Are song recommendations allowed within stories?

[SawyerElle]

A question for Authors or Moderators,

In a chapter I will be publishing soon, I would like to recommend that readers listen to a particularly song at a particular moment, if they so choose. Is this kind of recommendation allowed, either in a comment or in an author's note?

Thanks,
Sawyer Elle

 

[Bamagan]

A question for Authors or Moderators,

In a chapter I will be publishing soon, I would like to recommend that readers listen to a particularly song at a particular moment, if they so choose. Is this kind of recommendation allowed, either in a comment or in an author's note?

Thanks,
Sawyer Elle

Yes, it's somewhat common. Long quotes of lyrics can sometimes be problematic, and links outside of Lit don't work, but mentioning the title and artist is generally fine.

 

[SawyerElle]

Thank you! Exactly what I needed to know.

 

[StillStunned]

I'm not sure about recommendations, but I have a story called "Flesh For Fantasy" (which refers to several other Billy Idol songs) and one called "Fairytale of New York". And another which quotes the opening line from "A Rainy Night In Soho".

 

[ElectricBlue]

A question for Authors or Moderators,

In a chapter I will be publishing soon, I would like to recommend that readers listen to a particularly song at a particular moment, if they so choose. Is this kind of recommendation allowed, either in a comment or in an author's note?

Thanks,
Sawyer Elle

Yes, you can suggest a song, but you can't link to it, and you can't quote more than a line or two.

 

[ronde]

Yes, you can suggest a song, but you can't link to it, and you can't quote more than a line or two.

I once quoted all the lyrics to a song along with the names of the composer and Lyricist.

https://literotica.com/s/the-red-piano-lounge

 

[ElectricBlue]

I once quoted all the lyrics to a song along with the names of the composer and Lyricist.

https://literotica.com/s/the-red-piano-lounge

You're lucky. I tried to quote a poem that was critical to a story, and was only able to quote every second stanza, which completely spoiled the intent (the complete poem was only four stanzas).

 

[Bramblethorn]

We have perennial discussions about how much one can/should quote from song lyrics, but since OP doesn't appear to be trying to do that, I'd recommend leaving it until the next time somebody asks. I expect it won't be long.

 

[Britva415]

I’d ignore any such recommendations, myself, and just read the story.

Or not. Depending how they’re presented, they might annoy me so much that I’d bail out.

 

[PennyThompson]

@THBGato recently wrote a lovely 750 that was named after and directly referenced a song, and included the performer and song name as an Author's Note

 

[LetsMisBehave]

An issue with referring to specific songs is when the song references move from being Easter eggs to taking people out of the story. Because most of my stories take place in the past, I prefer having songs playing on the radio, jukeboxes or mix tapes (which I know dates me) that are plausibly being played at the time. For some readers, the references would make sense and add to their enjoyment of the story. I hoped that other readers would be interested enough to go off and listen to them (of course, all of us know that the songs we listened to between the ages of 16 and 25 were the best, and things have never been the same since then).
Trouble is that if you don't know the song or the singer, it can be mystifying - in a recent story, I had two songs by Shakin' Stevens who conjures instant memories from people who remember 1980s in the UK and everyone else goes WTF.
In retrospect, giving the reader a clue that a song being referred to is a headbanger, a slow dance, popular or of niche interest might help the reader realise the significance of the song even if they don't know it.
On lyric quotation, most popular songs are about sex, and so there is normally a half-line which can be quoted (or paraphrased) without getting into serious copyright problems - For example, while ELO did not have a song entitled "Hold on Tight to My Jeans" sang by a character who belongs in either First Time or in the reluctance side of Non-consent/Reluctance. - I think you get the point.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

A question for Authors or Moderators,

In a chapter I will be publishing soon, I would like to recommend that readers listen to a particularly song at a particular moment, if they so choose. Is this kind of recommendation allowed, either in a comment or in an author's note?

Thanks,
Sawyer Elle

@Bamagan is spot on. A song redirected one of my stories; SavageDaughter, inspiring the title and becoming one of the main themes. I quote a few lyrics and give the writer credit in a post story comment. I've also seen other stories that quote significant lyrics as part of the story itself. We're not doing this for money so it's my understanding copyright is kind of fuzzy. As for teh site; I'll again defer to @Bamagan: no external links.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Trouble is that if you don't know the song or the singer, it can be mystifying - in a recent story, I had two songs by Shakin' Stevens who conjures instant memories from people who remember 1980s in the UK and everyone else goes WTF.

This, and even if a reader does know the song, it may not have the same emotional resonances for them as it does for the author. One person's "this is the song that was playing when I fell in love" is another's "my dad loved that song, I miss my dad" and another's "hey that's the song from the road safety ads, did somebody do a single of that?"

It's like the "she looked like Alison Mack" approach to describing characters.

 

[Bramblethorn]

@Bamagan is spot on. A song redirected one of my stories; SavageDaughter, inspiring the title and becoming one of the main themes. I quote a few lyrics and give the writer credit in a post story comment. I've also seen other stories that quote significant lyrics as part of the story itself. We're not doing this for money so it's my understanding copyright is kind of fuzzy.

It is, but non-profit might not be enough for a court to accept it as "fair use". Another consideration is the nature of that use - are you quoting somebody else's work in order to make a comment about that work, or are you just quoting it because their words made you feel some kind of way, and you want to make your readers feel the same way? Fair use is more likely to apply to the former than the latter, but most stories that quote lyrics are doing the latter.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Haruki Murakami and Hirohiko Araki both made careers out of music references. Michael Connelly pretty much used the Bosch series to make his own jazz playlist. I stole a Chase Atlantic line and rewrote it to make an obvious parody joke in my latest story. I think I've seen several Inkitt stories recommending songs too.

I don't see any problem. If you feel like it, put the name of the song and the artist. Personally I'm not much into authors recommending me songs to listen while I read either, however, thirteen years ago, I had an experience with one ex who wrote a story for a song that she told me while I listened to it for the first time, so you don't really need a green light from anyone to do something that treads around the same lines.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I routinely sprinkle song lyrics and movie quotes in my writing, mainly to see if anybody gets them. I've had a handful of comments where it's clear somebody caught one, but most of the time I seem to be doing it just to amuse myself.

 

[Britva415]

Haruki Murakami and Hirohiko Araki both made careers out of music references. Michael Connelly pretty much used the Bosch series to make his own jazz playlist.

Which is fine. The playlist is separate from the writing, it's songs he referenced in his novels. Referenced, not recommended. You'd never even know he made such a playlist if all you did was read the novels.

There's a huge difference between narrating what music is playing in your scene, versus breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader to stop what they're doing, put the story down, and go find the song and play it.

 

[LetsMisBehave]

Which is fine. The playlist is separate from the writing, it's songs he referenced in his novels. Referenced, not recommended. You'd never even know he made such a playlist if all you did was read the novels.

There's a huge difference between narrating what music is playing in your scene, versus breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader to stop what they're doing, put the story down, and go find the song and play it.

I agree with that, but I know that I and others are guilty of taking people out of the story by too specific references. Sorry, part of this is refining my own thinking, but what is the right balance between specific songs, groups/singers or music types for people in their reading matter?

 

[Britva415]

I agree with that, but I know that I and others are guilty of taking people out of the story by too specific references. Sorry, part of this is refining my own thinking, but what is the right balance between specific songs, groups/singers or music types for people in their reading matter?

I don't know what you're asking.

An author can put whatever music they want in their fiction. But for them to interrupt the narrative to address the reader to go listen to it is... not something I want to read.

That's not a matter of balance, that's a matter of, well, certainly my own taste, but also a matter of storytelling. I think interrupting the storytelling is a mistake.

Making it part of the story? Great. Separating it from the narrative and directing the reader's attention away from the story by directing their ears toward something outside the story? Not so much.

 

[SawyerElle]

Thank you so much to everyone, this has been a great discussion and you've all made great points and really helped me think about this!

 

[alohadave]

There's a huge difference between narrating what music is playing in your scene, versus breaking the fourth wall and addressing the reader to stop what they're doing, put the story down, and go find the song and play it.

It can work. There is a manga (is it still manga if it's not japanese?) I read that breaks the fourth wall at various points. It has cues to play certain songs while reading to set the mood/scene.

It really depends on how receptive the readers are to participating. I didn't do all the music, but the ones I did worked pretty well.

 

[alohadave]

This, and even if a reader does know the song, it may not have the same emotional resonances for them as it does for the author. One person's "this is the song that was playing when I fell in love" is another's "my dad loved that song, I miss my dad" and another's "hey that's the song from the road safety ads, did somebody do a single of that?"

It's like the "she looked like Alison Mack" approach to describing characters.

That's not something the author can control. If it doesn't resonate with some readers, so be it.

You can't write for every single reader without removing all traces of personality from the story.

 

[PennyThompson]

It would be a gimmick, something I would need to be in the right mood for, but I would be interested in trying a story that explicitly broke the fourth wall at key points to say something like, "Listen to Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós while reading the next passage."

Would it take me out of the story? Yes, probably. Would it distract from an erotic story meant to arouse the reader? Maybe. Would it be an interesting experiment that I would want to try experiencing? Yes!

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

It would be a gimmick, something I would need to be in the right mood for, but I would be interested in trying a story that explicitly broke the fourth wall at key points to say something like, "Listen to Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós while reading the next passage."

Would it take me out of the story? Yes, probably. Would it distract from an erotic story meant to arouse the reader? Maybe. Would it be an interesting experiment that I would want to try experiencing? Yes!

One of the best examples of using lyrics to make the story fun and to make the main character relatable is what you did with Penny - I still remember her singing HOT TO GO at the start of I think it was the second chapter. That's how i like lyrics - when they help to make the characters real and relatable.

 

[Britva415]

You can't write for every single reader without removing all traces of personality from the story.

If it's that important to the story, they can put it in the story.

Not an out-of-character aside intruding on the reader's reading progress. That isn't storytelling.