The theme of this month’s blogs focused on the importance of music both in life and in the S.F. Powell book series. Here are a few highlights:
Love Songs. Romantically speaking, love is an indefinable emotion—but we all know it when we feel it, all know what that ‘indefinable’ thing means to us, individually and uniquely. Love songs often enhance or complement those individual and unique feelings when we’re in the throes of connecting with someone on that ‘special’ level. Many of these types of songs makeup the majority soundtrack of our lives. From country music to hip-hop, songs about wanting love or having love or some status of love, get us down the highway, get us … in the mood for love.
Breakup Songs. 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. Some categories of breakup songs are: Anger (You Know What You Did); Regret (I Know What I Did, and I’m Sorry); and Acceptance (It’s for the 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.
Message Songs. A departure from musically expressing some romantic love (or ‘un-love’ as with a breakup song), message songs center more around love for one’s fellow man or for some societal cause. Like a romantic love song, the music in message songs can be sweet and wistful, or, like a breakup song, can musically show anger and dissatisfaction over some world issue. Message songs can fall into these categories: Protest (I won’t stand for this any longer—and you shouldn’t, either!); Status-of-Society (take a look at our world today); Charitable Cause (your help is needed); and Spirituality-based (get with God).
Music within SFPB. Music moves us. With the emotional highs of a love song and the tension in a breakup song, as well as the call-to-action urgency of a message song, my novel series is infused with music and songs influencing a character’s reaction or mood in many scenes. The types of music my characters listen to also reflects a bit of who they are as ‘people,’ for example, Dr. Alexander likes classical music. Many of the songs in my fiction series are more along the lines of a ‘personal’ message more so than a ‘grand’ message. My characters are intending the specific song title or certain lyrics within a song to convey a feeling. The ‘soundtracks’ of my books is as much an integral part of my stories as the plot and setting. Examples of key songs from the soundtracks of Like Sweet Buttermilk, Obscure Boundaries, and Broken Benevolence are: “Stay in My Corner” (the Dells); “Respect Yourself” (the Staple Singers); and “Boogie Shoes” (K.C. and the Sunshine Band).
Dr. Naomi Alexander and the gang definitely have their interplay with music, such that the stories lose something without it.
Until next time … Read on!
