - Rooney
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
It Ends Tonight - The All-American Rejects
Middle of Nowhere - Hot Hot Heat
Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Dirty Little Secret - The All-American Rejects

And for my co-WIP, our MC has a penchant for Michael Buble and 40's music. Tres sophisticated, no?

Rob Thomas is God and I actually cry a little bit when I hear him. Matchbox 20? Could I Be You? HELLo.

When Did your Heart Go Missing/It Ends Tonight/Dirty Little Secret?/ Good stuff.

And the Eagles??? I appreciate your taste.

OverTheHills&FarAway · Aug 27, 2007

Hmm...

I need melodic jam-type music that I know well, or just spacey music that fades into the background, like Pink Floyd. In fact, I have several albums that I pretty much listen to constantly in rotation while writing:

Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Summerteeth, Sky Blue Sky, Being There, A Ghost is Born, and Kicking Television by Wilco (or else, anything they ever did)
Mermaid Avenue 1 and 2 by Wilco and Billy Bragg
69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields
Abbey Road by The Beatles
39 Minutes of Bliss and Paper Tigers by the Caesars
anything by Neil Young
Badly Drawn Boy
Best Party Ever by Boy Least Likely To
anything by Belle and Sebastian (but mostly the Life Pursuit
Station to Station by David Bowie
The Moon and Antarctica and Good News by Modest Mouse
a smathering of New Order/Joy Division/Interpol/Sonic Youth/Echo and the Bunnymen type stuff
Talking Heads (Little Creatures!)
Strokes (very good for writing)
Black Holes and Revelations by Muse
Pinback (SO monotonous)
The Shins
Arthur, Lola Verses the Powerman, and Village Green by the Kinks
Who's Next and Tommy by the Who (especially the latter)
London Calling by the Clash
Cream is always good
so is Them
and the Animals
and Gerry and the Pacemakers
and Herman's Hermits
T-Rex's Electric Warrior and The Slider
Electric Light Orchestra (anything!)
The Stone's Exile on Main Street
pretty much anything Led Zeppelin did (especially III and Houses of the Holy)
Orange Rhyming Dictionary by Jets to Brazil
Radiohead
Killer's Hot Fuss
No Angel by Dido
Beck is nice
David Bowie is too
Nirvana's MTV unplugged for getting those juices flowing (creative ones, that is)
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins
The Marie Antoinette Soundtrack
Phantom of the Opera
Apples in Stereo's New Magnetic Wonder (yes!)
The Zombie's Odessey and Oracle
Black Sabbath's Paranoid
Cake
So Much For the City by The Thrills
The Cure
The Ronnettes and the Supremes and anything Motown
The Donkeys
Phantom Planet's the Guest
Franz Ferdinand
Wings
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
and, of course, Jefferson Airplane (anything from the woodstock era works for me, really)

That's pretty much it for writing.

Sage · Aug 27, 2007

Hee hee. Soundtracks. These are just my first two. Ever notice how some CDs just seem to correspond exactly to the story or character? But I like a variety in my music, so if, say, five songs from one artist seem to work, I try to pick the ones that work best (or that don't have a substitute by another artist). I don't have any music ready for my YA WIP, but my non-YA WIP has a lot of Ashlee Simpson that my MC is identifying with (funny, but she identified w/ Dido for the first novel). And I'm GMing a Buffy game, & one of my NPCs is channeling a lot of Michelle Branch (& a bit of Sarah McLachlan, Jason Mraz, & John Mayer along with other assorted songs). Anyway, here are my two completed YA soundtracks.

Euniq:

Coldplay - Speed of Sound
Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More to Life
Mulan - Reflection
Rod Stewart - Forever Young
lostprophets - Lucky You
3 Doors Down - Never Will I Break
Vertical Horizon - Children's Lullabye
Shinedown - All I Ever Wanted
Hoobastank - Better
Delerium - Euphoria (Firefly)
Green Day - Welcome to Paradise
Garbage - #1 Crush
Loreena McKennitt - Lullaby
Nickelback - Savin' Me
Lifehouse - Trying
Midtown - Give It Up
Switchfoot - Redemption
Vertical Horizon - Prayer for an Innocent Man
Sarah McLachlan - World is on Fire
Billy Joel - The Longest Time

Echoes of Silence:

Lifehouse - Cling and Clatter
Matchbox 20 - Bent
Green Day - Poprocks & Coke
Vertical Horizon - Echo
Nickelback - Just For
Lifehouse - Breathing
John Mayer - Love Song For No One
James Blunt - You're Beautiful (clean)
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Avril Lavigne - Things I'll Never Say
Yellowcard - Gifts & Curses
Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down
Alanis Morrisette - Wunderkind
Loreena McKennitt - Marrakesh Night Market
Ryan Cabrera - Let's Take Our Time
??? (from the show Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) - Emperor
Coldplay - Talk
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue
Delerium & Sarah McLachlan - Silence
Matchbox 20 - Mad Season
Gloria Estefan - Betcha Say That
America - You Can Do Magic
Loreena McKennitt - Full Circle
Evanescence - Everybody's Fool
Sarah McLachlan - Sweet Surrender
Switchfoot - On Fire
Megumi Ogata - Can't Go Back My Mission
Evanescence - Whisper
Coldplay - X&Y
Ryan Cabrera - Find Your Way
Clay Aiken - Shine
Gloria Estefan - Tres Deseos
Train - Something More
Breaking Benjamin - Forget It
Teddy Geiger - For You I Will (Confidence)

OverTheHills&FarAway · Aug 27, 2007

Hmm... I don't know a lot of those songs!!

But Echoes of Silence looks (sounds?) like one I'd like to read, based on the ones I do know!

Claudia Gray · Aug 27, 2007

I create a playlist for every novel I write, working with the mood until I get something that seems to work.

The Evernight playlist includes a lot of movie-score music, including scores from "Interview With a Vampire," "Pan's Labyrinth," "King Arthur" and "Sleepy Hollow." For pop music, I have:

"The First Taste," Fiona Apple
"The Glass Bead Game," Thievery Corporation
"Can't Get You Out of My Mind," Sonya Kitchell
"Rain," Madonna
"Winter, Fire and Snow," Anuna
"All I Do," Plus/Minus
"Angelica," Lamb
"Everybody Loves a Loser," Morcheeba
"Happy Everafter in Your Eyes," Ben Harper
"Falling Is Like This," Ani Difranco
"Everybody's Changing," Keane
"Hungry Heart," Minnie Driver
"Edge of the Ocean," Ivy
"Tiger, My Friend," Psapp
"Fumbling Toward Ecstasy," Sarah Maclachlan
"God Bless The Child," Billie Holiday
"Greensleeves," Loreena McKennitt
"See You in The Morning," Mint Royale
"Andromeda," Soulstice
"Every Time It Rains," Charlotte Martin
"Time After Time," Eva Cassidy

For the sequel, Stargazer, I used the same score music and different pop songs.

I find the playlists really help get me in the mood to write; better yet, I play them on the subway during my commute while I brainstorm, and I really think it helps!

RitrChick · Aug 27, 2007

Shady Lane said:
I appreciate your taste.

Why, thank you. Right back atcha!

Chalula88 · Aug 28, 2007

For The Protection of Sleep I listened to:

That I would be good - Alanis Morissette
Thank You - Alanis Morissette
Taking Over Me - Evanescence
Imaginary - Evanescence

For Subject Seven and I am listening to:

Hand in my pocket - Alanis Morissette
Simple Together - Alanis Morissette - This is one of my favorites for any novel that has a betrayal in it.
Mad World - Gary Jules

For The Muse I'm listening to:

Bring me to life - Evanescence
Hello - Evanescence
Going Under - Evanescence
Taking Over me - Evanescence
My Immortal - Evanescence

Yeah, the entire CD of Fallen applies to this so I LOVE to listen to that. I usually switch back and forth between Alanis Morissette and Evanescence because both the CD's have really rich lyrics.

For my own motivation I listen to:

The Middle - Jimmy Eat World Also known as It Just Takes Some Time

Harper K · Aug 28, 2007

OverTheHills&FarAway said:
Hmm...

I need melodic jam-type music that I know well, or just spacey music that fades into the background, like Pink Floyd. In fact, I have several albums that I pretty much listen to constantly in rotation while writing:
(snip)

Ah! I love your list! That could keep me writing for days. When I get home from my blasted day job, I'm definitely putting together a Magnetic Fields / Wilco playlist for my writing session tonight.

Harper K · Aug 28, 2007

I've had an ever-growing soundtrack for my novel since I began writing it last fall. I like to have it on CD so I can listen to it in my car, but I keep having to re-burn it because I keep adding new songs!

Every time I hear a song that fits, I know it right away. And it makes me really, immeasurably, stupidly excited. Like the one time earlier this year that I was in a store with my husband and the Postal Service's "Sleeping In" came on, and I practically yelled across the store, "Oh my God! THIS IS MY NOVEL'S SONG." Yesterday the new New Pornographers album came to me in the mail, and when I was about halfway through the first song, I turned to my dog (who was the only other being around at the time), and said, "THIS. Is the perfect song for the road trip scene in my novel!"

Sage · Aug 28, 2007

satori said:
Every time I hear a song that fits, I know it right away. And it makes me really, immeasurably, stupidly excited. Like the one time earlier this year that I was in a store with my husband and the Postal Service's "Sleeping In" came on, and I practically yelled across the store, "Oh my God! THIS IS MY NOVEL'S SONG." Yesterday the new New Pornographers album came to me in the mail, and when I was about halfway through the first song, I turned to my dog (who was the only other being around at the time), and said, "THIS. Is the perfect song for the road trip scene in my novel!"

I love finding the perfect song. I am so much a music person (possibly more than a book person), & the right song at the right point in a movie or television show can move me like nothing else... same for my own writing. I set up "temporary" cds for my novels until I know that both the novel & the cd are complete, & then I bother doing the labeling & taking care to use the good CDs (back before I had an iPod). The nice thing about the CDs, is that I can use them to enjoy the novel even when I'm doing something else. I might use it to inspire me to think about the novel while I'm still in the writing process, or to remember the good things about it when I'm feeling down about it. And yes, hearing a song on the radio that I used in the novel makes me stop & get all excited about it all over again, especially if it's not one that is played on the pop stations all the time (those rarely make it to the final cut of a soundtrack, but sometimes).

Danger Jane · Aug 28, 2007

Whatever I love to listen to normally. I'll go mostly alphabetically because well I have a photographic memory, and it comes up on my iPod alphabetically.

Azure Ray
Astrud Gilberto
Arcade Fire
Au Revoir Simone
Belle & Sebastian
Blue October
Broken Social Scene
Cake
Cream
Cary Brothers
Coldplay
The Cranberries
Citizens Here and Abroad
Damien Rice
Death Cab for Cutie
Dirty on Purpose
Don McLean
The Doobie Brothers
The Eagles
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Echo and the Bunnymen
Explosions in the Sky
The Flaming Lips

coming soon: other letters

I'm a music person more than a book person. I love a song, I get all the other songs by that artist, I read everything I can about them, I remember it.

OverTheHills&FarAway · Aug 28, 2007

(Okay, now to actually post along the lines of this thread)

After searching through approximately one billion notebooks, I finally found a list of songs that go with The Legend of Dinas Emrys. Thematically and musically. Whatever that means.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond--Pink Floyd
Orange Sky--Alexi Murdoch
Ohio--Crosby Still Nash and Young
Iris--Goo Goo Dolls
Ballad of the Boy Least Likely To--Boy Least Likely To
We Suck Young Blood--Radiohead
Munich--The Editors
Satin in a Coffin--Modest Mouse

Provrb1810meggy · Aug 28, 2007

I was listening to Corbin Bleu while I was writing in study hall.

Please don't throw things at me because I have lame, teenybopper taste in music.

Southern_girl29 · Aug 28, 2007

Provrb1810meggy said:
I was listening to Corbin Bleu while I was writing in study hall.

Please don't throw things at me because I have lame, teenybopper taste in music.

I wouldn't throw anything at you, because I like country and barely recognize some of the music that's been mentioned.

When I wrote my second (sort of the first actually) novel, I listened to The Eagles the entire time. I think it's because my MC was based loosely on my dad, who once told me that there was nothing better than cruising the backroads, listening to the Eagles and smoking pot. You just had to know my dad. He was an old hippie, up until the day he died. I think he even smoked pot a few days before he died. But, anyway, the Eagles music is the soundtrack of that book.

With this one, I just listened to my Ipod. It has the Eagles (of course), Alabama, some Matchbox 20, some old country like Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline (who is freakin' awesome), John Denver, some newer country like Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw.

ChimeraCreative · Aug 29, 2007

I'm surprised you don't have some Pearl Jam on your list OverTheHills&FarAway. ^_^ Your tastes seem to be in the same vein as Pearl Jam.

I routinely 'out myself' as a PJ fan on AW. ^_^ I listen to them when I'm typing my stories up.

-An

OverTheHills&FarAway · Aug 29, 2007

Um... he he. Well. There's probably a good reason I don't have Pearl Jam on my list.

Pearl Jam kinda bugs the crap out of me.

I'm sorry. I know they're a great band and all, and I'll listen to it without complaint if someone else wants to. But I kinda get the feeling he's trying to teach me something, with his songs.

U2 does the same thing (except for Sunday Bloody Sunday, which strangely is probably their most educational song that I know...)

Danger Jane · Aug 29, 2007

And onward through the alphabet we go:

Frank Sinatra
Gnarls Barkley
Gorillaz
The Grass Roots
Gwen Stefani
Hot Hot Heat
Imogen Heap
Imperial Teen
Ivy
Jason Mraz
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
JEFFERSON STARSHIP (selected songs/albums) (not we built this city)
Keane
Kings of Leon
The Kinks
LFO (techno, not the boy band)
The Like
MERCURY REV
Michael Andrews
Mindy Smith
MODEST MOUSE
Morcheeba
The Mountain Goats
Nena
New Radicals
Nina Simone
No Doubt
Oasis
Our Lady Peace
Phantom Planet
Pink Floyd
Placebo
Priscilla Ahn
The Proclaimers
The Psychedelic Furs
Queen
The Raconteurs
Radiohead
Rooney
Sarah McLachlan
Sia
Simon & Garfunkel
Snow Patrol
Sufjan Stevens
Starsailor
Spin Doctors
Sparklehorse
Spoon
Joy Division
The Submarines
T Rex
Switchfoot
Tears for Fears!
They Might Be Giants
Troubled Hubble
The Verve
Visage
Zoe Keating
Wolf Parade

ChimeraCreative · Aug 29, 2007

*still likes OverTheHills&FarAway despite askew Pearl Jam beliefs* Lotsa folks I talk to are turned off by the strong political views and 'preachiness' of the band. It happens eh?

-An

OverTheHills&FarAway · Aug 30, 2007

Hee hee. To each his (her?) own.

And what is strange, though I do get very turned-off by "preachiness" and political statements in music, generally (Green Day should go back to writing songs about jacking off, if you ask me. Sorry, Billie Joe, you're not John Lennon) I absolutely adore Bob Dylan. Got his poster over my bed, in fact.

Anything from the Woodstock era, really. Protest songs. I went through a long period (highschool) where I desperately tried to become a hippie (this was like, four years ago.) And, in my neck of the woods, where everyone gets Beemers and Hummers for their sixteenth birthday and lives in half-a-million to million-dollar-homes, a little flowy-skirted flower child sorta stands out walking across campus. Only the stoners understood. And they don't understand anything.

But yeah. How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? That transcends preaching, if you ask me.

Okay. Sorry. Gushing over.

How 'bout that writing, eh?

(Bob Dylan is not good for writing. All my words turn to half-baked poetry when I listen to him whiling trying to craft something...)

Sage · Sep 1, 2007

Whee! Another cd bails me out of the writing slumps. I was listening to Dar Williams' "Beauty of the Rain," a cd I listen to very rarely, especially compared to her other cds. Before now, there were three songs I really, really liked & all the rest I found completely boring. Not anymore. I was listening to a couple of the "boring" songs, & suddenly realized that they could easily work for my MC in HEVN SNT. Then I listened, possibly for the first time, to the words of the title track. OMG, it was the perfect image song for one of the major characters. I've been playing with the idea of giving him a bigger role in the book, but as soon as I heard this song, I knew exactly his role & it lit a fire under me. Yay!

Danger Jane · Sep 1, 2007

I'm a non-floaty-skirt-hippie, man.

I need me some CSN now. And I really want to listen to THE BOXER. Not like that's a problem...since I have it...

Playlists

roskoebaby

Rejoining the Butt in Chair Club

my name is hannah

my name is hannah

McNifico

Supreme Guessinator

McNifico

Rejoining the Butt in Chair Club

here's to the girl on the go

here's to the girl on the go

Supreme Guessinator

McNifico

Been there, Done that.

McNifico

Been there, Done that.

McNifico

Supreme Guessinator