Standard Musical Inspiration Thread

[Memoria]

Tell me about your musical inspirations while you're writing! Do you have a particular genre you listen to? Is there a song that inspired a character? How about character theme songs?

For me, I love listening to instrumental music while writing. Songs with no lyrics just help me concentrate more. Some of my favorites are Two Steps From Hell / Thomas Bergersen, Hans Zimmer, or any video game / movie scores.

As far as characters, Wish was actually named after Nine Inch Nail's song "Wish", but really there's nothing influential there. I just liked the way it sounded as a name. lol

[Agaliarept]

You actually turned me on to Two Steps from Hell too. I used to have a TSFH station on Pandora. Lots of great music on there.

[Memoria]

You actually turned me on to Two Steps from Hell too. I used to have a TSFH station on Pandora. Lots of great music on there.

Oh yep, I bet you get some Audiomachine on there too. They're quite good also. <3

[Aine]

I typically don't listen to music for most of the posting I do. But, on rare occasions, generally for the more difficult or intense posts, I do enjoy listening to instrumental music to help with the emotional mood and aura. c: Aside from that, I do actually pull up ambience from time to time when posting. If my character is walking through the snow, I'll pull up an ambience of "walking through the snow", if it's a thunderstorm I'll pull up a "thunderstorm" ambience, and so forth. I find that pretty immersive, and just a lot of fun, really. xD

[Adira]

When I was younger and more inexperienced with myself, I used to listen to music with lyrics all the time. It became a stable crutch for my writing and got so bad that if I couldn't listen to music then I couldn't post. I also had a bad habit of where I'd listen to the same song so much I'd get bored of it and then it'd no longer work for my writing so I had to go hunting for a new song.

Needless to say it was a receipt for disaster but it was really all I knew. Or rather it was all I was at the time willing to do. But! I was fortunate enough to have help with getting me out of that habit and now I can say that I mostly write music free and I find for myself it has really improved my writing.

Not to say I never listen to music, but I stick to instrumental because if there are lyrics then I find more often than not, it distracts me and breaks my concentration when writing. But something else I really love doing is putting on sounds that pertain to my roleplay. For example, my characters are sitting near a fireplace talking? Cue crackling fireplace sound effects. I sometimes combine two youtube videos too like one can be a fireplace, and another a storm etc. It just really brings the roleplay world to life for me.

I don't have any character's that are inspired based on music, BUT! I do have songs that are theme songs for my characters. If I am feeling stumped with a particular character's muse then I actually listen to their theme songs to get a boost of inspiration and then write a post for them afterwards.

Something I find kind of amusing though, but also sad because it does harbor the same negative effects as writing posts. But, I can't for the life of me draw without music, it's extremely difficult to do so and no amount of self-restraint can really get me away from that dependency. xD

To Memoria: I think it's really cool that you listen to instrumental music when you post. I haven't met a lot of people who do that.

To Agaliarept: It's awesome when friends introduce you to things you end up loving. I use Pandora a lot too for instrumental variety and just regular music as well.

To Aine: Ohhh, 'ambiance music' that was the word I was looking for I keep forgetting it. But what a COPY CAT! Jk, jk, lol. I remember you playing that snow crunching one during our current threat together today!

[Sojourn]

I have a general writing playlist that is full of a variety of music, but also I have been known to make character playlists specifically for a particular character. There are times I'll listen to a certain album or even just one song several times in a row while writing because it's got just that right mood for what I'm making the words for. Also, I'm very guilty of using song titles for thread titles. Oh so very guilty.

Right now, I've been listening to a lot of Estas Tonne for Roan.

[Memoria]

@Aine @Adira I'm the same way when it comes to listening to music while writing (or coding). It usually has to be lyric free so I can concentrate. Otherwise, I might start singing and lose focus. lol I do like that you both listen to ambient sounds though! I have never done that, but I do enjoy a good rain / thunder storm.

Instrumental music has always been one of my favorite "genres" and I guess it grew that way because I played a lot of video game RPGs that have wonderful soundtracks. But I also love movie scores and music from groups like Two Steps From Hell and Audiomachine.

@Sojourn I like the song you posted! Nice guitar work. I think if you're not watching the video while writing, but you hear the people in the background, it sounds like this guy might be playing in one of Khy'eras' taverns (sort of).

[Noire]

Lol, seems like I'm the only weirdo here who prefers music with lyrics when writing or working ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Funnily enough, I can't focus if it doesn't have them - the music actually becomes distracting without that added layer of input! Although it's less that the lyrics are a necessary muse, and more that they're an expression of the theme behind it. I listen to a lot of different genres, and one of the most important lessons I've learned is that the human voice is just another instrument - it shouldn't stand above everything else that forms the song, and yet so many musical genres hinge on our expectation that it will. Un-learning that took a concerted effort, but it's opened so many doors to me because of it.

And speaking of, I listen to.. basically every genre. Want some hip-hop recommendations? I got 'em. Bluegrass? Yup. Alt rock? Of course! Melodic death metal, touhou arranges, french pop, bollywood soundtracks, industrial - .. you get the picture. Playlists for my characters can be extra fun because of this, and usually have extremely jarring genre shifts, but I've only had one character so far who was actually defined by that contradiction. The world is just full of amazing music, and I love learning to re-interpret all the nuance of a genre to learn what makes this one uniquely expressive.

Deeeefinitely still guilty of the "repeat ad nauseam" loops, though. Sometimes you're just not done with a song the first time, y'know?

With all that said though, I love to share recommendations, and I've listened to a bit of Estas Tonne before. Are you lyric-free folks familiar with Djent? It's a sub-genre somewhere between rock and metal that focuses on very technical guitar work, and is frequently lyric-less. Another fun fact is that Playthrough videos are extremely common in the genre, and so even if you're like me and have no idea how to play a guitar, watching the motions and technical skill that go into it can be fascinating and refreshing all its own.
Yvette Young - Ares (guitar playthrough)

[Adira]

To Sojourn: I've wanted to make a playlist for my characters, but I never get around to doing it, instead they are just all jumbled into one playlist. I'm jealous of your ability to never get bored of a song! I can listen to a song multiple times, but eventually it loses its flare to me and then it just doesn't have that...surge of ...??? I don't even know the proper way of explaining it. xD

To Memoria: Lol, I used to do that! Just start singing the song and whatever it was that I was writing was just GONE. But I kicked that habit fast because my family had nooo patience for my singing and would usually tell me to shut up. OTL;;;

To Noire: Please don't worry about being a weirdo! Lots of answers in this thread were all over the place with some people listening to instrumental, to some not specifying, to even some who don't listen to music at all. I doubt you're the only one here who prefers lyrical music since it's certainly a very common things from what I've seen in my years of roleplaying!

Personally, I was surprised with how varied everyone's answers are and I love that about this place! Since I think there is value in every aspect, from those who don't listen to music, to those who do. ♥

Not sure if you saw my post in here, but I used to listen to only to lyrical music when I was younger. My little sister still does to this day too and she says she can't focus either if she doesn't have words in her songs. I also mentioned that I cannot for the life of me draw without music and that's certainly a time when I have a lot of lyrical songs.

As Noire already mentioned, I love music swamping of any kind. I'm always super curious to hear what lyrical, instrumental, or ambiance music writers listen to while writing a post. For me personally I feel like it can give a unique perspective of atmosphere. I recently read this post by Jess while playing the ambiance they linked. I also haven't heard of Djent or Estas! I'll have to give them a browse. The songs listed so far in here have been so beautiful and cool, thank you all for sharing.