In my last blog, I discussed the impact of music on people, specifically love songs. This week’s discussion focuses on breakup songs—when those love songs aren’t cutting it anymore.
Breaking up is hard to do, so this isn’t about those weird folks doing some ‘amiable split’ craziness. Songs expressing the heartache and heartbreak and anger and regret and confusion behind a relationship dissolution are key to helping people get through the pain. There are categories of breakup songs to touch on.
- Anger (You Know What You Did). Oh, the artists (writer/singer) have some things to get off their chest in these songs. The lyrics typically, whether cryptically or in-your-face, give the whole messed-up story of what happened in the relationship, providing the intended message-receiver livid itemization of how they committed one to numerous betrayals. Normally fast-paced and with more bass, these breakup songs express dissatisfaction (and want for revenge) through bouncing angry rhythm.
- Regret (I Know What I Did, and I’m Sorry). These breakup songs are usually dubbed ‘I Want You Back’ songs. Slower-paced with a melancholic rhythm, these songs (the artist) express tuneful acknowledgment of how they messed up (again, cryptically or forthright). As addendum to the acknowledgement of wrongdoing, there is also plea for a second (or fifth) chance to bring things back together—it’ll be better this time around, they promise. These songs are ‘Please, baby, please’ set to music.
- Acceptance (It’s for the Best). This isn’t an ‘amiable split’ necessarily, but at least one of the members of the former partnership duo has come to terms with the breakup. These breakup songs vary in pacing, from a fast-paced, ‘Yay! I’m free and moving on’ breakup message, to a slower, ‘We gave it our best shot and I’ll always love you’ version, to some mid-tempo rhythm expressing combinations of both messages.
Music is an integral part of the human experience. And, since my fiction has characters presumably human, I infuse a bit of music soundtrack throughout my novels. Discussion and talking things out, is good, but sometimes, a song expresses it best. Relationship strains are fodder for life’s drama in literature, and there are a fair-share of relationship-strains in my series, but surprisingly, the breakup-song factor is minimal.
In Like Sweet Buttermilk (book one), a marriage is under stress but it’s clear neither is remotely interested in ending things—although it appears that way at first. The closest I come to mention of a breakup song, is Earth Wind and Fire’s “After the Love Has Gone” (fans know who references this one), but even then, a true breakup is not at hand.
Book two’s, Obscure Boundaries, kicks up the breakup factor, but my main character for this story is too wrapped-up in grief over loss of a first marriage (via death) rather than care about any songs expressing anger regarding the end of the second marriage. No, the soundtrack in this work has more ‘message’ music—which I cover in my next blog.
In the upcoming book three, Broken Benevolence, I do have an ‘I Want You Back’ song, but this ‘regret’ is severely misplaced—and is part of the subplot of a secondary story-line in the novel. I also have an acceptance song (or two) for my main character (hmm…). For more on that, though, you’ll have to wait for the release.
Here’s to the liberating purpose of a good breakup song!
Read on.
