Music that inspires your writing

I am jealous! I remember at my High School we had a spirit week and one of the days was rockstar day. So me and my friends all dressed up as some of our favorite musicians. Last year I dressed up in viking gear brought in my guitar and walked around all day playing twilight of the thunder god XD

(The year before that I came in as Abbath from Immortal just yelling BLLLLEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!)

 

I listen to any number of soundtracks. I can't listen to songs with lyrics, since it distracts me something fierce, and soundtracks have just the right amount of epicness in them. I have a playlist on grooveshark that has soundtracks from The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Last Samurai, Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, and V for Vendetta.

 

I often find myself inspired by the lyrics of some songs. I've been playing Mumford & Sons non-stop these past couple weeks and could find a place for almost every one of their songs in the "soundtrack" of my novel!

 

In addition to all the other hard rock/heavy metal bands listed above I also like listening to a group called Turisas for epic heavy celtic rock with fiddles and barbaric chanting, check them out on you tube.

Rattlehead TVR

 

Neurosis, Virus, Tyranny. . . all that upbeat stuff.

 

Hmm... Am I the only one that listens to punk rock and dubstep while writing? I'm probably the odd one out then.

 

I listen to all kinds of music, but sometimes I listen to some really old stuff, and I mean really old Blues songs from the 30s onwards when I'm in the mood.

 

For fantasy, I find that there's no better than movie and game soundtracks. Anything more specific than that preoccupies my mind and gets me to interact with the music, more so since I'm a singer, rather than just float along with it. Jeremy Soul is genius in that regard. World of Warcraft regional music is wonderful too.

 

@Steerpike: Skrillex is not dubstep!

I like Skrillex but he's more drum&bass on steroids. Some classify him as drumstep/filthy dub but that's making things overly complicated. I don't really care for labels myself either, I listen to all kinds of music. But it's mainly punk rock (Sum41, Blink 182), rap metal (Hollywood Undead, Linkin Park), rap (Eminem, Professor Green), Dubstep/Drumstep/D&B/... (Skrillex, Doctor P, Tek One). Pop music (Simple Plan, Train, Mattafix) just to name a few.

I listen to the same music whether I'm writing or dancing (for some reason I like dancing. And drinking. Probably a connection between both). I don't see a reason to listen to classical music to get the muse going.

 

I kind of agree that Skrillex isn't really dubstep. He is a little bit of everything but not one thing exclusivley. I very seldom listen to dubstep when I write but if I do I would be listening to Ajapai, Wonkap, Datsik, Excision, and Rusko.

 

Jeremy Soule is a legend! I'm actually in the middle of uploading some of his stuff on youtube.

 

I don't usually listen to music when I write, or else my mind takes off on different things instead of focusing on what I'm writing. I tried heavy metal when I'm in a fight scene but usually it ended up becoming too violent than what I originally intended. No music for me.

 

It's more symphonic gothic style but check out Midnight Syndicate and Nox Arcana