MUSIC MONDAYS 1: What music works well with an S&M theme?
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Thanks, everyone who asked questions! I'll probably be getting to every single one of them in the coming weeks, but there's one that just jumped out at me as the best possible question to open with regarding D&J.
So, asks this person, what sort of music fits well with an S&M theme?
And that kind of thing reminds me that I have a scholar of music-and-altered-states on this very friendslist who is probably going to have opinions on what I say here. :grin:
There are a few answers to this question, really, and they're going to be as unique as individually kinky persons are unique, but for my purposes, I think you're actually asking about how the musical styles would interact with the characters and their perceptions of kink in D&J. Because obviously, a BDSM scene revolving around subdual is going to have a different musical tone than one that revolves around servitude, than one that revolves around thudding pain or sharp pain or physical strain. Considering how variegate practitioners of kink are, there's any number of ways a scene could go physically, and thus any number of ways it can be rendered musically. A flogging scene can really benefit from ambient music with a strong bassline--or the sub can find it distracting and not in the good way, and the silence between blows can be moving. A brawling scene might want some driving rock and roll to set the mood, or something incongruous and sweet, or some epic Wagnerian horns to show the sub who's boss.
Honestly, for me, it's more the performance aspect of the scene than the kinky aspect that determines what the appropriate musical style would be. And I guess that's really appropriate to D&J as a show, since it's treating dominatrices as theatrical professionals. I'm going about style selection for D&J the same way I would for any other show, just keeping in mind that these scenes have to be sexy for the characters involved.
The BDSM in D&J is just as character-specific as the music for any show is. Justine, Tara, and Dynamite have completely different styles of domination--they're all going to sound very different musically. Yes, a lot of the kinky scenes are going to turn into musical numbers. Yes, that is going to be extremely fun. In order for me to keep the show unified, the overall feel for BDSM in this house in particular is jazz--part of that is New York City and its associations, and part of that is Broadway, but the main reason is how well all of the main characters lend themselves to the form.
Dynamite's domination style is the most forceful. She has the lowest singing voice, and the most overtly commanding presence in all her scenes. Her scene-song, "Laying Down the Law", is about how this particular client comes to her because she makes rules that he can't break. The phrase structures and chord formulae of a soulful jazz song reinforce that they're the singer's rules and she's the only one who gets to bend them and push them.
Tara's scene is extremely different. You can tell just by the title: "Sweetheart, Darling, Angel (that's no way to treat a lady)". Think of Tara's style as catching flies with honey. She's the overly sweet, condescending domme who overwhelms her clients by being cavalier and innocent. The modus operandi just smacks Betty Boop to me, and that's what kind of voice Tara has; high, coquettish, and a very different kind of sexy than Dynamite.
Justine has two scenes: one in act one where it goes poorly, and one in act two when it works out much better for her. The scene in act one, "Shut up" is set to music, but she can't quite manage the style--because it isn't her style. But in act two, the scene that succeeds for her is one that isn't set to music at all, because the client enjoys the way she talks to him, and also what happens to him when she's not talking. Justine defines her ability to dominate by speech and silence, not music.
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We're almost at 2k for Dogboy & Justine! Thanks so much: please keep boosting the signal and helping us out!
.
Thanks, everyone who asked questions! I'll probably be getting to every single one of them in the coming weeks, but there's one that just jumped out at me as the best possible question to open with regarding D&J.
So, asks this person, what sort of music fits well with an S&M theme?
And that kind of thing reminds me that I have a scholar of music-and-altered-states on this very friendslist who is probably going to have opinions on what I say here. :grin:
There are a few answers to this question, really, and they're going to be as unique as individually kinky persons are unique, but for my purposes, I think you're actually asking about how the musical styles would interact with the characters and their perceptions of kink in D&J. Because obviously, a BDSM scene revolving around subdual is going to have a different musical tone than one that revolves around servitude, than one that revolves around thudding pain or sharp pain or physical strain. Considering how variegate practitioners of kink are, there's any number of ways a scene could go physically, and thus any number of ways it can be rendered musically. A flogging scene can really benefit from ambient music with a strong bassline--or the sub can find it distracting and not in the good way, and the silence between blows can be moving. A brawling scene might want some driving rock and roll to set the mood, or something incongruous and sweet, or some epic Wagnerian horns to show the sub who's boss.
Honestly, for me, it's more the performance aspect of the scene than the kinky aspect that determines what the appropriate musical style would be. And I guess that's really appropriate to D&J as a show, since it's treating dominatrices as theatrical professionals. I'm going about style selection for D&J the same way I would for any other show, just keeping in mind that these scenes have to be sexy for the characters involved.
The BDSM in D&J is just as character-specific as the music for any show is. Justine, Tara, and Dynamite have completely different styles of domination--they're all going to sound very different musically. Yes, a lot of the kinky scenes are going to turn into musical numbers. Yes, that is going to be extremely fun. In order for me to keep the show unified, the overall feel for BDSM in this house in particular is jazz--part of that is New York City and its associations, and part of that is Broadway, but the main reason is how well all of the main characters lend themselves to the form.
Dynamite's domination style is the most forceful. She has the lowest singing voice, and the most overtly commanding presence in all her scenes. Her scene-song, "Laying Down the Law", is about how this particular client comes to her because she makes rules that he can't break. The phrase structures and chord formulae of a soulful jazz song reinforce that they're the singer's rules and she's the only one who gets to bend them and push them.
Tara's scene is extremely different. You can tell just by the title: "Sweetheart, Darling, Angel (that's no way to treat a lady)". Think of Tara's style as catching flies with honey. She's the overly sweet, condescending domme who overwhelms her clients by being cavalier and innocent. The modus operandi just smacks Betty Boop to me, and that's what kind of voice Tara has; high, coquettish, and a very different kind of sexy than Dynamite.
Justine has two scenes: one in act one where it goes poorly, and one in act two when it works out much better for her. The scene in act one, "Shut up" is set to music, but she can't quite manage the style--because it isn't her style. But in act two, the scene that succeeds for her is one that isn't set to music at all, because the client enjoys the way she talks to him, and also what happens to him when she's not talking. Justine defines her ability to dominate by speech and silence, not music.
.
We're almost at 2k for Dogboy & Justine! Thanks so much: please keep boosting the signal and helping us out!
.