Loopy Music Writing Idea

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My idea: "listening companions." Essays that are designed to be read while consuming an album. The average reading speed for most people is 300 words per minute; hence, a 74 minute album would of neccesity be 22,200 words long. Presumably such monumental undertakings would be reserved for your absolute favorite records. After all, a record would have to be pretty dang interesting to be able to write all that much about it. Of course, that would be part of the challenge; to make it not sound like drivel, though such a monstrosity couldn't be held to the strictest standards of coherency or consistency.

For the less ambitious, you could lessen the scope of things, and instead produce 1000 - 1500 word essays on singles and individual tracks. Often when I'm listening to a CD or mp3, I surf the web, reading snippets here or there. But I think it would be awesome to read an essay while listening that's especially written for that. What do y'all think?

― Jack Redelfs, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Lamb Lies Down on Broadway', 'Quadrophenia', 'Cosmogony of the Pentateuch' (Greenslade)

― dave q, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also, I believe Frank Zappa recommended reading Kafka's "In the Penal Colony" to accompany listening to "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny".

― dave q, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i misread this as writing the essays while listening to the album and got very worried

22,000 words in 74 minutes is quite a lot of writing

― m jemmeson, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The fanfiction world has a thing called a songfic--a story written to accompany a particular song, kind of like a music video that you read. Go to http://www.fanfiction.net and read the essay (listed in the Columns section on the front page) "The Soundtrack," and you'll get a good idea of what they're like. Most of them are terrible, even by fanfic standards, but it's an interesting idea. I suspect that they would require quite a bit of writing craft to do well.

Your idea about essays about songs, to be read while listening to those songs, sounds like a good idea. Maybe I'll write a few. However, I won't be able to sync them properly, because I read ten times faster than most people do, but I'll try. (Proofreaders to the rescue, maybe?)

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"However, I won't be able to sync them properly, because I read ten times faster than most people do, but I'll try. (Proofreaders to the rescue, maybe?)"

Well, that's not the point. I don't think it has to or even should "sync," just something _about_ the song that is bound to last for roughly as long as the track's running time. Like I said, I picked up somewhere that 300 words per minute is the average reading speed for most folks, but I'm sure that varies widely.

― Jack Redelfs, Sunday, 30 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Got it. I'll try getting my husband to proofread it, he reads very slowly. (I read so quickly, in fact, that it makes it difficult to type accurately--I get letters from halfway down the page mixed up in what I'm typing. And reading out loud is almost impossable. I can't slow down.) I might try a very long song, like Sister Ray or Reoccuring Dreams. In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida and American Pie are too played out, and are rubbish anyway.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hawkwind did something like this with In Search Of Space - there was a story on the cover which you would read and which you were supposed to finish at the moment the album ended.I don't know whose reading ability was being used as a model.

― Damian, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have that LP, and the booklet enclosed is so fragile it is on the verge of crumbling. I don't think I'd have the patience to read it, so it's safe. Actually, I don't have the patience to listen to the record, either.

― Sean, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Christine - get writin!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 1 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You could watch "The Wizard of Oz" while listening to "The Dark Side of the Moon" .. .. and I guess you could read a cereal box or something.

― Dave225, Tuesday, 2 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Damian: Who wrote the story? Was Moorcock still working with them when they put out that record?

Tracer: It's on my Real Soon Now list.

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo, Thursday, 4 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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