Song Choice in Vidding (Slash Version)

[tinturtle]

I will probably be starting a new Professionals fanvid soon using the song Hammer to Fall by Queen. (Thanks to restorick for the suggestion.) Today, though, I've been considering whether I should make a fluffy, romantic vid first (or maybe at the same time), since so many people seem to like the one I made using the Turtles's You Baby. Yet I find that, in addition to the barriers to song choice I mentioned in my previous post, vids like that present the further problem that potential songs are often inconveniently gendered. If the singer mentions the beloved in the third person, it may be as "she", if the singer addresses the beloved, it may be as "girl", and so on. Take the song I'm a Believer by The Monkees, which I love. (Yes, I'm a goop, but in my defense, the lyrics are clever and it's got a rock organ.) There are parts that might lend themselves to a Doyle POV vid, but to use the song that way would require associating Bodie with feminine pronouns. I don't know whether that should disqualify it or not, really. My inclination is that it should, however. I'm pretty sure it would have for the Lads and their contemporaries; overlooking it would feel like too much of an anachronism.

Comments

[tinturtle]

I also think my vidding style might be getting too abstruse, and wonder if another straightforward relationship vid along the lines of You Baby could help simplify it again.

[restorick.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, looking forward to it!

[tinturtle]

Thanks. Hammer to Fall does have a section shared between the lead guitar and the bass that lasts a whole 55 seconds and that I may decide is just too hard to work with. I really want to use the song, though.

[tinturtle]

I also really want to make a vid using Cover Me by Bruce Springsteen (get it?), and I think a vid using Cars by Gary Numan could be pretty funny (though the song might drive me up the wall before I could finish). I have a partly completed vid for I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as well. I abandoned it partly because I was frustrated by the repetitive lyrics and partly because I decided people might not like my interpretation of them.

[tinturtle]

I think that London Calling by The Clash might be a good thematic match for Pros, too, but I don't feel up to that one. I have this sense that, as someone who is neither British nor old enough to remember the 70s, I couldn't do it justice. Possibly I could talk myself out of that.

[f-m-parkinson.livejournal.com]

Don't feel embarrassed about I'm a Believer by The Monkees — I love that song too. Re. songs that mention the beloved as 'she', that would really irritate me in a songvid if associated with Bodie or Doyle. To me it would feel completely 'off', and I probably wouldn't watch the songvid more than the once. I'm more or less the same generation as the Lads, and agree with you that ignoring the feminine pronoun just seems wrong for them in their 1970s/80s setting.

[tinturtle]

Re. songs that mention the beloved as 'she', that would really irritate me in a songvid if associated with Bodie or Doyle. To me it would feel completely 'off'

I've seen it done in slash vids and it is at least startling. From a certain perspective, though, it's strange that it is. Everyone knows that almost all of the songs used in slash vids were written as heterosexual love songs, probably more than half of them addressed to a female beloved. (You Baby, which I used in a well received vid, is an example.) Why is it so different for that to be made explicit? I can understand that it is, but it is a curious thing.

ETA: I'm glad you think it's okay to like I'm a Believer. *g* In truth, it's a bit of an extreme example, since the pronoun "her" is part of the rhyme scheme, making it more conspicuous than the feminine pronouns in many other songs. It's the song that was uppermost in my mind, though.

[tinturtle]

Now I'm wondering whether romantic songs by female singers, either non-gendered or addressing a male beloved, are good fits for B/D vids. What do you think?

I looked through my collection of favorite vids and found that there aren't so many romantic songs used there at all, but that among those, only one is sung by a woman. That's the song in ancasta's The Warrior.

(There's also The Prince Charming Tango, which was actually written as a homosexual love song, in a vid by Sally Fell / londonronnie.)

[f-m-parkinson.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether you'd call it romantic but Holding Out For A Hero sung by Bonnie Tyler would work for me as a B/D songvid (and may already have been created, for all I know). I think it depends on the song, both music and lyrics, not whether the singer is male or female.

[tinturtle]

angelfish45 used that song for a Doyle-centered vid. I agree that it could work in a B/D vid, too. I'm never sure what the etiquette is regarding songs already used in the same fandom by other vidders. My feeling is that, if the song is well known, and you take your vid in a different direction, it should be okay to reuse the song. (If it's the obvious song for the fandom, it's probably okay even if the direction isn't very different. There are at least four Man from U.N.C.L.E. fanvids that use the 1960s hit Secret Agent Man.)

[tinturtle]

There are also four Pros vids that use the song Behind Blue Eyes, actually: three Bodie-focused ones (by boothros, ci5mates, and bistoprofi) that use Limp Bizkit's cover, and mine, which uses the recording by The Who and brings in Cowley and Doyle, too. (Mine is here, and links to the others can be found in its description.)

Mary Van Deusen and kat-byrd / LilyK / sc_fossil have both made vids using It's Not My Time by 3 Doors Down, as well. (MVD's dedicates about half the time to each Lad, while kat-byrd's is Doyle-focused.)

Re: romantic songs for Pros vids

[restorick.livejournal.com]

Back again *g* hope you don't mind!

A male vocal 'romantic' song that's nudged my memory is 'Iris' by Goo Goo Dolls. It's an unusual musical genre for a Pros vid, but bear with me...

The 'Iris' character is not mentioned and no gender given to the singer or beloved.

Checking the lyrics, the first 2 stanzas could be Bodie POV on Doyle: 'You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be' = when he declares to Doyle in 'Mixed Doubles' that he's 'going the other way' or some such allusion to Hell waiting for him.

And the 4th stanza Doyle POV on Bodie: 'the tears that ain't coming' and 'moment of truth in your lies'.

The refrain could each be their personal POVs.

The 'And sooner or later, it's over' lyric could be about that moment of calm or relief when a dangerous op is over?

Anyway, just a thought (or several *g*)

Crikey, another slash suggestion from this Gen/Het Bodie-Girl!

RE: Re: romantic songs for Pros vids

[tinturtle]

Back again *g* hope you don't mind!

Indeed not. One of the reasons I make posts is to see if I can get people to talk to me about whatever they are about. *g*

You mentioned Iris in a response to the other post. I think it could be a good fit for B and D, especially the theme of impermanence. It does have an instrumental section lasting just over 90 seconds (0_0), but I might be able to cut that, since there's nothing after it but a couple more choruses.

Crikey, another slash suggestion from this Gen/Het Bodie-Girl!

Either two people are having sex or they aren't, but emotionally I don't think there is a sharp boundary between being friends and being lovers. That makes it no great leap for someone with a gen/het interpretation of the show to see how a love song could apply to B and D's relationship when looked at from a slash fan's point of view.

I'm not strongly committed to either way of viewing things, myself. I made the You Baby vid, which is undeniably slash, but I also made a gen vid* using Just a Little Light by The Grateful Dead, which was almost certainly written as a (romantic) love song.

* (According to my vidderly intent, it's a gen vid. Others may and probably do interpret it otherwise.)