Humans are sensory beings that manage to exist partly on account of sensory inputs: colors, textures, temperatures, smells and sounds. We use all these different inputs to form the context of the world around us. We hear a car’s engine and see them approaching us, and thus we understand that we need to move out of the way. The more sensory inputs we receive during any given moment, the better we understand what’s happening, and the better we remember and apply said just-acquired knowledge in the future. You smell your favorite teacher’s perfume as you walk down the street and you’re reminded of the comfort they provided when you failed a recent test; you touch a sweater while shopping and it reminds you of that one blanket your grandma kept on the sofa that you’d use when napping; a song plays on the radio and it reminds you of that one scene in that particular movie where the character dies unexpectedly and how you laughed with your friend over how unrealistic it was.
All five senses play a huge role, not only in your daily life, but in how you consume media and remember things, too. The more senses you apply when doing something, the more likely you are to remember (and understand) what happened; which is why I think more authors should add music to their books. Not just create a playlist inspired or based off of the story, but actually include songs to be listened to as one reads specific scenes throughout their book.
The same way a movie’s soundtrack can make or break a movie, adding music to books can enhance the experience of reading and make it more interactive. When watching movies, you’re using sight and sound simultaneously. In this way, you can understand the mood of the film’s scenes thanks to the music, facial expressions, body language, and dialogue it features. However, when you read a book, you’re not exactly able to grasp the same kind of context from the descriptions that the physical expressions would convey; instead, the only available input is what you can glean from the words in the book and your imagination. Adding music to books would add an additional layer of sensory inputs that might help deepen your understanding of a scene. I know I’ve experienced moments where I’m reading a scene and can’t, for the life of me, understand whether it’s supposed to be serious or sad or comedic because the descriptions are vague in a really ambiguous way. Adding music may remove this potential miscommunication. A melancholic song playing along a comedic exchange could hint that the two characters won’t meet again; a happy song during a scene where the characters are hurt can imply that the situation isn’t as serious as it could be; an upbeat song playing along a chase scene makes what could be a rather boring moment exciting and enthralling.
Memory is also an aspect of reading that music helps with. Over time, your memories of a book might become vague plot points or generalized scenes; nothing other than words to remind you of an unspecific moment. Adding music to the book and to its scenes extends the life of the memory and your attachment to the book. You listen to a song and it reminds you of another one in the book. Similarly, you can listen to the songs attached to the book and remember more clearly the details of a particular scene, or relive your own emotions while reading it for the first time.
As far as I’m aware, fanfiction authors do this more often than published authors; annie_vi on Ao3 is a great, and my favorite, example. She adds a link to and the name of a song in between paragraphs for the readers to play them as they read the scene that follows. Her fanfics were the first I read where there was music connected to the scenesーin annie_vi’s case, her fanfiction Like Everything Glows, was the first I read to include this interactive literary dynamic. It’s been over a year since I read it and I can still remember specific scenes when I listen to the songs she had featured in them. To this day, I could be listening to a random song on a random playlist and unconsciously associate it to the fanfiction because it reminds me of the “vibes” of a song that was included in the fanfic. The music added a whole new layer to my experience, my understanding, and my enjoyment of the fanfic as a whole. The story is a romance and the sea was a very relevant element to both the characters and the story, so the songs featured in it were very romantic and slow. Somehow, a handful of these songs even felt like what it actually feels to swim in waterーI can’t quite explain how, but that’s how they sounded; an auditory embodiment of emotional damage sprinkled with all the feels. As of recently, she posted The Midnight Streets are Running Red, which includes more action, revenge, hero/villain dynamics, and intensity than conventional romance stories. Unsurprisingly, the songs she featured on this new story reflected that. There came a point where the scenes with songs were what I looked forward to the most. She added a couple of songs from the Into the Spiderverse movie soundtrack and, after the first one, you already knew it was gonna be an intense and gripping action scene. I listen to the fanfic’s playlist while I drive and it’s exhilarating when one specific song appears because I feel the joy of reliving the scene that accompanies it.
Now, imagine a song is playing as the characters make a funny little promise, and then, later on in the book (in the middle of an altercation or fight maybe) the same song appears and, as it plays, you remember the promise they made and suddenly the whole scene’s context changes. Something related to the promise is going to happenーwill it be broken? Will it be completed? When is it going to happen? How is it going to happen? Suddenly, thanks to one song, your entire experience while reading has shifted. Fast-forward to a couple weeks later, when you’re driving home and that song comes on through shuffle and you’re sent back to that incredible moment, passively reliving that scene and the emotions you felt as you read it.
Music, in and of itself, is a wonderful story-telling device, and adding it to books will simply enhance the experience as a whole. Including and listening to music while reading might not be for everyone, of courseーespecially considering that some people don’t like feeling like they’re watching a movie, or even feel uncomfortable if they need to divide their attention while reading. The beauty of this interactive concept is that the music isn’t necessary, but simply an accessory to the book. Like fanart, people can choose if or when they want to listen to the music or not. For the people who don’t like it, they can just ignore it and for the people who do like it, they can add a layer of enjoyment to their reading experience. This might not be everyone’s cup of tea, as with everything else in life, but I’m a firm believer this should become a more widespread trope included in published books.