THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I CANNOT USE A COMPUTER MOST OF THE DAY

[luciazephyr]

Was working on a fanmix (yay for my Zune) and I started to break my cardinal rules of mixing. Then I realize that I've never written down the rules.

So I grabbed my composition book and started writing them down! Obviously!

Aunt Lucy's Ten Cardinal Laws of Fanmixing

• Rule One: Do not reuse artists.
  Mostly self-explanatory. Having two songs on a single mix by the same music artist is a bad idea. Having three is right out and inexcusable.



• Rule Two: Be specific.
  Have lyrical evidence for every song you use. Just because it invokes a certain feeling in you doesn't mean it will in everyone else. Having lyrical back-up will help. Make friends with AZ Lyrics and Songmeanings. Nothing sucks more than getting a comment that says, "Oh that song is soooo Character Y!" when you meant it for Character X.



• Rule Three: Avoid .aac and .wma file formats.
  Speaking from personal experience, it seems these are the formats that cause the most trouble for people. I think it's because most people use iTunes as a player and it won't play these without some interesting coercion. I wouldn't know, I use goddamn VLC, muthafuckahs, whoo.



• Rule Four: Number your filenames.
  It sucks to open the folder with your just DLed fanmix only to discover there are three #1s, four #7s, and a conglomeration of other numbers. Rename the files to give them an order so people don't have to play the click-and-drag game. Better yet, DL winamp (or a similar player with a metadata editor) and edit the songs themselves so the album slot is your fanmix title and the song number cooresponds to your fanmix's numbering.



• Rule Five: Include a .zip. or .rar, you asshole.
  No one wants to right-click-save twelve different songs. I have skipped every single mix that has done individual DL only. Zip or rar the files together and put up a SendSpace/Mediafire upload.



• Rule Six: Put the album art in the .zip.
  Admittedly, this is a very personal pet peeve, but I use a Zune and I like syncing the fanmixes I DL to the art the creator made. I hate when I DL a mix, then after unzipping the folder have to go back and grab the art. It bugs me.



• Rule Seven: Vary music styles.
  Mixes with many loud, rockin' songs in a row are exhaustive. By the same token, mixes with a long line of pretty, soft songs are boring. Stagger them, especially in character mixes where you have no excuse not to. Order and flow is important.



• Rule Eight: Pick a language and stick to it.
  I have this old McShep mix. I love it, it's great. But a few months back, I cut one song out of it. Why? It was in French. Not kinda-in-French like "Rebel Prince", but completely in French. It was incredibly jarring and threw off the flow completely. Don't do that.



• Rule Nine: Do not use the following songs:
  "I Will Follow You Into the Dark", "One Week", "Simple and Clean", that one instrumental from Brokeback Mountain, "Brothers on a Hotel Bed", "Delicate", "Life Less Ordinary", "Mr. Jones", or "Chasing Cars".
  They are overdone to a ridiculous degree. If you use any of these, you better justify the hell out of it.



• Rule Ten: Do not use "Hallelujah".
  Yes, this needs its own rule. Don't fucking do it unless your subject matter is an actual barber/musician experiencing deja vu about a woman in a bathtub. No, you cannot use one of the more obscure covers. Yes, it's a gorgeous song (especially the Wainwright version, if you ask me) but it's a song that is overdone in every fandom. It's the song that you will find a fanvid of everywhere you go (along with "One Week", it seems).
  Don't use it. I'm serious.

Now, me, I say you can break up to two rules and have a decent mix (except Rule Ten). I have a habit of breaking Rule One a little but goddamnit, can you blame me, I listen to Rice, Folds, and Bird!

Thoughts? Contest? Any more dumb personal rules?

-Luce

Comments

[writer-atdusk.livejournal.com]

much better than the Ten Commandents, that's for sure

I have the same feelings usually about repeating the general, vague songs.. as well as the cliche songs, as fun as they are sometimes for writing, I like finding new stuff that makes a surprisingly good fit :)

[amethyst-wolf.livejournal.com]

If anything, I'd say don't be afraid to experiment. A lot of mixes use many of the same, or similar songs. If a song hits you in a certain way for your pairing/character/etc, toss it in and see how it works.

This wasn't a complete success, but I did a Snake/Otacon mix using New Agey music, just to see if I could. You can check it out here if you'd like, but it's not the best out there, honestly.

But! Experiment!

[polaris-starz.livejournal.com]

I ♥ ♥ ♥ you for this. I've been wanting to make fanmixes for a lot of my fandoms for ages. This is a really useful post. :D Especially rules 9 and 10.

I generally find that my problem is avoiding the songs that I listen to a lot and know really well, and instead finding ones that are specifically good for the characters and that a lot of people probably haven't heard or associated with them before.

Also, not reusing songs from your mixes. This is especially difficult when trying to make a PRT mix!