i eventually want to have playlists for all my ocs; most of em at least have a theme song linked on their profile, but i'll share the couple that i consider to be done. they're really just a mess of songs that remind me of my ocs either in aesthetic or tone or lyrics that don't really fit together at all, but i like to have them to listen to when drawing/writing about that oc in particular.
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:
He has no proper playlist but after a year of using him regularly in a FGO theme RP group, he has now accumulated several songs that fit his backstory/events that he went through. Gonna use the spoiler again cuz the number of songs and explanation of why i chose it / what the song reflects will be super long.
- Путь (Put’ - the way / Eng translated lyric) :: I feel the lyric of this song symbolized the event in his past life, particularly the ‘vision’ he had in connection to Christian God prior to the battle against Maxentius to control Rome. From what historical record says, this ‘vision’ was what greatly lifted up the morale of his army and they at last prevailed over their opponents. They considered him the bearer of the Christian flag that led Christianity from a persecuted minority to a ruling class within the Roman Empire.
- Орел (Oryol - eagle / Eng translated lyric) :: When Mstislav and Yaroslav first met him by chance after he was being summoned, they instantly decided to look up to him, innocently believing he would retain the saintly quality they heard so much about growing up as the first generation of Kievan Rus’ nobles to adhere Christianity. To them, he’s like a glorious and wise eagle (after all, he’s the founder of Constantinople which became the Byzantine Empire and the eagle was Byzantine’s imperial symbol) and they believed following him will lead them closer to heaven.
- M2U - Placebo Dying :: Kinda reflecting the sensation when one finally realizes he’s not the ‘Constantine the Great’ they expect (as a flawless saint). How he exploits that admiration and trust, deceiving unsuspected believers to serve his cause. How in his eyes, they’re all worthless pawns that can be discarded whenever he feels they no longer have any use for him. The realization that he always wears a mask, posing a saint but ultimately, the most heartless person who cares very little for others if not for that benefit he can gain from them. This song represents the event when he lured his team (Dyugur, Mstislav, Yaroslav and Igor) to fight a horde of monsters said to be somewhat immortal and cannot be killed by humans.
- Голуби (Golubi - pigeons / Eng translated lyric) :: In AD 337, he passed away while trying to return to Constantinople after becoming ill during a voyage to his mother’s birthplace. In an event within the RP group he belonged to, he got a chance to return to Constantinople again, albeit in AD 185 when the city was still Byzantium. In a way, it’s like his ‘soul’ finally got the chance to complete the last thing he hoped for in the previous life.
- False King :: Although he’s a fragment from the real Constantine the Great materializing as a servant, he’s quite different from what people expect of him. For centuries, due to his order, only historical records that glorified him passed down as ‘official’ records in the Roman Empire. Thus no one aware of his cruelty and the questionable side until just a couple of centuries ago. Even so, when people hear his name, they immediately think of a selfless and revered saint. This avenger materialization proved to be the opposite of that impression, yet rightfully carrying the same name and exploiting that fame as a saint for his own benefits.
- 2CELLOS - Game of Thrones :: Super cliche but nothing else fits his quest to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire after the era when the empire broke into four fragments better than this. :’D Especially consider most of the main rivals who posed as the obstacle to him during the power struggles related to him in some way; his father-in-law and two brother-in-laws - in the end, he even killed his second wife, oldest son from his first wife and a nephew who is the son of his later opponent.
- Мельница — Невеста Полоза (Nevesta Poloza - A Bride for Poloz / Eng translated lyric) :: As mentioned above, one of the brother-in-laws he eventually killed was once a co-emperor who ruled the eastern portion of Roman Empire at the time. In order to guarantee his own safety by allying with that man, he sent one of his younger half-sisters to marry this guy. Eventually years later they grew hostile and wars broke between them. When he won, he captured the brother-in-law, at first merely imprisoned him while seizing all power in his hand. Later, he accused him of plotting his assassination and thus used that excuse to execute him and along with his son, which drove his own half-sister emotionally wrecked. This song can also represent his own relationship with his second wife whom he eventually killed, after he killed both her father and brother (the other brother-in-law) prior to his half-sister’s husband. The Poloz/snake here can either symbolize the man he sent his half-sister to marry, or his own self for the cruelty he did to both his half-sister and second wife.
Blue (Blue Goldstone) and Katherine (Daddy's little sunshine girl) are my only characters with playlists!
Ooooh I love such stuff! I always choose music that fits the general mood of a character, music gives another level of feeling to characters imo. Sometimes it's the music and sometimes it's the lyrics that literally describe the character (so there are german songs in my playlists, sorry...). I did 3 Playlists so far on spotify, feel free to follow them, because sometimes I add more songs.
Hyadriil's Playlist: Gods are gonna cut you down
Yazzar's Playlist: Freedom is an illusion
Nys' Playlist: Smells like bloodstained spirit
My OCs Cam and Sir’s playlist!
It mainly has stuff Sir listens to, cause Cam doesn’t really have a taste for anything he doesn’t play. Also all the songs by the band ‘Empires’, the singer is Sir’s voice claim! He’s got SUCH a nice voice I’m d e a d.
It’s also got a few oddball songs I want to animate too, and I need to add more, but it has Hozier and some 70s/80s music!
all of these songs are ones that he'd cover or be made into covers w/ his nonexistent voicebank :"^) one song is from his voice claim, who kinda inspired me to make him in the first place! i love all of these songs and they all slap :"^y i'm also thinking of making designs for any "append" versions of him, so some of the tracks serve as inspo:
- original (a majority of the songs in here, actually)
- power/kire
- soft uwu
- dark/mature
- text to speech? :O (think otomachi una talk ex)
a lot of vocaloid/utau voicebanks have different versions made for different effects/genres, so i want to implement this w/ alexei!
I have many OC playlists but I’m not at home right now so I don’t really have the time or resources to share all of them... you can see one of my longest OC playlists though!
One built right into her profile (but not a playlist play list, still working on that though, will update when I have it)
Edit: I have one for her, Aris and Tanzanite (working on Luciel and Shade) Thanks to Graffiti on this thread for showing me the website
Since my primary OCs' moodboards are pretty much finished, building playlists has become my new fav way to explore their vibes. I usually pick a particular feeling I want the playlist to have and try to stick with that; better yet if I can craft something that sort of tells a story when you listen to it through w/o shuffle. Overall, lyrical meaning isn't as important to me as how the song makes me feel, but I do tend to avoid things like overtly romantic or romance-related tracks, since none of these stories are a romance. Turns out... that can be pretty hard lmao.
- Nero: his playlist is very much just vibe-based; I slap songs on it that evoke some sense of unsettling religious vibe, unsettling lustful vibe...He's a priest-themed incubus, so, y'know. It needs a bit of work; I think I want to cut down/remove/replace some tracks. Can be listened to on shuffle.
- Alex: His playlist tells a story! It's meant to be this slow, unsettling roll from his confusion & sense of being un-anchored up to his discovery of his past life/destiny & subsequent ascent to Godhood, peppered with random moments of clarity/brief escape from the fog. I'm pretty proud of it. Best listened to w/o shuffle
- Ben: Also best without shuffle! It's got two distinct halves, his pre- and post-vampirism. Pre-vampirism you see this drugged out, fuck the world type of character, and post you see him getting his shit together and deciding to make something good out of his (un?)life. The first track is where the title comes from & basically predicts the story.
- Jonathan: His is a WIP still but it's mostly just vibe-based, no story roll here. It's been the hardest for me to craft since the song vibe that best suits him isn't really my typical preferred listening? But I really hooked it last night and got it from 8 songs to 22, so I'm content. Gonna try n name it + give it cover art today.
PlayMoss nerfed "Culling of the Fold", which is like, a super central song to him that I refuse to take off the playlist even though it doesn't play. But here's his playlist!
I tried to reflect his character arc with the song order-- he grew up as a cultist, so the first few songs are largely meant to be about the brainwashing and violence that he both committed and was subjected to. The rest of the songs are more about his character development away from that after the cult is destroyed; he joins the army to not have to think, since he was taught not to think and doesn't know what to do. But then he meets his future husband, and despite a very rocky start, their interactions help him better understand the past and eventually, move on from it.
A few of the songs were actually suggested by a friend (Culling of the Fold, Bad Bad Things, Antebellum), and I think that helped the process a lot. The song I most associate with him is Love Like You, though! The whole song, but especially the lines "I always thought I might be bad / now I'm sure that it's true / cause I think you're so good / and I'm nothing like you".
This is probably a really non-coherent playlist xD I pick songs by picking ones that fit certain scenes in the story I have >u<' https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2zjybcdZEAFeZ5onieQQzM?si=KZW_o40rTgqGsP-kPgGEKA
I don’t really have character playlists though I do feel like it would be super fun to make one! Dreamscape really suits the lyrics of Echo (it is a Vocaloid song, though I haven’t watched the original it’s always the JubyPhonic cover lol). I think that is the only time I’ve seen a song fit so well with a character.