An essay on the use of music Part II: Crush Dream Playlist/Soundtrack
I began to put Crush onto notebook paper sometime in August 2010...I'm so bad at keeping exact dates. How did I know what I was doing...randomly scribbling...would turn into what it turned into. Crush was originally intended to be nothing more than a writer's way of "venting". Crush began as a tragic, dark story that wouldn't get any better by the end. At that time, I'd entertained no plans to publish the story. I've been writing various renditions of novels for many years, but I had all but given up on my silly pipe dream of ever being published. Now,here I was, sick, injured, disabled, forced to give up nursing, penniless, forced to move in with family members I've never gotten on with. My healthcare career finished after only 16 years, I felt like I would die of depression or prescription drug overdose. I was in constant physical and emotional pain. I just felt worthless. So I began to write my short story.
But then something happened. I listened to my radio. Back then, I had no laptop to call my own. I would have to go to the public library downtown, wait in line to use a computer for 30 mins. per session, give it up for the next user, and then wait all over again for my next turn. That's hard for a writer who's got the whole chapter bubbling in her brain!
So the best creative output happened thus: I'd leave the library and return home to my computerless bedroom, and I'd write in notebooks while listening to 97.9 FM Fresno's Jammin' Oldies, a barrage of 50s soul, 70s disco and funk, 80s old school, 90s New Jack Swing, slow jams and hiphop, millenial rap battles and diva anthems, and 2010s top 40 by Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kelly Rowland, Lady Gaga, and others. Being a 40 year old fart, I couldn't really relate to what the Millenials were singing about, but I liked the melodies of many of their songs, like Teenage Dream, The Only Girl In The World, Bad Romance, Motivation and (gasp!) Sex Room by Ludacris and Trey Songz, the latter two of which ended up on my playlist because of the prettiness of the instrumentation and melody. Yeah, Sex Room is a raunchy ass song, but I still like the melody.
When I was not in the mood to listen to old school jammin' oldies, I liked to go to a left end station that played anything considered alternative from the current top 40, including 70s and 80s new wave hits that had been all but forgotten, neo-classical, transe, etc.
I managed to accomplish a feat previously unheard of for me: write the novel from Aug. 2010 to April 2011...8 months!!! before applying additions and edits over and over again until I met my UK publishers in March 2012. Needless to say, the music I had listened to during the shaping of Crush in my cerebral womb transformed it from a bleak, hopeless, sinister romance to a life affirming, triumphant story of good extinguishing evil and love destroying bigotry. The music I listened to while penning my novel Crush will forever be a part of Crush, so without further tangentism, let's talk about those songs in my next blog post, yeah? :)
But then something happened. I listened to my radio. Back then, I had no laptop to call my own. I would have to go to the public library downtown, wait in line to use a computer for 30 mins. per session, give it up for the next user, and then wait all over again for my next turn. That's hard for a writer who's got the whole chapter bubbling in her brain!
So the best creative output happened thus: I'd leave the library and return home to my computerless bedroom, and I'd write in notebooks while listening to 97.9 FM Fresno's Jammin' Oldies, a barrage of 50s soul, 70s disco and funk, 80s old school, 90s New Jack Swing, slow jams and hiphop, millenial rap battles and diva anthems, and 2010s top 40 by Rihanna, Katy Perry, Kelly Rowland, Lady Gaga, and others. Being a 40 year old fart, I couldn't really relate to what the Millenials were singing about, but I liked the melodies of many of their songs, like Teenage Dream, The Only Girl In The World, Bad Romance, Motivation and (gasp!) Sex Room by Ludacris and Trey Songz, the latter two of which ended up on my playlist because of the prettiness of the instrumentation and melody. Yeah, Sex Room is a raunchy ass song, but I still like the melody.
When I was not in the mood to listen to old school jammin' oldies, I liked to go to a left end station that played anything considered alternative from the current top 40, including 70s and 80s new wave hits that had been all but forgotten, neo-classical, transe, etc.
I managed to accomplish a feat previously unheard of for me: write the novel from Aug. 2010 to April 2011...8 months!!! before applying additions and edits over and over again until I met my UK publishers in March 2012. Needless to say, the music I had listened to during the shaping of Crush in my cerebral womb transformed it from a bleak, hopeless, sinister romance to a life affirming, triumphant story of good extinguishing evil and love destroying bigotry. The music I listened to while penning my novel Crush will forever be a part of Crush, so without further tangentism, let's talk about those songs in my next blog post, yeah? :)
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