The only stories I could really do this playlist thing for are Broken & BMS, so I'll try it with those. I actually posted a soundtrack for each of them on my site, even though that's really cheesy... but I did it because music really was a huge inspiration for me when I was writing those stories.
This is the Broken soundtrack:
http://www.dreamers-sanctuary.com/brokensoundtrack.htmlThis is the By My Side soundtrack:
http://www.dreamers-sanctuary.com/bmssoundtrack.htmlI actually had music players up where you could listen to the songs, but they don't work anymore. I should take them off.
What's funny is that a lot of those songs annoy the shit out of me now LOL, but I'll post some of the ones that don't.
1.
In the End - Linkin Park
I love Linkin Park, and I love this song because it's angsty, but its lyrics fit the whole theme of Broken perfectly. It's a story about an arrogant douche who thinks he's got it all, until he gets knocked down on his ass and has to pull himself back up again. During the process, he learns what's really important, and in the end, his life is better than it was before in a lot of ways.
2.
Who Needs the World - Nick Carter
Nick sings this song in one part of Broken that is really cheesy, but I couldn't post a Broken playlist without it. This has always been one of my favorite tracks on NON because it's just so pretty and simple. And that's what it's all about to me: simplicity. It fit what I was going for in developing the relationship between Nick and Claire. Even though they're going through this major thing together, or maybe because they are, they're all about the simple pleasures in life, and they were able to provide each other with sort of an escape from everything they were dealing with.
3.
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Broken is one big giant hurt/comfort fest, so this is one of the many songs on this playlist with that theme. It makes me think of the Boys and how they were there for Nick, letting him lean on them before figuratively and literally LOL. Also, the Boys covered this song once, which made me incredibly happy after I used it in this story LOL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbo1QupHDTA4.
Changes - 3 Doors Down
This song fit Nick's post-choppage angst really well!
5.
Open Arms - Journey
This became Nick and Claire's song in Broken, and I used it in BMS to guide the path their relationship would take. It also may be where I got the title. "We sailed on together, we drifted apart, and here you are by my side..."
6.
My Last Breath - Evanescence
I wrote the climactic scene of Broken, when Nick's about to go into surgery, around the lyrics to this song, and to this day, I can't hear it without thinking of that part. It's not a coincidence that my Evanescence phase correlated with the writing of Broken and BMS. Angst angst angst!!!
7.
Rush Over Me - Backstreet Boys
This was a Never Gone reject that didn't leak until after I was done writing Broken, but it fit so well that I went back and replaced Drowning with it as the last song on the "soundtrack." It sums up the place of peace that Nick has reached by the end of Broken so well.
8.
Broken - Seether feat. Amy Lee
I discovered this song near the end of writing Broken, before it became mega-popular, and it was like a gift from Heaven. If I had to pick just one song to put on this playlist, this would be it. It was incredible to me that, without knowing it, I gave my story the same title as this song, and then this song came along that just happened to fit it perfectly. Actually, it fits BMS even better, so that's where I used it. Open Arms may be Nick and Claire's song, but this is their freaking anthem.
9.
My Immortal - Evanescence
I listened to this song a lot when I was writing the lead-up to Claire breaking up with Nick. Again, angst angst angst... probably too much angst!
10.
Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt
This was the Nick break-up song. ANGST ANGST ANGST!
11.
Incomplete - Backstreet Boys
Like the Seether song Broken, this song was another gift from the writing gods. The day the first clip of Incomplete leaked, I literally cried the first time I heard it, because not only was it beautiful, but it was SO Broken Nick! And real life Nick feeds my little angst fetish so well with this song, every time he drops to his knees and belts "In... come... puh-lee-ete..." *sigh* Never Gone was a very inspirational album for me.
12.
Comfortable - John Mayer
This is another song that just defined Nick and Claire's relationship and its original simplicity so well. "I loved you... gray sweatpants... no makeup... so perfect." That was the way I set out to portray Claire, not as a perfect Mary Sue, just as a normal, down-to-earth, low-maintenance kind of gal, and that was what Nick came to love about her.
13.
Crash and Burn - Savage Garden
Another of my favorite hurt/comfort songs. I used this one around the turning point in BMS when it was Claire going through shit, and Nick had to be there for her. Up until that point, it had mostly been the other way around, so this was his moment to do the comforting.
14.
Fix You - Coldplay
I drew inspiration from how this song was used in The OC and used it for a big moment in the story when Nick goes running to Claire to help her pick up the pieces.
15.
Ever the Same - Rob Thomas
Another Nick/Claire relationship song.
16.
Lips of an Angel - Hinder
I know a lot of people hate this song and the way it seems to promote cheating, but because of what I was writing in BMS when I first heard it, I always saw it differently - a song about two people who are still in love, even though they're both stuck in relationships with other people. Sure, they're emotionally cheating on their significant others, but it's because they're MEANT TO BE TOGETHER, DAMN IT!!! Not gonna lie, I still love Lips of an Angel LOL.
17.
Far Away - Nickleback
Oh, it gets worse LOL. Nickleback has become the band everyone loves to hate, but they were still popular when I was writing BMS. I'm still embarrassed to include this song on my playlist, but I can't not, because it was the song I used for the big dramatic climax in Chapter 196. And yet every time that I've read that chapter, I've gone "Wow, this is so good..." until I get to the fucking Nickelback lyrics, and then I'm just like... *head desk* "Ruined it." Total fail. This song is on the playlist as a reminder of why I will never paste song lyrics (especially Nickelback lyrics) into the middle of a scene ever again. Lesson learned! That said, I really don't hate this song, and if I'd been writing a screenplay or a music video treatment instead of a story, it would have been fine as background music. Things like that just get lost in translation in a story.
18.
Bless the Broken Road - Rascal Flatts
I know, this has become such a cliched wedding song, but it's still a great song, and it fit the end of BMS so well, representing the LONG (200 chapters long) journey Nick and Claire took to find their way back into each other's arms.
19.
True Companion - Marc Cohn
It took me almost four years to write BMS, and the whole time, this song was the inspiration to get to the end, so I could finally write the two scenes that became the Epilogue and Post-Epilogue. I want this song played at my wedding!
20.
I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
"I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more..." Yeah, that song. I couldn't make a Nick & Claire playlist without it. It's such a fun, quirky song, and that was how I always saw their relationship, even through all the dark, melodramatic times. When Nick's offering to walk 500 miles on a fake leg, that's love! LOL
I know that's a lot of songs, but the original Broken & BMS playlists combined have 115 songs, so this is definitely the condensed version LOL.
