“Music is the literature of the heart, it commences where speech ends.”– Alphonse de Lamartine
I am a fairly musical person, growing up singing in several choirs, playing the violin and the viola and listening to music on repeat. Back then, literature was not really on my list of favourites. However, looking back now, I realise that I lived in a world full of music connected to literature. Whenever I played the viola or sang a new song I looked at the story the piece wanted to tell, at what message it wanted to convey and what emotions were needed to do so. I now see that I was close-reading those pieces of music to emerge into its world, something I now do while reading books. The connection between literature and music can be found in many different forms, and today I would like to introduce some of them.
Music for literature
Music has become an influential tool for literature, especially with the popularity of social media communities such as BookTok and Bookstagram. Both apps allow users to share their reading experiences, their theories, fanart or other thoughts about books. But one trend that showed an immense increase over the last couple of years is the use and association with music which can be seen on TikTok. The app’s main purpose is to create short edits accompanied by music snippets, which can be quotes, whole paragraphs from books, specific fanart or more. Using special sounds to underline this content can quickly lead to song associations. BookTok spreads trends in this manner and eventually some sounds are bound to certain topics as it is the first thing users associate with it. This can be seen in BookTok hits such as the ACOTAR and Throne of Glass Series by Sarah J Maas and Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. The provided links are exemplary TikToks that will give you a broad idea of this phenomenon. The songs used are Bow by Reyn Hartley for A Court of Mist and Fury, Luminary by Joel Sunny for the ACOTAR series, Gesaffelstein by Aleph for Fourth Wing and a viral TikTok sound called “Just a girl harmonising with her ceiling fan” (The videos do contain spoilers!)
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6yofv
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeVjohSb
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6Jvep
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6jqBw/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV68yqc
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGeV6M8EY/
Music in literature
The second form I chose to look at is music in literature, as I’ve read several books naming real songs or even just using music as a major theme. In this category songs can simply be mentioned in books or the literary world can include whole lists of songs. This makes it easy to look up songs used and listen to them while or before reading without having to interrupt the reading flow by having to guess the song’s melody or rhythm. Another rather popular use of music in literature is as a main plot. Here books about musical storylines are rather popular. Many young adult novels and romances revolve around the main character’s musical development or fulfilling their dreams of becoming musicians or the main love interest is heavily involved in the musical world.
Recommendations from my personal experience are:
- Songs About A Girl by Chris Russel
- The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce
- Whatever Happens (Julie and the Phantoms) by Candace Buford
Literature in music
Have you ever listened to a song and noticed that it was telling a story through the lyrics? Music does not equal noise music or melodies with nice texts but sometimes a single song can feel like reading a whole book. This is done through world and story-building in the form of music, just like authors do for their novels or poems. An interesting example where such storytelling can be seen is Taylor Swift. Generally, the American singer writes about her personal life and feelings which is reflected in the way the songs write emotional stories. Every song tells a story on its own, drawing the listener in, and inviting them to experience the story through her eyes. Here, her song The Great War from her 2022 album Midnights can be seen as a great example, also in connection to Rebecca Ross’ Divine Rivals. In the song, Swift tells the story of an internal conflict, a relationship at stake where the lovers have to fight “the great war” for their eventual happy ending. Through her lyrics, she paints a picture of a whole story. Similar to this is the storyline of Divine Rivals where the protagonists are actually present in a war where they have to overcome obstacles and protect their love. On TikTok, the song and the novel are brought up together quite often as their storylines show similarities. This highlights how closely related literature and music can be. While still seeing a song as music, its lyrics can express the same sentiments and the same depth a written page of a novel could.
Some song recommendations I circle back to when I want to see this phenomenon are:
- Can’t Catch Me Now by Olivia Rodrigo
- The Prophecy by Taylor Swift
- The Manuscript by Taylor Swift
- Don’t Call Me by Maryjo
- The View Between Villages by Noah Kahan
- Coraline by Måneskin
Literature for music
This form might not be as well spread as the previous three but it is still an important phenomenon I would like to address. When creating a list of things I wanted to talk about I remembered a YouTube channel I watched when I was about 15 years old and discovered Nightcore songs. It belongs to Beth Crowley, an American singer and songwriter who used to upload songs inspired by books she read. Just like fanfiction or TikTok, it was a form of fan participation where she wrote music about the book, inspired by it, or from certain characters’ perspectives to show deeper emotions from the literary pages that might not have come across as well without music. One of her most popular songs was “Warrior”, released in 2013, which is based on Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments Series.
Furthermore, she covers many popular books and series such as To All the Boys I Loved Before (Classic, 2019), ACOTAR (Please Take Me, 2018), Shatter Me (I Scare Myself, 2018) or The Midnight Guardian (The Dark, 2016). Hearing those songs after reading the books is a unique experience as I always catch myself picturing scenes with this music playing in the background or recognising specific references that might not be as obvious to others. Unfortunately, this is a rather niche form of genre so Crowley’s songs cannot be considered to be mainstream. However, Warrior, with the help of the books and her fans has become a kind of unofficial anthem for Cassandra Clare’s book series. I would not say it is music to add to your daily playlists but it is worth looking at her channel and giving songs about books one has read a try.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA6JBtsrOFRzJ-Bu_GUEp5ll4qrRNfCuM&si=Pzy6pson-vCoIcIw
What are your experiences with music and literature? Do you have any songs you listen to because you feel like they tell a story?
Lisa A.