Are there artistes that help you write, and others who act to prevent you ?
For my part, those who help me fall into 2 categories
-1- Fast, heavy and energy. But accompanied by a video that either shows them playing live or is boring. A video which tells a story (such as Rammstein’s Ich Will) detracts as I stop to watch
-2- Poppy, preferably foreign language, with a good melody and a good voice. This explains why I download and listen to so many foreign-language songs, from Rammstein and Kamelot to Assol and Bzikebi ! The former, being metal I place as much in the first category as the second, but the poppy nature of such artistes as Assol and Alizee and Ceca means I can have them playing and not get distracted by them. Occasionally though I want to know what my favourite songs are, then I get a bit lost ! The Numa Numa song is energising but what is it actually called ? Assol’s songs are written in a transliteration of Cyrillic and have a half dozen renderings each
Those which don’t help me write probably also fall into 2 categories
-a- Ones with excellent videos which I sit and watch and forget to write – Kasabian’s “Empire”, Rammstein’s “Ich Will”, The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star” fall into this category
-b- Good songs which either don’t flow or whose lyrics leap out and grab me, preventing me from channelling them and demanding my attention. Amongst those I can think of on the spur of the moment are James Blunt’s “1973″, most songs by Snow Patrol, or Nik Kershaw whose music grabs my memories and won’t let me go
What are yours ?