I've been keeping my playlists under spoiler tags (until i can add a proper music player to my profile lol). Here's some examples:
Iri Desa:
Awia (Mostly Noise/Noisy stuffs)
Radical Darling
I can't believe I haven't seen this thread before, honestly!
A lot of us have associated theme songs or playlists for our characters, relationships, or stories-- show off your favorites here!
How do you choose songs? Do you pick songs whose lyrics fit the character, songs the character might listen to, songs whose feel reminds you of them-- or other reasons? I'd love to hear your thought process!
Threads that can help you find songs for your characters:
I forgot to post here whoops-
Anyways, only Isabelle and Ismaël have playlists for now c: I mainly use lyricless music for them (ie. video game OST/remixes) because of my personal preferences in music, haha! Isabelle has some songs but that's it.
Most of my other characters only have one or two assigned themes, but some might get a playlist in the future if I come across more themes that reminds me of them.
Lmao I have a few playlists for my characters. I built them up over a year or so - they're kinda full of a mix of things. I try to keep it all relevant to their story and personality. They're not really thematically cohesive though lol. I use it for writing inspiration. Almost all of them are lyric based.
Sylveste's is a mix of love songs and some more aggressive. I tried to include songs that had violin for most of his
Atlas's is more melodic and wandering kind of like he is. Love songs in this one as well lol. Mostly lyrical.
Elias's is a mix of instrumental and lyrical - tried to have a sci-fi/existential crisis theme
How do you choose songs? Do you pick songs whose lyrics fit the character, songs the character might listen to, songs whose feel reminds you of them-- or other reasons?
Yes, yes, and yes.
I tend to combine in my playlist songs that describe the character AND that describe their setting. Anything that, for any reason, reminds me of them. The purpose of a character playlist is for me to both organize songs that chime with me and to get some music which would help me quickly get into the right mindset for roleplays.
Is it in a genre that my character likes (and doesn't make my ears bleed)? Off to the playlist! Does the tone remind me of the settings' era or culture? Playlist! Fitting lyrics? Playlist! Lyrics that DON'T fit but have these couple of itty-bitty keywords in it that remind you of the character anyhow? Guess where does go - that's right, playlist again!
This here for example was for an old roleplay series featuring Nimue Jakande. Nimue is into softer indie rock, poprock, some electronic music, stuff like Owl City, Avicii. Fall Out Boy, All Time Low, anything that felt upbeat like that.
When it comes to lyrics actually describing Nimue and the events surrounding her then there's stuff like The Chainsmokers - Something just like this (which I imagine to be from the POV of her comicbook fan of a boyfriend, and easing his insecurities regarding him being "merely" a regular human), Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare (for when you lose hope and accidentally make a deal which turns you into a monster), Fireflight - Unbreakable (which I imagine as the background music for marching into the villains' lair for the final battle, having grown stronger after the repeated setbacks, pain and beatdowns).
And the latter category - songs that don't actually fit but remind me of the game anyhow due to the right wording - is occupied by stuff such as Blind Guardian - Brighteyes (the main villain was literally a divine guardian who was blind and my character earned the media moniker "Brighteyes" due to her glowy eyes (a trait shared with the aforementioned main villain). Plus the song is badass) and Keane - Somewhere only we know (which just speaks to the themes of homesickness and nostalgia present in that roleplay).
Hm, this is getting into a bit of a wall of text, sorry. I don't actually expect people to read it, I just enjoy writing this stuff. I'll do one more character. :D
Another playlist following similar patterns is the one for Henry Newman/Julia Wright. The roleplay was eventually christened Finstarnessi but the playlist retains its' original name of Queernoir (because it started out as a detective story pertaining both to LGBT matters in the 1940s and general supernatural weirdness, see). All the jazz and swing are things that my character genuinely likes. The electro swing is a compromise between hir taste in music and mine. Lyrics that describe hir and what happen to hir would be stuff like Holly Miranda - All I want is to be your girl (which I imagine fits PERFECTLY towards hir love interest Melodie Ashen, back when s/he was still deeply smitten by her. Even the start of the video (first 24 seconds or so) seems to allude to hir particular...talents), Irving Kaufman - Masculine women, feminine men (which overlaps with stuff s/he'd listen to in-universe - I think s/he jokingly thought of it as hir theme tune at the start of the roleplay) and Heilung - Krigsgaldr (hir theme tune in the roleplay at the current point in time. That moment when you end up transported to a medfant setting, being forced to head a civil war for six years. The english part of the lyrics perfectly encapsulate hir faction, The Red Pawn, turning from a beacon of civil rights into the instigators of a bloodbath, and the chain of revenge thus created between the two sides).
As for general feeling/only a-few-code-words-match type of songs - anything there by Garbage ("Queer" and "Androgyny", because of the titles) and anything there by Cigarettes After Sex (the singer has such a lovely, sensual, androgynous voice that I'm using him as a sort of voice-claim for Julia). Oh, and the Iron Sky theme tune, because 1940s and Julia is german and witnessed The Blitz and the song is badass.
Artifex I think has the most extensive playlist. I've found a bunch of songs that fit her story or just kinda sound like her personality, lol. Some of it is just kinda word play to, like I used to be crazy active in Flight Rising, and the brightest green you can get on a dragon in FR is called Radioactive. Therefore, Artifex's first song is Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, lol! And then Born to Run by American Authors is a given I mean that's what it says in her bio! And the quote "But I've read this script and the costume fits, so I'll play my part" from the lumineers is literally how I go about life, and since she's my sona... *shrugs*
Meh, here it all is.
American Authors - I'm Born To Run