Book Playlists

I’ve seen a trend in ‘book playlists’ especially when it comes to self-published authors. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying its a bad thing – just that’s it is a curious thing. Even with the GUTGAA meet and greet I just did they asked if we listen to music when we write. That in itself suggests that possibly every book could have a playlist.

I personally prefer to listen to music when I write. Although, standard is more that I am listing to my kids bicker and fight when I write. But I also don’t make a playlist. Well at least not specifically. I never really saw the need. I can turn on my phone or search for specific songs on you tube if needed. But mostly its just the radio. When I do get a chance to listen to music I listen to IHeartRadio, and no I am not getting paid to write this. I used to listen to pandora, and sometimes I still do, but mostly its just I HeartRadio. I love the radio station feature. I listen to the oldies station all the time.

In fact, for Kiss of Fire, I think a good 40% of that book was written to the oldies station. And a lot of that shines through when you read it. And no, its not just in characterization, but in pacing and moods as well. That’s probably why the majority of writers chose to write to music – to help them set a pace, or mood. This becomes specifically true in any scene involving a heavy emotion. Love, anxiety, fear, suspense… they all play better with music.

That’s why movies have soundtracks.

Which brings us back to our original topic and its adjoining question. Should books have soundtracks? For me, I’m not sure. A book sound track almost seems to say ‘I don’t trust my writing enough to know that you will read the emotion I am trying to put into it.’ Isn’t that just selling yourself short a bit?

Lets look at a fight scene. Fight scenes can be full of all sorts of emotion, ups downs, suspense, it all depends on how they are written. You add a song to that and it changes it completely. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. The last fight scene I wrote, I wrote while listening to The Prodigy. Its an old group, I used to listen to their music while I played computer games until 3 in the morning. This was back in the days of dial up. I knew their music and I knew it embodied the mood I was going for. But mid fight something changes, fighting stops, emotion rages.  The mood in the story changes from fear and anxiety to heart break and loss. If I was still listening to The Prodigy or the reader was for that matter, the emotion of the scene would be lost.

That’s why movie soundtracks work. You can write music that changes and flows and swells in regards to whats happening. If you give a reader a playlist, they may end up listening to The Prodigy’s Firestarter when someone is dying. That doesn’t bode well.

Every once in a while you may get lucky and come across a piece of music that is pure gold. It embodies everything, its perfect. Kronos Quartet is one of those pieces.

Most instrumental is in fact. But who wants to listen to random instrumental while they read? Not many that’s for sure. I’ll probably share specific songs for specific scenes, but a whole playlist? Probably not.