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Whatever happened to songfics?


TNTOS

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Back in the old days, the Short Stories forum used to be home to many songfics, which, for those who may not know, is the name for stories based on/inspired by certain songs, with the lyrics of those songs usually inserted in between the paragraphs of the story at certain points. An example would be if I wrote a story about 2006 with the lyrics from Move Along inserted between the story paragraphs (though the song doesn't actually have to be related to Bionicle to be used, obviously).

 

Maybe my memory is clunky, but it seemed like songfics were all the rage back then. I didn't write any (always seemed like a silly concept to me, even if the songfic in question was very serious and well-written), but I always saw some in the Short Stories forum. At any given time, there were at least a few songfics among the regular fics, and they weren't just by new writers, either, but by some very good and very experienced writers (think Lady Kopaka may have written one, but not sure). As far as I know, there has not been a single new songfic posted on BZP within the last few years. None. Not even one. Nor have there been any reposts of older ones, to my knowledge.*

 

So what happened to them? When did they disappear? Why did they suddenly lose their popularity? Why did BZP fanfic writers just stop writing (or at least posting) them? Were they just a fad? Were they too hard for most writers to do and so they just gave up doing them at all?

 

It's not a huge thing to worry about. Certainly I don't spend all my free time obsessing over it. Still, the subject has been on my mind recently and I just thought I would blog about it here to see if anyone knows anything or has any idea about it. At least by blogging I can get this thought out of my head, anyway.

 

*Note I said "as far as I know" and "to my knowledge." If there have been any new songfics posted recently or any old ones reposted, feel free to say so in the comments.

 

-TNTOS-

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I never particularly cared for them (although I do recall writing one a very long time ago). The only songfic I remember being genuinely impressed by was Tahu's Concrete Angel, about a girl whose only escape from her life is her Bionicle toys.

 

Maybe they just went out of style. It's hard to tell, though: activity in the Library has dipped so low that it's difficult to tell the difference between an unpopular style and a simple lack of writers.

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I wrote a lot of songfics back in the day, but like most of my stories, they were awful — perhaps more awful than most of my stories, in fact, because wrapping the story in a song gave me an excuse not to have anything consequential happen in them. Honestly I do not miss songfics much.

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We had a really great songfic contest back in the day. (End of 2006, I believe) So that may have contributed to a surge in popularity or something.

 

But yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say that just songfics are on the decline when it seems any type of story is on the decline.

 

:music:

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I never particularly cared for them (although I do recall writing one a very long time ago). The only songfic I remember being genuinely impressed by was Tahu's Concrete Angel, about a girl whose only escape from her life is her Bionicle toys.

 

Maybe they just went out of style. It's hard to tell, though: activity in the Library has dipped so low that it's difficult to tell the difference between an unpopular style and a simple lack of writers.

True dat about the low activity. That has certainly affected all kinds of fics, not just songfics.

 

I wrote a lot of songfics back in the day, but like most of my stories, they were awful — perhaps more awful than most of my stories, in fact, because wrapping the story in a song gave me an excuse not to have anything consequential happen in them. Honestly I do not miss songfics much.

Same here. I just thought I remembered there being so many and then realizing there are now zero songfics on BZP just came as a shock for some reason. Not sure why.

 

because they were tacky, contrived, and more often than not used terrible songs

That's pretty much why I never wrote or read many of them.

 

It's one thing to say, "This song inspired me to write this story." It's quite another to say, "This song is (part of) my story." I suppose I never had enough confidence in my own abilities as a writer to naturally integrate the lyrics of a song written by someone else with my own prose (still don't, actually).

 

We had a really great songfic contest back in the day. (End of 2006, I believe) So that may have contributed to a surge in popularity or something.

 

But yeah, I wouldn't necessarily say that just songfics are on the decline when it seems any type of story is on the decline.

 

:music:

 

That contest sounds extremely familiar, even though I don't think I entered it (I was too busy writing awful newbie comedies at the time, assuming your time frame is accurate). I must have joined around the same time that contest was going on, which might explain why I seem to remember the SS forum being full of songfics at one point.

 

-TNTOS-

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I remember the songfics. They were...annoying. I didn't know the songs, I didn't like the songs, and the stories were generally sad. 

 

R.I.P songfics. May you never return. 

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