Might soundtrack recordings to accompany our books be the next big thing?RCRD LBL and Virgin Books are going to be launching the soundtrack to Tim Molloy’s debut novel How to Break Bad News at a party tonight. The music was conceived by Eric Steuer of Meanest Man Contest and features songs by a number of bands, and you can download it from the website.*
The reasoning behing the move? Says Molloy:
Why put out a soundtrack for a book? Well, why not put out a soundtrack for a book? Movies, TV shows, and video games have them - so why should books get left out in the cold? ... People complain about the Internet pulling people away from books, and this seemed like a perfect way to pull people back. The gorgeous songs on the soundtrack add to the spirit and emotion of the book in ways I'd never imagined. Some people will discover the book through the songs, and some the songs through the book.(The trailer for the book is pretty intruiging too.)
Now if all that sounds a bit gimmicky, another author putting out an accompanying sountrack is ... Margaret Atwood!
Her dystopian novel The Year of the Flood is to be published in September and includes the text of 14 hymns, which Ms. Atwood is having a composer set to music, so that the novel will have its own CD.
All that remains to ask is ... which of your favourite books would you like to have a soundtrack for and what do you think should be on it?
(*Thanks, Grace, for sending me this link!)
8 comments:
Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame) has listings of songs she listened to while writing her books on her website.
So, not quite a soundtrack to the book, but not quite not a soundtrack to the books as well, if that makes any sense.
-Jen
I read somewhere that Murakami listened to a lot of Radiohead while writing.
And to answer your question, Sharon, I would want Philip Glass to score the music for One Hundred Years of Solitude. That'd be sweet.
Not the first time this has happened I believe. Back in 1996 (i think), there was an official soundtrack to the Star Wars novel "Shadows of the Empire". Original music composed by Joel McNeely. All instrumental, of course, and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Yes yes. Mrs Meyer profusely thanked the rock God Muse at the back of all her books. Me thinks it's quite suitable actually.
Ian Rankin's detective John Rebus often has a song playing in his head or hifi. Real songs by real bands.
Nothing to stop a writer from saying this song goes well with this story.
More gimmicks. Writing has become very gimmicky of late. I've seen novels where they play with fonts. Time was when the writing was so good you could tell tone of voice by it. Now they rely on italics and boldface, and some even on font size and word placement.
There's a fanmade soundtrack for Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's actually pretty good but I don't know how close it matches to its inspiration, having not read the book (keeping it for the future.)
One may perhaps want to compare with the part music scores play films too.
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