Music plays a big role in our modern society. It is a medium that transforms along with our society thanks to the artists that create it. It influences consumers emotionally, morally, and culturally and plays an important role in popular culture particularly movies, television shows, and video games. Commonly, a combination of instrumental scores and complementary music plays during and in between scenes and they help convey the desired emotion and tone of particular scenes.
Reading is defined as “the process that involves recognising words, leading to the development of comprehension”. Reading is a process that negotiates the meaning between the text and the reader. The music is missing when we lose ourselves in a bookish world but this has all changed with readily available music streaming apps. When I think of how I read, it is almost like watching a movie that takes place in my mind. With the help of my inner monologue, I become the narrator, director, casting director, and make important decisions regarding costuming and musical numbers.
With smart devices, music is now constantly available at our fingertips. Streaming services provide immediate access to millions of songs and most platforms have a seemingly endless supply of archived playlists. These playlists can be created by anyone and are shared across the world.
Bookish playlists seem to be this untapped resource of the streaming world, if you know what to look for. There are playlists made by readers to play as background noise, playlists made by fans of particular books, fandoms, OTPs (one true pairings), and there are even playlists curated by authors of the songs that they listened to while writing particular books, which gives another insight into their creative process!
Throughout my research for this topic, I discovered a diverse range of fan related musical content that extended further than simple playlists on music streaming platforms. One of my favourite discoveries was Reading Riffs, which can be found on Instagram @beardedbookie and what you will find is an aesthetic feed filled with books, popular culture, and more books. The reading riffs can be found on their IGTV and they are a wonderful blend of the artists’ passions.
Music can create an environment that helps you focus, become ‘in tune’ with the reading space, and helps mirror the emotions in your story creating an opportunity to feel a deeper connection to situations and relationships within your text. Reading while listening to music isn’t for everyone but I believe it is something everyone should try at least twice (my motto is: always try new things twice).
Personally, I love listening to music while reading and since discovering the existence of bookish playlists I haven’t turned back. Below are some recommendations of some of my favourite bookish playlists and I think you can guess my favourite genre of book!
Fan Curated:
Author Curated:
