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Theme Music for Your Story

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Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#1: Apr 24th 2011 at 3:10:45 PM

What theme music do you have in mind for your story? If you are musically inclined, describe or post your music. If not, identity a currently established soundtrack or song that captures the overall tone of your story.

This obviously isn't restricted to media that would normally use a soundtrack such as a television show or a video game. My story exists in the form of a novel, but I still have particular tunes in mind for the kind of mood and atmosphere I'm creating.

And this should go without saying, but be wary of copyright laws if you're going to post your song or another person's song, especially the latter.

Also, very briefly describe your story so we can get an appropriate context between the narrative and the soundtrack.

My novel is a work of espionage/military science fiction that involves issues regarding states of consciousness and self-awareness, the relationship between sex and violence, and the nature of how personal bonds are created and destroyed.

My song of choice is "He Films the Clouds Part 2" by the band Maybeshewill because it captures the tribulations and Pyrrhic victories the characters experience.

gentlemanorcus from Virginia Since: Feb, 2010
#2: Apr 24th 2011 at 9:00:40 PM

"Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who. My story is pretty much a tale of a bunch of people who could be considered villains and why they became that way.

Full picture here.◊ Drawn by Saemus!
Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#3: Apr 24th 2011 at 9:15:31 PM

[up]Great song. I can picture the story in my head just from what you've described.

annebeeche watching down on us from by the long tidal river Since: Nov, 2010
watching down on us
#4: Apr 24th 2011 at 10:55:57 PM

Project One Fifty Four is closely linked to Depeche Mode for some reason. A lot of their music *

describes either Jack Clive or the story's tone very well, and even the chorus of Freestate matches the theme of Project One Fifty-Four beautifully. This is unusual because I normally consider lyrics and music to be completely different things and thus rarely pay attention to song lyrics for their literary/poetic value alongside their music.

The setting of Project One Fifty Four (2040's) happens to have a popular style of music called stomp (it's basically a form of electronic industrial), which is somewhat similar to Depeche Mode's style.

Step out of your cage and onto the stage
It's time to start playing your part
Freedom awaits
Open the gates
Open your mind
Freedom's a state

EDIT: Also, why is this in world building? Unless we're actually discussing styles of music we've created for our settings, this belongs in Writers Block.

edited 24th Apr '11 10:58:49 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#5: Apr 24th 2011 at 11:28:39 PM

Different scenes in my story would have different theme music - enough for a lengthy soundtrack, possibly a 4 CD set...

I'm a bit stumped as to the opening theme which encapsulates the story, though.

Aprilla Since: Aug, 2010
#6: Apr 25th 2011 at 1:17:03 AM

I may be mistaken, but I put this is World Building because the music we've contemplated for a our stories, original or otherwise, is a constructive element that potentially contributes to narration, character development, plot, setting, etc. I didn't find it appropriate for Writer's Block because it's not really something that requires a critique regarding developmental issues, and I personally don't see the subject matter being much different from the various discussions about fantastical races, magic types, environments and clever names for comic relief characters. I'm not dead-set on having it here, but World Building seems to be the right place from what I can tell.

Wheezy @TheCSJones on everything else. from West Philadelphia, but not born or raised. (Elder Troper) Relationship Status: How does it feel to treat me like you do?
@TheCSJones on everything else.
#7: Apr 25th 2011 at 4:28:33 PM

This.

The story is about an Occidental Otaku who gets lost in her own Dream World, where she's the reality-warping monarch of an RPG Verse.

Runner-up.

Here's one for the project I have planned after this one, which is wildly different.

It's pretty much a deconstruction of the Vigilante Man genre.

edited 25th Apr '11 4:33:50 PM by Wheezy

Novel progress: The Adroan, 110k; Yume no Hime, 98k; The Pigeon Witch, on pause at 40k.
HistoryMaker Since: Oct, 2010
#8: Apr 25th 2011 at 4:53:36 PM

Well, just the other day I heard Handlebars by Flobots for the first time in a long time (and immediately downloaded it because it’s awesome). Anyway I could totally see the first (chronological) half of my work as a music video set to that song.

My work is a Just Before the End / After the End story precipitated by a plague.

If my book ever becomes a movie I’m totally making that video!

Other than that, I tend to associate most of my charters and storylines w/ songs.

For example: Tango: Jumper (Third Eye Blind)

Tango/Athena: Hey Soul Sister, If it’s Love (Train)

Athena: Ke$ha, Pink

Ace: The Fray

Julian (the Kid): Ice Ice Baby (Vanilla Ice)

Etc, etc, etc

Also Kryptonite (3 Doors Down) works for many of my characters as most of them are on the edge of madness and trying to be someone’s superhero.

edited 25th Apr '11 4:56:21 PM by HistoryMaker

Takwin Polite smartass. from R'lyeh Since: Feb, 2010
Polite smartass.
#9: Apr 25th 2011 at 7:24:00 PM

Funny story; my post apocalyptic story (which still needs a name,) was spawned from a painting I did listening to a Gorillaz song, "O Green World" on more or less continuous loop. I think it set the tone for the entire story.

I've returned from the depths to continue politely irritating the good people of Tv Tropes.(◕‿◕✿)
AcesoldierZero Acesoldier Zero from Vicenza, Italy Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: I wanna know about these strangers like me
#10: Apr 25th 2011 at 10:19:06 PM

Geez. I have what could be unofficial soundtracks for some of my stories. I basically do a lot of my writing with music I listen to, so even if the song itself could not be used, it generally tries to convey the character or the feeling of the scene in mind.

One of my Pokemon fanfics has a story and characters loosely inspired by Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai, so I generally write it with hip-hop in mind. I have no actual idea what people in universe would listen to, so I want to try to avoid dropping in music from the real world aside from the occasional Shout-Out, however.

An original story I am writing am working involves a warring family of gods and a human Big Bad, so I developed a few characters with different songs in mind:

  • Diablo is a huge fan of rap music in universe. If I had to give him a real-world Leitmotif, it would probably have to be Seven by Army of the Pharaohs, but when I thought of his introduction, I was thinking of Eminem's Remember Me?.
  • El is still undecided, but he has some type of hard rock/heavy metal theme, preferably one with an Epic Riff.
  • Ba'al Hadad - I'm actually doing some research into ancient Hebrew/Sumerian music right now, because Hadad(who was the Biblical Ba'al) is very much a Fish out of Temporal Water in my story.

https://soundcloud.com/rich-justice-hinmen Too white for the black kids, too white for the white kids.
Nomic Exitus Acta Probat from beyond the Void Since: Jan, 2001
Exitus Acta Probat
#11: Apr 26th 2011 at 1:03:01 AM

While I quite often think of what music would fit my stories, I rarely think of specific songs. The Big Bad of Forgotten Lore has background music in the story, played by his minions. For some reason I've always imagined it to sound like the chorus part of "Prince Ali" from Disney's Aladdin, except played with flutes at much higher pitch and tempo. The music for Zaran il Legio varies from military marches to sounding vaguely like Russian folk music to sounding like the theme from Luigi's Mansion.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#12: Apr 26th 2011 at 6:10:29 AM

In short:

edited 26th Apr '11 6:23:52 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
FrodoGoofballCoTV from Colorado, USA Since: Jan, 2001
#13: Apr 26th 2011 at 9:06:44 PM

Hmmm...

edited 26th Apr '11 9:10:59 PM by FrodoGoofballCoTV

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