Dear Jukebox Creator leter
Apr. 9th, 2021 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eccentric_hatHello, Jukebox creator! I'm psyched to be doing this exchange for the first time! Here are some optional details about each of these requests. I'm requesting only things I nominated, so these are all songs I like a lot and would love to see explored; I recommend all of them and will include links!
I have no triggers and relatively few dislikes. I love lots of genres, and my AO3 profile might or might not give you a clue of what I'm into. I dig love stories and also gen; I'm fine with all kinds of narrative structures, perspectives, and tenses; and for the most part I don't have fixed ideas about the characters and stories of these songs, so you have lots of leeway to do what you like. Please do avoid writing about graphic and/or sexual violence. I'm okay reading stuff that references the current pandemic, but probably it's a good idea to warn for it up top.
I've ticked the boxes for both fic and podfic for all of these, so do whichever format makes you happy! There are a couple where I'm also happy to receive art.
I've got a trio of requests for songs by Let's Make a Music. This is a podcast featuring some relatively young Internet Weirdos who put out a prompt on Twitter periodically and then use the responses to write a song. It's goofy and random and varied, and the music is, considering their process, shockingly high-quality. I enjoy the music of The Altogether, the more...legitimate band that some of these folks are members of, but honestly the stuff they do for LMAM shows off their musical know-how more sharply, since they do pastiches of all kinds of styles and it's pretty much always great. I recommend the podcast because I like it, but it's not required, since I'm not asking for fic about the podcast or its creators at all. I also had trouble narrowing down my LMAM nominations so I could nominate some other things too--so references to other songs of theirs are welcome but, again, by no means required. If you want to just come into one of these songs cold and write about what they seem to be describing, that's awesome.
Song of Green Bastion - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanart, Fanfiction, Podfic
Song and lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
So this is great because 1) it has an epic high-fantasy feast hall vibe and 2) everybody in it is a possum but 3) there's no canon so you can write any story you want. The voices in the song are assigned names in the official lyric transcript, and on the podcast they speculate a bit about who those characters would be, but if you want to ditch those names and make up new ones that is fine, especially since they appear nowhere in the song itself. I really dig the style of this song and would be happy for you to go in as serious or satirical a direction as you want. I checked the Fanart option for this one because if someone wants to draw these possums, that would be a pretty great outcome.
Car Mitzvah - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
The LMAM songs I nominated are all ones where the music takes the concept very seriously even though it's objectively bonkers. This song is sung to a character having their bar mitzvah in a speeding car while other vehicles representing other religions speed around and try to coax them away. Obviously this is completely bizarre, but the song's narrator is so earnest and the music brings such energy and the line "you're at the crossroads of your life" is sung so many times and with so little irony that it becomes meaningful despite itself. I'd love to hear a little more about this protagonist! Why are they doing things this way? Why are the Buddhists in a Hummer of all things? Has the songwriter mixed up the Mennonites and the Amish? (Yes, probably.) What else do they use these vehicles for--is worship routinely held on the road in this universe? I want to know!
Mr. 1981 & the Monolith Man - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanart, Fanfiction, Podfic
Song and lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
The theme song to a cartoon that never existed. I can imagine two equally great outcomes here: you come up with a reason Mr. 1981 and Monolith Man are fighting, or you make a point of never coming up with that reason. Also, what's going to happen to Mr. 1981 when the year ends? Does he have a name of his own? I would especially enjoy seeing the rest of the family show up. Once again, I would be happy with something that takes this Saturday-morning-cartoon setup totally seriously or something that pokes fun at it or plays with the format. I checked fanart for this one too because, come on, the world could use some fanart of this character or family.
Born Under Punches - Angélique Kidjo (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional interview reading/listening
On to non-comedy-podcast songs! Angélique Kidjo's Remain in Light is a song-by-song cover of the Talking Heads album of the same name. It picks up on the African influences on the originals and it is a powerful, gorgeous piece of work. It also recontextualizes the kinda slipstream lyrics, purposefully and pointedly: this cover, and consequently the album, begin with the word "Congo," in order to reference the imperialist extraction of resources there. I don't know what the Talking Heads song "Born Under Punches" is about, but I'm pretty sure this one is about collusion with power, telling lies to oneself about the protections of privilege ("fire cannot burn a man!") and a lot of other things that seem clearer when I'm listening than when I try to talk about it afterward. I would LOVE a fic about the narrator of this song, what is going on with that government man, what he's accomplishing and what he's giving up and why--or if it's not a "he," which is a possibility raised by Kidjo being the one singing it, what's with the persistent "man" language?
Leaving the City - Joanna Newsom (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
This song is both beautiful and mystifying to me. The pastoral landscape is appealing, and there's a peace that the narrator seems drawn to, but it's overlaid with tension and avoidance and the weird, constricting sense of "what we are allowed." What I would love the most is a story that figures out--or tries to, at least--the source of that danger, and perhaps the reason the narrator and the narrator's...spouse? lover? companion?...are contemplating leaving the city in the first place. And what city, perhaps, and when?
Yeoman - Baths (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Is this a love song on a spaceship or a love song to a spaceship? I could go either way! I don't have a lot to say about this one, I'm just super into the poppy electro giddiness of the music, and the way love and adventure are swirled together into one swoony whole, and I think there's a great science fiction story to be told about all of it.
Harmony Hall - Vampire Weekend (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
This is so rich! There's a world of possibilities in these lyrics about power being perverted, movements for change (anger wants a voice!) and the way they fall apart (till you can't hear anything!), and the people on the inside. I could VERY happily read a whole fic about whoever is narrating the second verse--it seems to be someone "within the seat of power" anxiously looking out at the people and simultaneously back at their own past. This could all be happening on a grand scale or a relatively small one. "I don't wanna live like this but I don't wanna die" is also such a tight little koan of a lyric, and could potentially be spoken by a lot of different characters. If you want to address real-world oppression directly, by all means do; the language in the song is somewhat allegorical and indirect, so you can really choose how exact you want to be.
I have no triggers and relatively few dislikes. I love lots of genres, and my AO3 profile might or might not give you a clue of what I'm into. I dig love stories and also gen; I'm fine with all kinds of narrative structures, perspectives, and tenses; and for the most part I don't have fixed ideas about the characters and stories of these songs, so you have lots of leeway to do what you like. Please do avoid writing about graphic and/or sexual violence. I'm okay reading stuff that references the current pandemic, but probably it's a good idea to warn for it up top.
I've ticked the boxes for both fic and podfic for all of these, so do whichever format makes you happy! There are a couple where I'm also happy to receive art.
I've got a trio of requests for songs by Let's Make a Music. This is a podcast featuring some relatively young Internet Weirdos who put out a prompt on Twitter periodically and then use the responses to write a song. It's goofy and random and varied, and the music is, considering their process, shockingly high-quality. I enjoy the music of The Altogether, the more...legitimate band that some of these folks are members of, but honestly the stuff they do for LMAM shows off their musical know-how more sharply, since they do pastiches of all kinds of styles and it's pretty much always great. I recommend the podcast because I like it, but it's not required, since I'm not asking for fic about the podcast or its creators at all. I also had trouble narrowing down my LMAM nominations so I could nominate some other things too--so references to other songs of theirs are welcome but, again, by no means required. If you want to just come into one of these songs cold and write about what they seem to be describing, that's awesome.
Song of Green Bastion - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanart, Fanfiction, Podfic
Song and lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
So this is great because 1) it has an epic high-fantasy feast hall vibe and 2) everybody in it is a possum but 3) there's no canon so you can write any story you want. The voices in the song are assigned names in the official lyric transcript, and on the podcast they speculate a bit about who those characters would be, but if you want to ditch those names and make up new ones that is fine, especially since they appear nowhere in the song itself. I really dig the style of this song and would be happy for you to go in as serious or satirical a direction as you want. I checked the Fanart option for this one because if someone wants to draw these possums, that would be a pretty great outcome.
Car Mitzvah - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
The LMAM songs I nominated are all ones where the music takes the concept very seriously even though it's objectively bonkers. This song is sung to a character having their bar mitzvah in a speeding car while other vehicles representing other religions speed around and try to coax them away. Obviously this is completely bizarre, but the song's narrator is so earnest and the music brings such energy and the line "you're at the crossroads of your life" is sung so many times and with so little irony that it becomes meaningful despite itself. I'd love to hear a little more about this protagonist! Why are they doing things this way? Why are the Buddhists in a Hummer of all things? Has the songwriter mixed up the Mennonites and the Amish? (Yes, probably.) What else do they use these vehicles for--is worship routinely held on the road in this universe? I want to know!
Mr. 1981 & the Monolith Man - Let's Make a Music (Song): Fanart, Fanfiction, Podfic
Song and lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
The theme song to a cartoon that never existed. I can imagine two equally great outcomes here: you come up with a reason Mr. 1981 and Monolith Man are fighting, or you make a point of never coming up with that reason. Also, what's going to happen to Mr. 1981 when the year ends? Does he have a name of his own? I would especially enjoy seeing the rest of the family show up. Once again, I would be happy with something that takes this Saturday-morning-cartoon setup totally seriously or something that pokes fun at it or plays with the format. I checked fanart for this one too because, come on, the world could use some fanart of this character or family.
Born Under Punches - Angélique Kidjo (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional interview reading/listening
On to non-comedy-podcast songs! Angélique Kidjo's Remain in Light is a song-by-song cover of the Talking Heads album of the same name. It picks up on the African influences on the originals and it is a powerful, gorgeous piece of work. It also recontextualizes the kinda slipstream lyrics, purposefully and pointedly: this cover, and consequently the album, begin with the word "Congo," in order to reference the imperialist extraction of resources there. I don't know what the Talking Heads song "Born Under Punches" is about, but I'm pretty sure this one is about collusion with power, telling lies to oneself about the protections of privilege ("fire cannot burn a man!") and a lot of other things that seem clearer when I'm listening than when I try to talk about it afterward. I would LOVE a fic about the narrator of this song, what is going on with that government man, what he's accomplishing and what he's giving up and why--or if it's not a "he," which is a possibility raised by Kidjo being the one singing it, what's with the persistent "man" language?
Leaving the City - Joanna Newsom (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
This song is both beautiful and mystifying to me. The pastoral landscape is appealing, and there's a peace that the narrator seems drawn to, but it's overlaid with tension and avoidance and the weird, constricting sense of "what we are allowed." What I would love the most is a story that figures out--or tries to, at least--the source of that danger, and perhaps the reason the narrator and the narrator's...spouse? lover? companion?...are contemplating leaving the city in the first place. And what city, perhaps, and when?
Yeoman - Baths (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Is this a love song on a spaceship or a love song to a spaceship? I could go either way! I don't have a lot to say about this one, I'm just super into the poppy electro giddiness of the music, and the way love and adventure are swirled together into one swoony whole, and I think there's a great science fiction story to be told about all of it.
Harmony Hall - Vampire Weekend (Song): Fanfiction, Podfic
Song
Lyrics
Totally optional additional podcast listening
This is so rich! There's a world of possibilities in these lyrics about power being perverted, movements for change (anger wants a voice!) and the way they fall apart (till you can't hear anything!), and the people on the inside. I could VERY happily read a whole fic about whoever is narrating the second verse--it seems to be someone "within the seat of power" anxiously looking out at the people and simultaneously back at their own past. This could all be happening on a grand scale or a relatively small one. "I don't wanna live like this but I don't wanna die" is also such a tight little koan of a lyric, and could potentially be spoken by a lot of different characters. If you want to address real-world oppression directly, by all means do; the language in the song is somewhat allegorical and indirect, so you can really choose how exact you want to be.
