Mi Amore Cadenza: The Playlist! · 6:04pm Oct 24th, 2012
Now that "Contraptionology!" is winding up to its big finish (only about 4 parts left!) a young author's mind turns to future long-form stories. As I have noted previously, I'm tossing around the idea of a Young Adult Alicorn Cad(e/a)nce fic, nothing with a solid plot or production schedule, just something to keep the demon Writer's Block at bay when the Stuff I Can Sell just isn't coming out. Something I haven't talked about too much here is the fact that I seem to lean very heavily on musical inspiration when writing pone. Unfortunately, as I also previously noted, my potential protagonist is fond of Céline Dion. There is only so much Céline Dion you can possibly have on one playlist before it starts becoming irksome.
So, finally, the question. I know it's a bit of a stretch inasmuch as we haven't really seen much of her character yet, but does anyone out there have a Mi Amore Cadenza playlist? Or tips on building one? I'll take suggestions from within the ponymusic scene as well, if anyone's got some particularly evocative tracks. I daren't hope to get one that hits it out of the park as much as Sarah Brightman's strangely ethereal cover of "What A Wonderful World" did for my Celestia playlist, but maybe we can get some good new tracks to put me in the mood of writing Pink Pony Princess. Anyone?
I don't know why, but I picture her as a Sailor Moon fan...
Thanks for that tip. I've been writing Celestia recently and she's really hard to do. Specifically challenging her credibly without ignoring the fact that by now she's seen and done everything.
Um, I have no idea about a Mi Amore Cadenza playlist because I have no idea who Mi Amore Cadenza really is. How do you see her?
445315
A not unreasonable call, inasmuch as I'm quite certain that she believes in the power of love.
[youtube=ej3SmDScjjY]
Pretty much never really liked Celine that much. Nelly Furtado and Sophie B Hawkins were the main female singers I listened to outside of the metal or dance scenes.
A playlist for each character, eh? I'm too lazy to organize my music like that, ha. And sorry, I got nothin for Cadence.
Cadence, bleh. damned upstart alicorn!
445320
Celestia is really, really hard. The stories I have with Celly as a narrator, even in the most charitable light, really bend the character into one that's less what you see in the show and more one that I find appealing (the "ancient warrior-queen who never quite settled into domestic rulership" archetype.) Only "A Short Story by Twilight Sparkle" hits anywhere close to the mark.
And... that's just it, isn't it? Cad(e/a)nce has so little screen-time that she sort of becomes an inkblot test for whatever the author thinks a Pony Princess should be. Which is why this is a hard question. The hypothetical story upcoming is of a young adult chafing under the yoke of the role she was born into. With only Celestia as anything close to a peer (the story is set before the absolution of Luna), a position which positively suffocates her, our heroine takes a distant diplomatic post to try to get out from under her wing. At this stage in her life, I see her as a free-spirited headstrong thing, rash and prone to fits of impulsiveness and with a tendency to try and buck traditional Princess duties (without fully realizing that she really likes traditional Princess duties, in the end.) She starts the story before knowing Shining Armor as anything more than the slightly-annoying sibling of her favorite foalsitter charge, so there's some growing up to do there, too.
445330
My first thought every time!
I really enjoy Matthew Mosier's "My Cadence." It's a Cadance song that's fairly mellow but shows plenty of heart. Plus, it's just awesome, so there!
If your Cadance has a twisted sense of humor, I'd suggest Tom Lehrer, or possibly "Bust your kneecaps" by Pomplamoose.
Changeling by All Levels At Once.
Level's lyrics are fun to interpet.
Not as deep or interesting as Burial, but Burial is Burial.
Bearing in mind I don't entirely trust Cadence and her "love magic," I find these songs link nicely with her in my mind, though maybe less so for what you intend.
Every Breath You Take - Sting and the Police
Papparazzi - Lady Gaga
The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang
You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi
Take Me Home Tonight - Eddie Money
Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
I'd Do Anything For Love - Meatloaf
The Warrior - Scandal (I think?)
Popular - Wicked soundtrack (Maybe just because I can mentally sub Cadence in for Glinda and Twilight for Elphaba without missing a beat)
Little Red Corvette - Prince
Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
Alright, I suppose some of them are normal, too.
445334 Lo these many years ago, while I was growing up the golden boy, my younger sister was a teenage rebel, drama queen (in the sense of "big fish in the small pond of the theatre arts"), and big dreamer in high school. (She later found religion in college, settled down, married a nice Italian boy, and started her own business overseas. Meanwhile, I flailed around with adulthood, gave up a career to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, and started writing pony fanfiction. C'est la vie.)
Her FAVORITE MUSICAL EVER during those Cadence-chafing-under-Celestia's-wing years was Rent. Dig up the OST and see if anything grabs you; start with La Vie Boheme.
(To starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension
Not to mention of course hating dear old mom and dad!)
Cadence? Enya obviously.
445324
That's kind of a cool track. Haven't heard that one before.
445325
I'm slowly building my collection of playlists! I even have Trixie; I don't even actually like the character, don't have any stories coming up from her perspective, and I don't even listen to the playlist very much! I think the whole damn thing was just an excuse to give Jerry Orbach's "Razzle Dazzle" some more playtime.
445366
Good call on "My Cadence". That's a beauty.
445376
I have to admit, I wouldn't have landed on Tom Lehrer myself. Maybe I'll see if anything clicks! Also, re: Huey Lewis: in retrospect, an obvious choice that should really be on there. Thank you.
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Interesting track, "Changeling". What's "Burial"?
445435
Actually, Meat Loaf is a very good fit. Especially with the stupid "Clouds as pegasus motorcycles" metaphor that seems to be becoming increasingly prevalent in the ol' head-canon ever since "Contraptionology!"
445483
Oo, Rent! I'll have to dig through that and see if anything clicks. Good suggestion.
445490
Also a good call. Any track in particular leap out at you? <twilight talking about daring do books>I have them all</twilight talking about daring do books>.
445515 Actually I don't track Enya by track, I just have a giant pile in my playlist on random. Same thing for my 50s R and B. Weirdly enough, I have about 1tb of Christmas music that sometimes I just fire up and let go, even in the middle of August. What can I say, it makes me happy.
I forgot to add "Hey Ocean" to my suggestions too (seems to have something to do with FiM, not sure what :)
Hmmm... Crystal Blue Persuasion, by Tommy James & The Shondells comes to mind.
445334
I adore A Short Story. Sometimes I just open up that fic and read those first five paragraphs and tear up a little, you know that? It's just so... so... I don't even have words for it. It's so uplifting and yet somehow so sad.
I do like your Celestia, and some deviation from what we see in the show is acceptable because we never see her thought processes in the show, we just see the mask. "Beloved" was probably the most fascinating depiction but that's not something I'm using as a source for Celestia. Actually, the three fics that I'm letting influence my depiction most are "Paradise", "Eternal" (duh) and — you're not going to believe this — "Princess Celestia Hates Tea".
Not for the tea thing explicitly, but for the degree of sacrifice Celestia is willing to undergo for the well-being Equestria. I have her primary Element of Harmony down as generosity rather than magic (as is very commonly assumed in fic) because of that. I read the comments on that thing that say that Celestia should publicly hate tea regardless or perhaps beat Twilight to an inch of her life in a soundproof room and think "well, maybe you'd do that, but that's why you're not Celestia."
Music. Um. Not really sure I've got anything, but: Terra's theme/Awakening?? I tend to avoid things with lyrics for writing. Terra wasn't actually a princess, but she did have a lot of responsibility piled on her though an accident of birth.
Have you heard of http://ocremix.org/ by the way?
445554
A quick survey of the collection reveals that "Marble Halls" is an awfully good fit, by the way. And yes, I can't quite figure out why "Hey Ocean" might be related to My Little Pony.
*crickets*
445622
Title fit is hard to beat, and theme is not bad! Thanks!
Ooh, just had another one come up on my shuffle that seems very proto-Cadence: Rufus Wainwright, "Instant Pleasure."
As soon as I saw:
The phrase "Mi Amore Cadenza playlist," Jevetta Steele's original rendition of "Calling You" from Baghdad Cafe started playing in my head. I have no idea why, but here's a YouTube link of it.
Mike
445941
It's certainly very evocative, but I'm not sure of what, if that makes any sense! Beautiful track.
446155
Is that Megaphoric on both the link you posted and "My Cadence" above? She's got a lovely Cadence voice. I'll have to see what else she's done...
445931
Yes! That's a good one, actually!
447475
Well, I realized this morning:
It's for my own Cadance soundtrack, one I didn't even know I had. See, in my conception of Equestrian theology, Cadance is the death goddess...
Mike Again
I've got nothing that would really embody Cadance music-wise, but if I had to write her, I'd go watch Stardust for inspiration. Seriously a fantastic movie, and to hell with anyone who says the power of love can't be done as an acceptable deus ex machina.
445660
Aw, shucks, thanks. I had a lot of people call me out on how depressing "...Tea" was, but I found it kind of ennobling. Glad to hear I'm not alone in that.
Also, those Final Fantasy tracks are really bitching. Having never played the games, however, I lack the character associations that would presumably really hammer them home into playlist territory. Great music, though!
Hadn't before heard of the remix project you linked to. Thanks for the point!
447619
That would explain it! I haven't heard that take on Cadence's sphere before. It's quite interesting, and Princesses-as-Summoned-Archetypes is more-or-less my head-canon too. I always thought she was going to be a weather-princess pre-canon, though, which is part of why I put her in Cloudsdale in this upcoming fic. Assuming a fic even comes of all this.
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Gaiman is generally pretty solid. A little frothy at times, but it's hard to complain about his vision or his skill at a turn of phrase.
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Ocremix is great for finding old video game tracks done up with actual instruments or at least modern synths.
Terra's theme is literally the first music you hear after starting a new game. You wander into the snow fields, the opening credits role, that music plays and a world of possibilities opens up. On the other hand, I freely admit that that tune has carries a heck of a lot of nostalgia for me so I am very biased. A real case of "they" not making "them" like they used to.
448656
Assuming a fic even comes of all this.
And now that you've got me:
Thinking about Cadance, I find myself with a plot, a structure, and several potential scenes even though I've got two other Ponyfics I'm already tinkering away at, one of which I've promised myself I'll have completed by the end of November! Ah, well: it's always "the more, the merrier" when Pony's involved...
Mike
450258
Inspiration can be tough that way. Good luck sorting all the pans on your stove!
Writer Of Le Sky
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Just to wrap:
A pungent little bow around this whole ancient conversation, the prologue and first two chapters of "Calling You," the Cadance story you forced me to think up, are now available with subsequent updates due to appear every 10 days till the thing's done if I have anything to say about it. And, oddly enough, it turns out I do have something to say about it!
Mike Again
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Looks neat! I'll have to take a gander at it!