A is for Abba, Adele, and The All-American Rejects
As I mentioned in my theme-reveal post, this month will be all about music and how it inspires my writing.
Let’s start with Abba. I grew up with their music in the house. I enjoyed some of their songs in school musicals (my teachers were big fans). And I even had a few of their songs on my playlist as a teenager. But it wasn’t until the movie “Mamma Mia!” came out that I really noticed their music in the form of stories. Now I have a playlist of Abba music to write to. I usually listen to them when I want an upbeat story. I don’t have a favourite album: I love all of their music. My favourite song: “Does Your Mother Know?”.
Adele… What can I say about her? Something about her music captures emotion in a way that can easily turn into Deep Point of View scenes (for non-writers: those deeply emotional scenes where you just know how the main character feels, because those are emotions you’ve experienced yourself). I’ve been a fan since the first note. My favourite album: “21”. My favourite song (there are so many!): “Rolling in the Deep”.
The All-American Rejects. You’ve heard their music in “Smallville” and “She’s the Man” (among others). They capture teenage angst, alienation and elevated feelings perfectly. When I can’t find my inner teenager, I listen to them. Yeah, I write a lot of Young Adult. My favourite album (I have three!): “Move Along”. Favourite song: “It Ends Tonight”.
Word of the day: acoustic.
According to Collins English Dictionary: acoustic adj (of a musical instrument) not electronically amplified.
Adele has quite a collection of acoustic versions of her songs. The All-American Rejects do too.
And just to show how versatile The All-American Rejects are, here’s my favourite song from my morning playlist:
Do you like any of the above mentioned groups? Do you have a favourite music group/artist that starts with an “A”?
Sign up for my newsletter and receive a free ebook. I won’t share your information and I’ll only email you once a month with updates on new releases, special offers, and a bit of news.
**Note: Your comment was successful even though it looks like it’s been swallowed by a gremlin. Technical stuff I still have to figure out means that I have to manually approve your comment. Know that it will happen every twelve hours and that I will answer your thoughtful response to my post. Thanks for stopping by!
I used to love the smooth, mysty quality of Abba and can’t get enough Adele. Oddly, I have yet to find someone who can successfully sing an Adele song, though many try.
I know, right? Every New Year’s Eve party seems to have someone trying their best to be Adele… Alcohol helps them survive — everyone is too far gone to care 😉
Ronel,
Abba is a big part of my teen and 20s. They had some wonderful dance tunes. It was disappointing when the band broke up. Adele is a newer voice in comparison to Abba. I think my favorite Adele song is ‘Skyfall’ from the James Bond flick with the same name. The All-American Rejects are new-to-me which was a nice introduction. I love mewsic and I’m glad you decided to use this as a theme for this month. Thanks for taking time to check out my first A2Z Little Mermaid Art Sketch series post with ARIEL on Curious as a Cathy!!
Happy A2Zing!!
I’m glad you found some new music inspiration, Cathy 🙂 I love “Skyfall”, too.
Good start to the Challenge! The only one of these that I’ve heard much of has been ABBA.
Thanks, John. I tried to be a little versatile 🙂
Great selections! I stopped thinking of ABBA as a mere guilty pleasure years ago; they are splendid.
They are wonderful 🙂 I’m glad you like my choices for “A”.
I envy you for being able to write while listening to music! I can’t do both at the same time. I do listen to a lot of those you mention when I’m communting and planning stories in my head, though 🙂
Happy A to Z!
The Multicolored Diary
Thank you 🙂 I find that listening to music is a great way to tune out everything else going on around me.
You know? I never truly listened to the Abba, although of course I know their songs. I tend to like songs that tells stories, maybe I should pay more attention to them 😉
They are great. I saw that Cher has done an album with their songs “Dancing Queen”, so you can have their great music with her unique twist — she was great in the new “Mamma Mia!” movie, so it might be worth listening to 🙂
Ronel, great theme! Ann V Friend returning the visit from The AtoZ Challenge! Blessings✨
Thanks, Ann 🙂
I like Abba, and I did hear they are reuniting. A group that begins with “A” that I like is Aerosmith.
Reunion tours are always fun! I like Aerosmith, too 🙂
What a fun post! I enjoyed it and will look forward to the rest of A to Z with you.
Thanks, Trisha 🙂
Yeah, I grew up being immersed in Abba music as my parents were huge fans. I’m very slowly getting into the Mamma Mia! movies, just that Pierce Brosnan singing is not the best thing to hear!
Can’t make a nice link on my ipad, but hopefully you can quickly copy and paste this in your browser:
https://seal-of-melchizedek.blogspot.com/2019/04/brigham-city-utah-temple.html
He is an acquired taste 😉 Thanks for stopping by.
Oh wow…I like this theme. Looking forward to reading this month. 😀
Thanks, Renee 🙂
All American Rejects are pretty good. But I’d say Anberlin and Aerosmith.
J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author
I like Anberlin and Aerosmith, too 🙂
Thanks for all a’s musical, Ronel! Great choices.
Thanks, Pam 🙂
I’ve always had a soft spot for Abba and my fav Adele song is Skyfall, but I’ve not listened to much from All American Rejects. I love writing to Adam Lambert – or does he count as an L? His songs are great for upbeat stories/scenes. I would have said A-Ha too – such moving tunes, but, although I still love the music I haven’t gotten over seeing them in concert last year where I was very, very unimpressed.
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings – Ghost Stories
Adam is great — but he deserves a post all of his own 🙂 Sadly some bands/artists disappoint when you see them live. I hope you can pull a veil over that unpleasant memory and get back to liking their music.
I’m a fan of old blues & jazz, so many of your choices may be new to me, although I do know 2 out of 3 from this post. I’ve never considered using music to get into character or a particular mood. I’m fortunate in working from home where there’s usually peace & quiet, apart from the hum of traffic, so never felt the need to cut anything out. I used to listen to music while I wrote essays, so maybe I’ll give it a try with fiction too.
Good luck with the challenge. Sadly I’m not able to participate this year, but will be making sporadic forays into reading.
Thanks, Debs 🙂 Using music to get into a specific character’s head works really well for me — you should totally try it!
Ah, I love that we both love ABBA and we use them as our happy (or upbeat) place. We even have the same favorite! 🙂 Absolutely awesome!
It is awesome!
Abba is one of my favorites too since I was a teenager. I never heard Adele before. Thank you for introducing me to her. I am listening to Rolling in the Deep now and it’s fabulous. I watched a lot of Smallville (have many of the seasons on dvd) so I may know American Reject but not off the top of my head. Too busy listening to Adele to go check them out right now though.
Adele is amazing. I’m glad you like her music 🙂