♫ RP PLAYLISTS ♫

[Sir Basil]

P L A Y L I S T S

♫ for the characters you love too much ♫

I love music! But I'm definitely one of those people that, when I listen to a song, I immediately associate the song with somebody, some place or most embarrassingly - a character. I have a lot of memories of driving around and listening to the radio - and hearing a song that reminded me of an RP I was in. Unfortunately, the internet has encouraged this habit even more. With the wonderful - or possibly terrible - 8tracks service, I've been enabled to create even more self-indulgent playlists for my characters.

Some of this music gets me in the mood to write, and I can listen to it as I write. However, more embarrassingly, most of the playlists I make are just songs that remind me of the character. Sometimes individual lyrics grab me - but other times, the whole song just screams a specific character. I don't often end up listening to them when I write the character; but they give me inspiration for specific ideas or themes that I want to explore. One or two characters or RPs are special enough to get multiple playlists made in their honour, which is a whole separate level of silly.

Even though I keep dismissing this as a very silly thing to do - I don't actually think its that silly. It's a fun thing to get you in the mood for writing. It seems as if a lot of people - if 8tracks user-base is anything to go off of - use playlists for this purpose. You can find, under the "RP Character" tag on 8tracks, over 500 different playlists for all kinds of characters, from heroes, to villains, to things slightly in between. In some ways, this seems like a useful exercise in exploring character's many different complexities ; albeit in a musical manner!

Do you make playlists for your characters? If you do, post them !

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I've made a ton of playlists for my characters. You can find them under my 8tracks username; lich-loved. I've made a whopping five playlists for my World of Warcraft character, Caleb. But I've also made some for Dungeons and Dragons games, and I'm working on making one for the original setting for my WITCH HUNT RP. I've listed a couple of my mixes below - click on the image to listen !
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I made this mix in response to my World of Warcraft character dying. It's a mix of songs that just stuck with me and made me think about what it is to have a character die, and what its' like to go through grief - without the source of that grief every actually existing. There's also a B-Side version, which is more about the anger and frustration that comes with death, and unsatisfying stories than it is about grief.

I made this mix in response to a pair of Dungeons and Dragons characters! My character, Jorah, and @Niiwa 's character, Dove, had a rocky relationship. He was, afterall, a Chaotic Evil werewolf, and she was a much closer to good Barbarian. They wren't made for each other, and neither was their relationship. It wasn't romantic, and certainly not platonic - but was strong and strange nonetheless. It made for a pretty rocking mix-tape.

Give them a listen, if you like!

 

[Niiwa]

Ayyyyy I like that second playlist cause it includes my character :P
I have actually made 2 playlists of my own for Dove, who is an amazing character who holds a special place in my cold, shriveled heart. I've made a couple of playlists for her, I think her second one is a bit more cohesive and fun, though, because it's after her first arc and is about her trying to fix all the crappy things that happened to her in the only way she knows how:

Dove's B-Sides: Escape From Planet Obsidian​

If you check out my other playlists, beware that 8-tracks likes to replace some of my stuff with really bad kidz bop covers, and I can't stop it. If it sounds like that, it's not intentional. I've made a bunch of character playlists and I like making 'em a lot.

 

[junebug]

8tracks is difficult for me to make playlists with, though I do enjoy a lot of the music on there. I make my playlists on spotify. This is one about an SOA original character I have named Raphael Pesaro. He acts tough, but underneath, he's a soft squishy teddy bear with a hard life.

 

[Chris Lang]

Some years back, I was in a fandom RP where I was playing Gabrielle, of Xena fame. Her goal was to return to her own time period and reunite with Xena. I really played for 'the feels' with that one, and to get me in the mood, I listened to several songs from Enya and Within Temptation. Such as 'Only Time' by Enya and 'Somewhere' by Within Temptation.

Though usually my playlists in my RPs are video game soundtracks. Boss battle musics when fighting major enemies, and so on.

 

[Lycanthus]

music is just about the most important thing in my life. i think. like, storytelling and music are constantly battling for #1, so i spend a lot of time looking for music. a lot. of. time. not only that, but when i pick out songs for ocs, i tend to ignore lyrics in favor of the overall feel and atmosphere a song has. it's not enough to have lyrics that match my characters' issues or conflicts or whatever; the song has to remind me of the feeling my characters give me. i like to call it an "aura" since it's sort of like, an overall impression of an oc.

i don't really feel like linking my playlists, but i'll go and describe each one for the hell of it.

Spoiler

alex: washed out, title fight

despite the fact alex is pretty much my walking joke of a character (or at least my equivalent of one) he gets a really somber, wistful shoegazey playlist. it needs to be soaked in synths or languid guitar chords with a strong, steady beat.

for example, one good song off his list is spazzkid's cover/mix of morning swim by turbo goth. now, in this case, the lyrics are abstract but relevant enough for me associate them with alex too— the sun's just hiding / right behind that cloud / it's sure hard just waiting / for her to come out // i want to run away with you // we'll go back and disprove all uncertainty. he's an anxious little fuck who's committed to a life as a cog in the machine, but as much as he loves his security, he's never felt like he's truly living. the songs i pick have to reflect that kind of yearning in their sound in order for them to be considered for him.

another song that's SO him is feel it all around by washed out— actually, i consider this his theme because it reminds me of him the most. you feel it all around yourself / you're tired of all the things you did / you'll work it out— alex to a T.

something goes right by sbtrkt is kind of a left hook in his playlist, but this line is so fucking relevant (and the mood of the song fits well) so, here it is: i keep on having these conversations and praying / i keep on staring at these constellations and praying / and these bitter thoughts that keep on escaping / i wish that they were staying / and something will go right​

mal: gazelle twin, death grips, clipping

mal's really easy to find music for because she has an abrasive, angry personality. she's literally just full of loathing for everything and everyone. no love by death grips is basically her. i mean, i usually describe her personality like a death grips album personified, really. it can't just be angry music though. there needs to be a dissonance, or something unnerving and chaotic about it to reflect the chaos of her own feelings towards herself and others.

body & blood by clipping (i love clipping so much) is the song that inspired her. not that the lyrics totally apply— she's not a femme fatale by any means. more boyish than anything. but she IS a 4'11" sadist who definitely has no problems doing murderously terrible things.

belly of the beast by gazelle twin is literally her theme though. lyrics that are her 100%: I'll beat them all at their at own game / bite the hands and the fingers that feed / swallowing it down, taking my sweet time / i'm stuck in the belly of the beast

other mentions: modern witch - cinema, shlohmo - teeth​

keith: pavement, the strokes, last dinosaurs

keith is a really basic kid. he's simple, down-to-earth, just a normal kid. his playlist hearkens back to garage rock, some 90's stuff, things that remind you of youth and fucking around on summer break, having adventurous, sleeping on rooftops. basically, being a teen with no worries, when life was simpler. evening sun by the strokes captures this feel precisely. these lines pertain to keith especially: Kids are always honest / Cause they don't think they're ever gonna die / Oh you're the prettiest smartest captain of the team / I love you more than being seventeen.

honolulu by last dinosaurs, while not the most relevant lyrically, really captures the kind of nostalgic, sweet feeling that i associate with keith. i guess the easiest way to put it is that... he's infatuated with being alive. he really lives in the moment, and it's like... i always get this romantic feel about him. not romantic as in love, but romantic as in romanticized. like a romanticized idea of youth as seen through rose-colored lenses. lyrics here that match: the story only just begun / surely it should never ever end. ​

jonah: nicole dollanganger, bondax, baths

i mean. this song, angels of porn by nicole dollanganger (nsfw lyrics!) is literally just him. like, literally. i won't post the lyrics for the sake of decency, but jonah has a lot of sex. none of it really matters to him. all it is is a distraction from the veritable pile of trauma and angst he hides behind a flamboyantly gay exterior. as the lyrics describe, he feels disgusting, tainted, so he self-perpetuates this view by being promiscuous.

another dollanganger song that fits him to a T: please just stay dead. these lyrics are ACTUALLY JUST HIM it's fucking ridiculous. the lyrics are him, so so so so him. here they are:

boop

all the pets i've buried
just wanted me to know
sometimes it's ok
to let a good thing go

wrap you in yarn and grass
embalm you with milk
lay you to rest
in cardboard lined with silk

wild fires have been eating you
inside of my head
trying to smoke you out
or burn you alive in it
this time please just stay dead

this living room memorial
doesn't bear a name
i guess i can't blame you
but i hate you all the same

i wear your homemade tattoos
all over my skin
you put your cigarettes out on me
they're still sinking in

first two stanzas refer to his dead family members, last two refer to someone he does not like to remember very much. incidentally, i also headcanon jonah writing his own music that probably resembles observatory mansions. jonah is a very somber, tender person at his core, so the intimacy of dollanganger's bedroom recorded guitar and lyrics about death suit him very, very well.

i also associate jonah with a kind of charisma that's mysterious, evasive, but intimate and sweet. i usually pick electronic-based music for this (because he's pretty hip) and lush, gorgeous production to symbolize his association with flowers and gardens. ironworks by baths fits this bill perfectly, as does wet summer by bondax.​

i have like, more ocs with more playlists, but these are my mains and my favorites to write, so i'll just... keep it to this for now.

 

[Rainjay]

Two playlists for my two favorite characters:

Illyria - YouTube

Saira - YouTube

Usually general music will help me get ready for writing, but special playlists for characters can really help me when I'm in a rut or having trouble switching out of one character's brain and into the other.

 

[Greenie]

Naoki isn't my favourite character, but she is one of my oldest, and I do love her very much.

She's the only one I made a playlist for, because as soon as I heard these songs, I immediately thought of how they suited her. Maybe not the words, but the music, the tune, the voice of the singer.

 

[Michale CS]

Thanks for putting me on to this site! I'll definitely have this in mind very soon!

 

[Melon]

This is the playlist I made for my character, Kerrick. I always play it when I want to get pumped up while writing a fight scene (which happens a lot)

Kerrick/Chimere