One of the best novels I’ve read this year is Unreliable by St. Pete’s own Lee Irby. This book is more than the mystery/whodunit that it appears to be on the book jacket (when you’re published by Doubleday, your book wears a jacket). It’s a smart psychological trip, dripping in history and innuendo with a funny and engaging first-person narrative. Add in a controversial Confederate monument (unbelievably good timing for a book that was years in the making) and you've got a book that captures the zeitgeist (yeah, I said "zeitgeist"). But I’m not here to talk about what a great read it was, because this Creative Loafing review will tell you that.
One of the many things that stood out to me was his use of music in the storytelling. This isn't easy to do in fiction. Somehow, he managed to put a cool soundtrack behind this book — so much so that I’m tempted to just go ahead and make a playlist. In addition to Dylan and The Replacements, we had Conor Oberst, Neko Case, and Lucinda Williams (among many others) all offering their best tunes as the main character careens through the city of Richmond, Virginia gone mad. Haven’t heard of these artists? You’re not a white male music lover in his mid-40s. And that’s OK. But for me, it was like he had looked through my iTunes account before writing the book.
Mentioning music can be complicated. Sometimes we have a cinematic image that we want to convey, and some cool guitar licks sure would go nicely as our hero calmly walks away from an exploding fuel truck. But what if you wrote your story in 1988 and you picked Def Leppard or Whitesnake to be spilling out of a passing car for effect — you’re going to achieve a different vibe in 2017. Some music hasn’t stood the test of time and now your reader pictures our man with a mullet and acid-washed jeans.
In the book I’m currently writing, my main character finds himself heading to the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan to meet an art forger. As he rides the train, Elvis Costello’s song “I Don’t Want To Go To Chelsea” is running through his head. I did this because, personally, I can't think of Chelsea without thinking of that song. It’s a cool groove, and I thought the lyric gave a little foreboding to the situation. But I also recognize that a vast majority of readers might not know the song — and that’s OK, too. They might know Elvis Costello, and some readers will think my character has a deeper-than-average interest in music — which is better than stating, “Michael has a deeper than average interest in music.” Readers who’ve never heard of any of it, well, they’ll just know the character thought to mention it. I can’t really see a negative and I don’t plan on hitting the reader over the head incessantly with mildly obscure pop-culture references. If you read the book in 10 years, the context won’t change unless Elvis Costello goes on a murderous rampage or runs for Parliament.
So, with all of this in mind, I think I can declare a few rules about using music in your fiction. Of course, there are also some ACTUAL rules that’ll keep you from getting sued:
1. You can’t use lyrics without copyright permission from the artist. So, make sure you, or your publisher, do that.
2. Song titles, however, cannot be copyrighted, so go nuts.
My rules:
3. Is music important to the scene? Are your characters dancing? Then yes. But if you're just using music to create atmosphere, think about whether this should be accomplished through better writing. You can pick the song when they make a movie out of your book.
4. Once you’ve answered #3, and decided to press on, make sure readers will either understand the reference, or that it’s OK if they don’t.
5. Think about how this might be perceived in 20 years. Using the Beatles is pretty safe, their legacy is established. Using Ke$ha or Imagine Dragons… the jury is out on these bands (will they be forgettably horrible, or legendarily horrible?).
6. Did the reference add to the scene or take the reader out of the scene? Remember, tastes in music are personal, and having Keith Urban croon while your characters consummate might sound great to you, but it might not tug everyone’s heartstrings in the same way.
So, back to Lee Irby, whose character Edwin is a college professor and writer who has gone off the rails when he goes home to attend his mother’s wedding. Lee is artful in his use of musical reference, and he’s a better writer than I am, so I’ll let him explain:
“…the only reason I dropped so many references was that Edwin put much of his energies into music, since it irked him that he never joined a band and pursued a dream. It also allowed him to connect with his future step-sister AND it was crucial to set the stage for downtown Richmond, which hosted many epic punk bands when downtown was decrepit. So the plot dictated it, based completely on a character I saw and heard. Since the book was told in first person, musical references just flowed out. Not sure how it would work in third person. Hope this helps! Your column is incredible!”
Aw, thanks, Lee. Music isn’t just atmosphere in Unreliable, it is a window into the psyche of a psycho. So much popular fiction is formulaic (my own included) that I’m inspired when someone attacks the storytelling in a different way.
I’d like to close this column by mentally turning up a little Enya — close your eyes, feel the inspiration pulsing from your brain to your heart to your fingertips (wait, I said Enya, not Tori Amos) — and… just write.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2017.