The Bond Between Music and RP

[TheHumanFloyd]

Hey folks! So I just started a new podcast about this topic and would love to hear your thoughts on it!

What is the relationship between music and RP for you? Do you have any songs that particularly relate to your roleplay experience? Do these two mediums even go together well? Why or why not?

I want to know everyone's thoughts on this! Would love to see a great discussion come of the matter.

If anyone's curious the Rock'n'Roleplay show can be found here: RPHQ.org/rocknroleplay

[Dinh AaronMk]

Often times I must invoke a song in the middle of a post. Or I might run a song to be sort of the background of the post, as an OOC thing (often invoked as: Action Tiem).

I tend to keep a playlist of songs for RPs, though not necessarily songs for use the playlist exists as a way to help me keep the mindset of what I might be writing for that RP. It's a more tangible representation of the world than the words. I can "hear" the world in my ears as I write in that sense.

For example: in an RP of mine, Precipice of War I play as China. On YouTube I maintain a playlist of traditional Chinese, Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan music to put me in the mindset. Recently I expanded it to Russian for lore reasons. But this'd be the playlist.

Most often I'll go about making a playlist to compile songs related to what I'm writing at a given time.

[Keyguyperson]

I'm incapable of writing without music, but I don't maintain a playlist or anything. I just search up what I think will be appropriate and put it on a loop. If I make the right choice, things turn out pretty good. Without perfectly fitting music, though, my writing drops to rock bottom.

[Phaesaris]

Music -- fitting music, especially -- is an integral part of writing. More often not its a song that influences the way I write and and can even kick away my writer's block. Plus, writing without music is like watching a movie without a soundtrack. You understand whats going on, but theres not much tone or mood to get you sucked in.

There's also something about music that can influence new ideas and thoughts. How some somber lyrics can inspire a quiet, moody character, or an epic orchestra can spark the start of a story surrounding daring knights on a quest for some unknown land.

Though finding THE perfect songs to set the mood can be difficult. At least, it is for me because I'm a finicky little bastard. Though a quick search on Google can usually solve that problem.

[Afina]

Personally I am a song whore when it comes to RP posts, I have a playlist that gets built for each rp I participate in. I also make generic ones for just over all situations and every character has their own personal theme that gets chosen at character creation. Not to mention couples songs if a shipping occurs. And of course my newest favorite is song selections for Bard characters.

[TheHumanFloyd]

Mmm, great posts all! I love hearing how people use music differently in their RP.

I feel like people should start sharing music during RP more often. Like post a song at the top or bottom of your post. Do you guys see that happen often? I personally do not, though occasionally I'll see the OP of a new RP have a song in it.

[NuttsnBolts]

I'll use music during the brainstorming stage while I'm thinking of the scene and gathering my thoughts together, but in writing I usually prefer silence so I don't stuff up my grammar and such.

In regards to music for a post, I've seen and done it a couple of times but it's something that I'm on the fence about. One of my favourite posts had some soft music that could play in the background to set the mood and scene. It was one of the few times where it didn't feel forced and the song was very mellow, but I've tried it before with other styles of music and noticed that sometimes it comes across more tacky if the wrong song is selected.

That's why when character sheets are selected and people say, "Choose a theme song", are not always the best course of action. How you portray your character and the choice of music can really affect the atmosphere? Even choosing similar songs with slightly different lyrics will be enough to change a character entirely, not to mention the development of a character will also disjoint itself from the song if they change too much.

Edit:
Got an example but it's a bit Off topic so I'll hider it.

Theme song example

So here I have two songs that appear in the Binding of Isaac for the Mom's Heart fight:
Binding of Isaac
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
Rebirth was a remaster of the original game. Ed McMillan went back to the basics and converted the game from Flash to another engine and thus he changed the composer from Danny B to Ridiculon. The fight was the same-(ish), but just changing composers creates an entirely new feel to a set.

I'm bringing this up as an example to show how adding music to an RP may not always work because the views that people begin to form in their mind will be different to the other people, so character portrayal may not work when you select your favourite songs in iTunes. Large media is different as the songs/themes are usually written for the characters and everyone is seeing the same thing.

[Afina]

Mmm, great posts all! I love hearing how people use music differently in their RP.

I feel like people should start sharing music during RP more often. Like post a song at the top or bottom of your post. Do you guys see that happen often? I personally do not, though occasionally I'll see the OP of a new RP have a song in it.

@TheHumanFloyd

I do this frequently when it comes into play. If a certain song inspires a post, I will place it in the header. Some introduction posts I will throw up that characters theme song. Recently I have started playing a bard, each time she sings I will incorporate the vocals into the written post and the song video will be in the header.