How Music Playlists Help Create a Sense of Place and Atmosphere in Your Writing

Music is an innovative and fun way to create a sense of place and atmosphere in writing. Listening to certain genres of music and artists helps me connect with a specific time period or a subculture. Also, referencing particular songs or artists can serve as a shortcut to instantly create a sense of time and place for the reader.

When I start a new writing project, I like to create a Spotify playlist to listen to while I write. The songs I choose will be a mix of what my characters would hear in their world.

For example, when I began working on my current manuscript about a recent high school graduate coming of age in the Summer of 1983, I used the Top 40 Weekly US Chart Archive to figure out which songs would have been introduced on radio stations between May and August. Because the story takes place in Southern California, I also chose songs that would have been played on KROQ, which was one of the most influential radio stations at that time with a distinctive new wave format. When I work on the project, hearing popular bands of the time, such as Culture Club, Duran Duran, and Eurythmics, help me slip into the mindset of a young man on the brink of adulthood in 1983.

If your story takes place amongst a group of people outside the mainstream, a music playlist can improve your chances of creating a better sense of place and atmosphere in your writing. For example, the type of music played by a DJ in a gay bar in New York City in the early eighties would be very different from what a DJ would play in a country-and-western nightclub in Dallas in the early nineties. Likewise, a radio belonging to a crew of painters consisting of mostly Mexican immigrants would play music that contrasts significantly with what guests sing along and dance to at a Hasidic wedding.

An alternative technique I use is to choose a genre of music that creates an atmosphere more than being historically accurate. Last year, I drafted a story about a young Japanese woman who is forever changed by her close friendship with an American/Swedish student in an alternate Tokyo in 1965. At first, I made a playlist that included songs that were popular in 1965 to help me better understand the characters and the time period. As I began to delve more deeply into the darker, dramatic moments in the manuscript, I realized I needed music that put me in the right mood for writing the story.

Because much of the story takes place at night and in alternate, futuristic Japan, I chose the soundtrack to the movie Blade Runner by Vangelis. Soundtracks often use musical accompaniment to assist in guiding a viewer through the feelings the characters experience in the story. It’s similar to why situation comedies often include a laugh track to encourage viewers where they should laugh. Listening to the moody Blade Runner soundtrack created the right atmosphere for me to connect with a young woman torn between assimilating to the expectations of her family and society and the glimpse of a more fulfilling life her friend showed her, yet the electronic instruments provided just the right touch to keep me anchored in an alternate 1965 where automatons handle the menial work for humans and police officers patrol the city with jetpacks strapped to their backs.

Another way music creates a sense of place and atmosphere in writing is by including references to songs in a story. When I read Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis in 1986, the constant references to songs in the novel helped me to connect intimately with the characters and story even though I had never been to California nor had any exposure to the lives of rich kids. After a lifetime of reading classics from other periods, Less Than Zero was contemporary and validated the book as a novel for young people my age, and the chosen song references served as a soundtrack for my generation. Both the book and the time I read it allowed me to believe that I could actually write about characters and stories from my own experience. I still reread the novel every few years for inspiration, although I’m always surprised by how disturbing it is in places.

If you’re planning to participate in National Novel Writing Month this year, put together a playlist for your story. Spotify allows you to create a music playlist and listen to it for free with ads. If you don’t like commercial interruptions, you can subscribe for a small monthly fee. Apple Music is another paid option, although they offer a free, three-month trial.

Does your intended novel include a love story? Put a love theme in your playlist. Is there a party scene in your story? Add a few songs that would play in the background to your playlist. Is there a tense confrontation in a bar? Choose a song for your playlist that would be playing on the jukebox at this tense moment.

If you want music to serve more as inspiration for a particular mood instead of a soundtrack of certain songs, Pandora may be a better option since its algorithms create playlists for you.

If you have no idea what your story is about, select a few songs that seem to resonate with you and use them as writing prompts. Don’t overthink it. When you hear the song, close your eyes and start writing what you see. Perhaps a woman in a formal dress walks alongside a desert highway at night with her shoes in hand. Maybe you see an all-American young man sharing a piece of apple pie with his sweetheart in a diner before he leaves town to try out for a minor league baseball team. Have fun! See where it goes! In my own experience, following these creative rabbit holes has led me to treasure.

Remember that playlists, like stories, are iterations. If you find, over time, that a song no longer seems to fit into your playlist, remove it. Add new songs when it seems appropriate to do so. You’re not beholden to your playlist. If your relationship to the music changes as your characters and stories evolve, allow your playlist to change with it.

If you try music playlists for National Novel Writing Month, you’ll find music is a great tool to create a sense of place and atmosphere in your writing.