Playlists for Prose

[Kristen]

Okay, so, fun fact about me: I love music. I pretty much always have some sort of background noise playing in everything I do. When it comes to songs, I tend to focus a lot on the lyrics. Maybe it's only natural that songs that feel emotional to me would remind me of some of my more emotional--or at least more memorable--reads.

Knowing that tons of authors create their own playlists for inspiration, I'm sure I'm not the only reader that has songs that make me think of books. Basically, I started this thread because I want to know how many others do this same thing. And, if you do it too, if you're willing to share some of your song-book combinations.

One that's been sticking with me a lot recently "Drag the Lake" by The Amity Affliction. (Friendly warning that it does contain some fouler language.) It reminds me a lot of Sadie, in both a literal since and a metaphorical sense.

Anybody else have songs that never fail to make them think of a particular book?

[Elvia]

I LOVE this question, Kristen! But my answer is not exactly answering the question because I can't say a song originated the connection between the said song and a book. . .

A lot of the time, the book I read, particularly I'm realizing now in the m/m romance books genre (i.e romance novels that focus on a male/male relationship), will mention a song in the story that will have me pause my book and rush to find the song in Spotify and add it to my library. So of course, any time a song comes on I think of that particular book or scene or series. It has introduced me to a lot of songs and artists that I would not have heard of had that author not included them in their prose.

Example include:

MIKA - Emily in Heidi Cullinan's Enjoy the Dance

Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright in the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon

Red Light Spells Danger - Billy Ocean in The Mysterious and Amazing Blue Billings

[Kristen]

Elvia wrote: "... will mention a song in the story that will have me pause my book and rush to find the song in Spotify and add it to my library. So of course, any time a song comes on I think of that particular book or scene or series. It has introduced me to a lot of songs and artists that I would not have heard of had that author not included them in their prose."

Ooh idea! I might have to start a "this reminds me of books" playlist on Spotify for myself! If I really love a book that mentions a song or has a printed playlist curated by the author, I like to give it a little listen. I've found some of my favorite songs this way, too!

[Elvia]

Your thread also reminds me of a type of fanfiction called songfic! I don't really see much songfic these days but back in the aughts, I'd run into a lot of fanfiction that was inspired by a song. For example, I recall an Inuyasha songfic, that broke down the Inuyasha/Kagome relationship through Alanis Morissette's song Not the Doctor. Now I honestly didn't care for the story in the songfic itself, but I still hold Not the Doctor near and dear because of it. xD

[Christine]

I have several songs that remind me of books because the book title contains similar wording to lyrics from the song. This week, I finished listening to Lucas Rocha's Where We Go From Here. Whenever I read the title, I thought of the lyrics from the Guns N' Roses song "Sweet Child O' Mine". Karen McManus's Two Can Keep a Secret always reminds me of the Pretty Little Liars theme song.