Brainstorming and welcome to Jukebox 2019!

[morbane]

Welcome to Jukebox 2019! This is a fanworks gift exchange in which art, fic, and podfic is created for the narratives in songs and music videos.

Canon nominations will occur during 13-22 March this year. The rules about what can be nominated can be found here and haven't changed from last year.

Please use this post or its LiveJournal equivalent to discuss what you're thinking of nominating! See also the past brainstorming tag. Other questions also welcome.


Directory
For fun, here's a directory of the songs and music videos that were nominated and requested in previous years.

2013
Tag set | Tables of canons: A-L, by song; M-Z, by song| Requests

2014
Tag set | Tables of canons: LJ, by song; LJ, by artist; DW, by song; DW, by artist | Requests

2015
Tag set | Tables of canons: by song; by artist | Requests

2016
Tag set | Tables of canons: by song; by artist | Requests

2017
Tag set | Tables of canons: by song; by artist | Requests

2018
Tag set | Tables of canons: by song; by artist | Requests

This post is also on LJ

(nb: all admin posts are cross-posted between LJ and DW, though you're welcome to participate at only one or the other if you prefer.)

Comments

[merryghoul]

Wow, I need to go back and go through my notes because I saw some interesting music videos that were nominated for Yuletide that I wanted to see in Jukebox this year! But off the top of my head, I did want to nominate the “Pynk” video by Janelle Monáe (I feel it can stand alone from the Emotion Picture, and I have so many questions about it), at least “Electric Lady,” also by Janelle Monáe (the song, not sure about the video yet), and the video for “Party of One” by Brandi Carlile. I’m also thinking about a Kehlani video for a song off of her new mixtape.

[kore]

I love the idea of nominating PYNK and other Monae songs/videos. Do you think Emotion Picture could be nominated? -- hmm, looking at the rules, it's longer than 20 minutes tho -- 48 or 49 min. (Solange also just dropped a film for her new album! https://www.complex.com/music/2019/03/solange-releases-visuals-film-for-new-album-when-i-get-home)

[merryghoul]

I know about Solange’s Texas Film, but the whole thing wouldn’t qualify because it’s 30 minutes or so long. Also, it’s only available on Apple Music for the moment, and I wouldn’t expect anyone to get Apple Music to watch it.

Other Monáe songs and videos have been nominated for this exchange in the past. I forgot to mention someone nominated “Electric Lady” last year in my comment, and the video for “Make Me Feel” was nominated by itself. As long as you’re asking for fic about the song or video by itself, and the song can stand alone without relying on other canon information, you’ll be okay.

[fhionnuisce]

Good idea to check out songs in Yuletide! (Looked them over, and I definitely hope Janelle's work gets nominated. I am not caught up on her music but follow articles about all she's doing....badass. :) )

[teaotter]

I saw this last year and made a note for this exchange: the video for Viktoria Modesta's song Prototype. (Content notes for medical procedures and body modification)

[fhionnuisce]

I am definitely nominating Hazard by Richard Marx. It was nominated and successfully had 2 fics in 2013. I want more! It's a murder mystery song that got freakishly popular, he thought it was a throw-away tune and instead there's multiple music videos and a fandom for the music video... lol. I have headcanons and I want to propose them in a letter!

I would like to nominate something by Dar Williams. My themesong by her is Mercy of the Fallen but I'm thinking something more like As Cool As I Am or Iowa are suited to a fandom treatment. Thinking that one over.

ETA: Can't believe I forgot Hozier! So Foreigner's God or Arsonist's Lullaby.

Also looks like I'd have slots for Loreena McKennitt so I'd taken her off the post but am thinking All Soul's Night or The Highwayman (or both).

And Ke$ha? There was a crack fic written once in my primary fandom based on Blow and I'll never get the Blow music video out of my head ever.

Hozier

[fhionnuisce]

Also Hozier just had a new album come out in the last 2 days or so? So I'm listening to that now and considering what to add. With 10 possible slots I foresee nominating a lot of Hozier... lol.

ETA: Sticking to first album though, personally, after giving the new one a listen...the earlier songs are very wormed into my brain.

[cnoocy]

The only specific nomination that I've thought of so far is "Save the Bones for Henry Jones" which has the right mix of funny and strange.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been considering Lord Huron's album Strange Trails (Full album here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiwWgN5O3WQ), lyrics on Genius (https://genius.com/albums/Lord-huron/Strange-trails)) although I don't know if I'll sign up.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking the same thing! I hope you do sign up, I'd definitely offer and request things off this one (especially Meet Me In the Woods or Love Like Ghosts)

[(Anonymous)]

The narrator for Love Like Ghosts, Meet Me in the Woods, and The Night We Met is the same so it'd be interesting to see if they could be offered/requested together, although I don't know if that's in the spirit of this exchange.

The Lonesome Dreams album is also really tempting. I just really love Lord Huron.

[morbane]

If you want to make the case that specific sets of songs (that are less than 20 mins in total) form a combined narrative, and should be nominated as a unit, I'll take that into consideration.

I don't want to approve full albums, but it's also OK to ask for a specific song, and *as well as* prompts for the song on its own, mention some ideas you have based on the rest of an album, understanding that that is optional and your author/artist/podficcer can choose not to follow that. Similarly, you can write/draw/record based on the rest of the album as long as the work would make sense to someone who only knew the requested song.

[(Anonymous)]

I've never done this exchange before but I'm definitely signing up this round! I'm thinking I might nominate the video for Get Out by Frightened Rabbit, Bleachers - Don't Take the Money, maybe Brandon Flowers video for Can't Deny My Love, Church - Fall Out Boy, definitely some folk songs... I'm excited!

[bring_me_sugar]

ALL of the story-songs. All of them!

[fhionnuisce]

Ooh have I got some story songs for you. :D Although in the case of one that immediately comes to mind, it's like the story is so self-contained? Like, it might be a little too detailed? Hmmmmmm. But yes, I was also thinking story songs definitely, which made me add two specific ones to my list.

[bring_me_sugar]

!! I'd love to hear it!

Mortal City by Dar Williams

[fhionnuisce]

It's always frustratingly not on YouTube for some reason, but here are its google results. It's called Mortal City by Dar Williams, and it's on Spotify and stuff (I think), just not YouTube.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dar+williams+mortal+city&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLSz9U3MMwoK7AwUuIEsXMt4qsqtUSzk630c0uLM5P1E3OSSnOtivPz0osfMQZwC7z8cU9Yyn3SmpPXGB25sKsT0uBic80rySypFJLj4pNCskODQYqHC4nPs4hVIiWxSKE8MycnMzG3WCE3v6gkMUchGagXAHJ-AJKeAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY9dCx0vjgAhVoUN8KHYeVBoYQri4IQA

The lyrics:

She never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City
The cold comes though every crack she puts her hand up to
The radiator's broken, so she has to use electric heat.
And tonight was the first date with the brother of the guy she worked next to
He lived a couple streets away
He listened, he had things to say
She asked him up for dinner sometime
Sometime was tonight

The radio gave updates on the ice storm while she made the dinner
They said, from all the talk, you shouldn't drive or even walk
And this just in, we're asking everyone to turn off their power
They need it at the hospital.

She ran around pulling plugs, then she called him up
Maybe now they shouldn't meet, he said that he would brave the streets
She met him at the door with a blanket and a candle
Saying, I heard it on the radio, I had to turn my power off.

He said you're not the only one, the streets were dark tonight,
It was like another century
With dim lamps and candles lighting up the icy trees and the clouds and a covered moon.

She said what kind of people make a city
Where you can't see the sky and you can't feel the ground?
I tell you something, I have this feeling that this city's dying

He said, it's not dying it's the people who are dying
She said, yes, yes I think the people are dying and nobody cares.

We had all this technology our dreams were bold and vague
And then one city got bad planners, one city got the plague.

He asked why did you move here? She said, for the job
For the job and I've been so lonely here, so lonely
There's no one I can talk to, you know I don't even know your brother.

He smiled and said, sometimes at night I walk out by the river
The city's one big town, the water turns it upside down
People found this city because they love other people
They want their secretaries, they want their power lunches.

And think about tonight, I heard the same newscast you did
I unplugged everything, I looked out the window
And I think the city heard, I watched as one by one the lights went off
So they could give their power to the hospital

They ate in silence while she thought this over,
They sat together in a dark room in the Mortal City
Shifting in their blankets so they wouldn't get spaghetti on them.

Then came the awkward moment after dinner, what to do,
The ice was still falling, the streets were still dangerous
The cabs were not running and this neighborhood was not the greatest.

They both looked at the space where a couch would've been
She felt her stomach sink, she felt like she could hardly think
She said, I never should have rented this apartment in the Mortal City
The cold comes through eve crack I put my hand up to
The radiator doesn't work, I have to use electric heat.
That settled it, they would both sleep in her bed
It was a matter of survival.

She brought out t-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, hats
If there was ever any thought of what would happen in that bed tonight
There was no question now
They could barely move

They were wrapped up like ornaments waiting for another season.
They lay in bed, they listened to the pelting ice

He said my brother's not a bad guy, he's just quiet
I wished you liked this city
She said, maybe I do.
I think I have a special kind of hearing tonight
I hear the neighbors upstairs
I hear my heart beating
I hear one thousand hearts beating at the hospital
And one thousand hearts by their bedsides waiting
Saying that's my love in the white gown,
We are not lost in the Mortal City
We are not lost in the Mortal City

Re: Mortal City by Dar Williams

[bring_me_sugar]

Thank you so much!

Re: Mortal City by Dar Williams

[fhionnuisce]

You're welcome!

[fhionnuisce]

Here it is on Spotify, which I realize that not everyone can use so I know this isn't entirely helpful.

It's got a bit of a sombre tone with an uplifting if not entirely happy ending.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3V9eWaAfnMRlIgGmG8DUuO

[bring_me_sugar]

Thank you!

[fullupwithfire]

I was actually waffling on a story-song because I wasn't sure if it was too specific, but I think I'm gonna throw it on my nominations pile anyway. :D

(If & When by Doomtree, specifically.)

[fhionnuisce]

Oooh

[fhionnuisce]

I hope you do nominate this, because I could see myself matching on this... :)

[bring_me_sugar]

Thank you so much!

[fhionnuisce]

Here are the lyrics of another song I might nominate. It's not well-known and it's not easy to track down so I would have to help it land somewhere for someone to hear. But I will do so and nominate it if someone likes these lyrics:

The Girl & I - Welcome Home

"Welcome home, how have you been?
I know you've never been here before
But I made it here and I have been okay
I know you've waited years for me

Please coem in, explore these rooms
Cause you know I've never seen this place before
My light is on, my door's unlocked
The fire's burning so strong

I saw a yellow flower
Lying on the roadside
It fell apart in my hands
And I remember being afraid
But he said, "Look, you've made it this far."

Now I feel, now I know this heat I've ignored for so long
My mouth is dry, my skin is wet and I'll
Clutch this burning
Calm

I know that you and I we
Go back a way
But let me introduce myself
Cause I've been known for traveling
And now I'm here to stay.

Twisted signs and closed off roads
Well they led me astray
Broken down and slammin' doors well
They got in my way
But it was never too late
It was never too late.

Welcome home
How have you been?
I know you've never been here before
Well I made it here, and I have been okay
I know you've waited years for me

Help me narrow down this list of music videos?

[ashling]

thoughts/questions/constructive criticism v welcome cause I’m trying to narrow down the list. I always end up asking for everything in monster letters and I need to chill (also these are only music videos; I have a whole different list of songs alone)

hard rain - Lykke Li (music video)
-cinematography goes hard. that PALETTE
-chemistry between the leads is real, sometimes mysterious, sometimes frightening, sometimes tender
-there's still plenty of questions left and plenty of space for someone to write a story to fit the vibe
-did I mention the cinematography

Don’t Pull Away - J.Views (music video)
-give Indya Moore all the acting awards for this one. she can make looking at the camera mesmerizing, an entire storyline in a few blinks
-(spoilers spoilers spoilers) is so GOOD i SCREAMED
-this one is for all the romantics out there. If you have a soft heart brace yourself
-the palette??? again?????? any still of this is a work of art

Apeshit - The Carters (music video)
-Beyoncé is a queen and a goddess and it will likely be easy to get people to write about one of her songs
-the juxtaposition of dynamic black wealth, joy, and success against the stillness of the Louvre aka one of the most establishment institutions in the art world and highkey located in a country that has of the top 3 most colonialist histories of all time
-her MIND. is so powerful
-there's so many layers to this someone could probably write a dissertation on the fashion alone so like, 1k words about it shouldn't be hard

No Church in the Wild - Kanye West (music video)
-all the symbolism you could ask for, plus magical realism and enough raw energy to power a city
-the sheer brilliant chaotic energy of such images as: a shirtless man mounting a police horse, the silent white figures of old statues lit up amid smoke, an elephant rampaging in the streets in a crowd of protesters
-like this is as powerful as the Apeshit video, but here the revolution is coming from the nameless rather than from a goddess
-Frank Ocean can do absolutely no wrong
-surely someone out there wants to write a fic about the nature of revolution? People like Les Mis and stuff right???

Wolf Totem - THE HU (music video)
-the pre-battle vibes of the Rohirrim galloping across a field in Lord of the Rings
-but with the aesthetic of Mongolian biker gang singing menacingly...vests headbands braided hair long hair flowing free a thing that sounds like an electric guitar but maybe it’s a traditional instrument but also it has a bow and arrow shape to it??? And lots of motorcycles obviously
-I WANNA SEE THE BATTLE

Youngblood - 5 Seconds of Summer (music video)
-STRONG soulmate vibes
-magical realism/Black Mirror San Junipero vibes
-just a bunch of hot young Japanese people dressed as 50s era bikers + their big-skirt-wearing girlfriends
-tattoos
-fistfight in middle of the forest for no particular reason
-the ending is too sad and I just wanna live in the middle forever so that’s almost a fic prompt

Truth Hurts - Lizzo (music video)
-carefree, getting-rid-of-a-bad-ex vibes with incredibly charismatic lead and diverse quirky background cast
-literally so many shipping opportunities, m/m, m/f, f/f, and maybe poly??? Depending on ur interpretation
-the opening verse is absolutely iconic: “I just took a DNA test, turns out: I’m 100% that bitch”
-lingerie!!!

Help me narrow down this list of songs? (1/2)

[ashling]

thoughts/questions/constructive criticism v welcome cause I’m trying to narrow down the list. I always end up asking for everything in monster letters and I need to chill (also these are only songs; I have a whole different list of music videos)

Your Best American Girl - Mitski (song)
-begins so meek and (seemingly) straightforwardly sweet and transforms over the course of the song into a clarion call of hard-won triumph
-diaspora feelings up and down and all around, in the air and everywhere
-sometimes you love the person but you can’t fit into their world without changing yourself and sometimes you don’t want to change yourself and that’s okay! Good, even! Thank you Mitski!
-Mitski is holding absolutely nothing back, ever; some of these lyrics I’d be afraid to write cause they’re embarrassingly honest but I have to respect that

Washing Machine Heart - Mitski (song)
-odd thumping rhythm that really works
-starts insouciant and gets disturbingly vulnerable and needy real quick
- “toss your dirty shoes in my washing machine heart/baby bang it up inside”
-”baby though I’ve closed my eyes/I know who you pretend I am”
-for those who like twisty thorny complicated dynamics

Doves In The Wind - SZA (song)
-this song has panache, chutzpah, swagger, style, confidence, whatever you wanna call it. It has that. All of that.
-”it’s only replaced by a rubber substitute/we ain’t feelin you” she went all the way there
-there’s still some of that trademark SZA vulnerability even after all that confidence; the singer knows her worth and isn’t going to have any nonsense but she still wants somebody: “I wanted to do it all/unfortunately you couldn’t get your shit together”
-on the day that she meets someone with their shit together, is she too jaded to open up or…?

Garden (Say It Like Dat) - SZA (song)
-SZA’s voice is dreamy and romantic and uniquely hers
-the first chorus is beautiful but in the second chorus, her voice has such warmth and generosity and affection in it when she sings: “open your heart up/hopin’ I’ll never find out that you’re anyone else/cause I love you/just how you are”
-this chorus comes with the prompt built in cause first of all, does she find out that the object of her affections is “anyone else”?
-and second of all, the chorus immediately continues with: “and hope you never find out who I really am/cause you’ll never love me/you never love me/you’ll never love me/but I believe you when you say it like that”
-Who is she? Does she get her heart broken or not???

Normal Girl - SZA (song)
-her voice is absolutely exquisite and it’s got longing in not just sweet notes but also when her voice breaks off and in the way she times her breathing and everything she does
-has a built-in conflict the same way Garden (Say It Like Dat) does; the singer longs for her lover to treat her as a long-term, full partner, but instead her lover mostly just appreciates how sexually available she is and how openly she wants them
-and throughout the song she laments that she’s not a “normal girl” which technically probably has a specific meaning to SZA but in fanfic world could mean anything at all
-but then at the end of the song she hopes to get out of the unhealthy relationship: “This time next year I'll be livin' so good/won't remember your name, I swear.”

Retrograde - James Blake (song)
-subtle power
-the dizzying layering of “we’re alone now” repeated over and over in sonically warped ways
-genuinely can’t decide if it’s disturbing or comforting or both
-“suddenly I’m hit”
-surely there’s a story in the relationship between the singer & the listener


10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - Matt Redman (song)
-I wish I could find a better copy of this song because a better copy of this song would be the warm clear voice of a woman singing from the front of the church while there are people all around you singing and you’re too little to feel anything but perfectly safe and happy there and it’s the best music you’ve ever heard
-but also this is not just a nostalgia song, there’s a specific verse that is crying out for a story to be written about it:
The sun comes up; it's a new day dawning
it's time to sing Your song again
whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
let me be singing when the evening comes
-that is a prayer that could mean so many different things depending on the context. It could be a battle song, or something very desperate, or something quiet and resigned. It’s so simple and so beautiful.

Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[ashling]

Kendrick Lamar - DNA (song)
-there’s no breather in the song, it’s pure energy all the way through. It doesn’t build up to be interesting, it starts out interesting and ends absolutely fascinating
-everything that comes before the countdown is good but the countdown and afterwards is so good that it’s mentally impossible to hold even the most banal conversation while it plays in the background
-they gave Kendrick the Pulitzer for a REASON. I can’t quote any lyrics cause it feels like dishonoring the song by taking them out of the context of the other lyrics
-this song has the energy of someone who does not give a fuck what the world thinks of them; they’re proud of who they are and they know where they came from and to hell with the rest
-song is so rich with meaning it feels like a fic response could range from a simple bloody fight to something incredibly experimental and poetic

Oblivion - Bastille (song)
-elegiac & quiet, ft. tenderness & intimacy & grief
-Dan Smith really has a fucking voice!
-once propelled me thru 7k words of major character death so clearly very powerful
-people sometimes like it when things are Sad, I have observed
-it really feels like there could be some sort of immortal/mortal storyline here, or something about history being forgotten

Hozier - Work Song (song)
-Hozier knows how to sing love songs with reverence. Like actual reverence, like worship, and somehow there’s nothing fake about it
-unsure whether to nominate as a song or as a music video because on one hand, the music video dancing is exquisite, but it might take away from the lovable monster side of the song
-cause ultimately the song feels more like this violent monster marveling at their beloved’s ability to love them as they are and that’s not really there in the dancing
-I am very conflicted because the music video is entrancing and the people in the music video have great chemistry so feels like that could be its whole thing too

Lorde - Homemade Dynamite (song)
-young and full of chaotic energy, charismatic, mischevious, invites the listener to complicity
-”don’t know you well but I think that you might be the same as me (behave abnormally)”
-”let’s let things come out of the woodwork, I’ll tell you my best line, tell you all my best lies”
-so many good lyrics it’s difficult not to just copypaste all of them in
-fresh, but not sweet. Fresh like biting into a lime
-don’t you wanna read about “blowing shit up with homemade dynamite”??? I do

Sober II (Melodrama) - Lorde (song)
-cinematic! Sweeping, self-aware
-narrator knows their ways are fucked up and breaks the fourth wall to throw back the listener’s presumed judgment back in their face. fascinating
-Lorde can build an atmosphere like nobody else
-do I detect a whiff of Gatsby
-who are these glamorous messed-up people?

Two Slow Dancers - Mitski (song)
-sense of weariness and time passed, but also tenderness
-”and we’ve both done it all a hundred times before/it’s funny how I still forgot” and “it would be a hundred times easier/if we were young again”
-longing. Pining. All the tropes could be applicable to this, all the sweeping long lifetimes of UST

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[fhionnuisce]

Well I'm not sure about the rest but I'm planning to nominate 4 Hozier songs. And Work Song, Sedated, and Like Real People Do were successfully done in other years.

My plan (as of this list of songs) is to nominate:

Arsonist's Lullaby, Foreigner's God, and from the new Album, Talk and Would That I.

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[ashling]

great! waiting to see which Hozier songs get nominated before I go in for it

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[(Anonymous)]

Okay because I couldn't justify as many Hozier songs with 7 noms I threw in Arsonist's Lullabye and Foreigner's God which are my two faves. To be fair this is because I didn't encounter a lot of the album until later.

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[fhionnuisce]

This was me.

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[morbane]

We've had at least one work created for Work Song before, but actually that just makes me more keen to see it again - it's really fun seeing one person's interpretation and then a totally different one.
Am also fond of Homemade Dynamite and interested to see what would come out of DNA.

Re: Help me narrow down this list of songs? (2/2)

[ashling]

thanks! <3 I'm almost certainly going to do DNA and I'm waiting to see what Hozier stuff people put in. They might put in some Lorde too. we'll see

[(Anonymous)]

I'm still considering my full list, but earlier this year I came to the shocked realization that we have never seen fic for Nick Cave's Red Right Hand, and that's criminal.

Though looking for a video link I'd forgotten it got used as the Peaky Blinder's theme... which always amused me because the first place *I* ran into it was on the X-files soundtrack :V

[(Anonymous)]

+1

[(Anonymous)]

One song I was reminded of when my nominations were in and which I would not mind seeing nominated if someone has room is Orange Sky by Alexi Murdoch. I guess it is probably folk.

[fhionnuisce]

Argh, also me.