Words and Music

Music: the most popular facet of the arts, with the possible exception of cinema.  It is also potentially the most commercially viable, the most subjective and at times the most hotly contested.  It is also the most versatile, not only in terms of genre and sub-genre, arrangement, et cetera, but also in terms of context and application, be it as a soundtrack to a movie or television show, advertising jingle (okay, bad example!), or something to listen to during times of labour or recreation, even passion, or indeed while drawing, painting, sculpting or writing.

Naturally, personal tastes vary, ditto the personal significance for each person.  When his schedule allowed, my father liked to sketch, his inspiration fuelled by airs composed by the likes of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi.  Some writers also swear by classical music, such as Isobelle Carmody and James Ellroy, the latter being a huge fan of Beethoven.  Stephen King, on the other hand, seems to be more eclectic (according to one account I read, he even listened to Eminem!).  Whether it's because classical music tends to be unfettered by words I'm not sure, but if it works, it works.

For me personally, it depends on where I'm at, but it's often as much about getting into the right headspace, the right mindset, feeding the inspiration.  

As much of my fiction has been set in mid-twentieth century America I've sought out music from that era to help immerse myself in that given time.   For example with my first novel Breaking Point I indulged in a fair bit of The Inkspots, Billie Holliday, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and whatever else people might have listened to in New York in 1943-44, while with my current project, which is set predominantly in the South in 1929-34 I've been getting right into a rich and broad pallet of pop, jazz and folk music (including blues and country) from the 1920s and early '30s including artists as diverse as Duke Ellington, Rudy Vallee, Josephine Baker and The Carter Family.  Again, it's part of immersing myself into the era I'm writing about, even picking out a good song to help flesh out and add colour to and even echo the context of a given scene (or even the entire narrative), getting myself into that headspace (though I doubt I'd do it if I didn't enjoy it).

Having said all that, I have written certain stories or even parts while listening to music which may have been totally anachronistic but helped put me in the right headspace.  For example, when writing the crucial murder scene in Breaking Point I was listening to The End by The Doors - a tad anachronistic I know but it fit because let's face it, it's a rather violent song therefore fitting given that I was writing a decidedly violent scene (though I had All Or Nothing At All by Frank Sinatra playing in that particular scene).  I've also gotten a fair bit of mileage out of Johnny Cash's Murder compilation while writing various crime shorts and even longer projects.  Anachronistic or not, if it feels appropriate and helps with the headspace or at least the inspiration it's completely appropriate.

So, to all of you writers and artists out there, what makes up the soundtrack to your creative pursuits?