Yes. I like music and I’m probably bad at this game. But here’s a tag post

Sweet.

At least some of the random people in the random places I hang around in know I am a man of many hobbies. In this entertainment soaked age, I should never be bored. Being bored was so 2002, right?

Among my interests is music. I don’t do as good of a job following the scene as I did in 2012, but my tastes vary from this:

To this:

There are some punk and pop and rock and classic rock and spoken word songs that I enjoy. Basically, I am trying to say that like anime, I have no real taste in music either. It’s kind of my thing.

This is just a long way of saying that I’m really excited that Magicconan tagged me in the Put a Tune to It challenge. This was kicked off by Dewbond over at Shallow Dives in Anime, who has a regular feature about music, which is worth checking out.

Anyways, as with everything, there are rules. Here they are.

• Choose any number of western songs (any genre) that you think best sums up an anime or manga of any type or genre.
• If you want to pick more than 1 from each section that’s fine. Or if you can’t think of one for a specific category that’s fine also.
• Explain why you think your choices could work. Is it the lyrics? The tune and the beat? Or just the music video?
• Link back to the original post so I can read people’s suggestions, I’d love to read everyone’s ideas.
• Include Put a Tune to It in your tags so everyone including myself can find them all easily.
• Nominate around 1-5 bloggers.

A quick note before I start

But before I get to my picks I have to talk about AMVs.

So there are some AMVs that I think combine music with a genre or show so perfectly that they are hard to separate in my head. I figured I’d share a few of them first before I move onto the things that I think would make great AMVs.

Masterplan’s Spirit Never Dies is one of the best shounen soundtracks ever. I’m jealous of the editing in this. They’re well-timed to the music. If you have five minutes, give it a watch.

The editing on this one that combines Frou Frou’s Must Be Dreaming and RahXephon really sells it. It’s a little less of a perfect fit and more of a good combination of images from the show with the music.

The last two I want to bring up are ones where I think the music would be a perfect fit for the show, but I think I might be influenced by the AMV. The first one combines Linkin Park’s In The End with Cowboy Beebop, and the second takes Spiderbait’s version of Black Betty and pairs it with Black Lagoon.

My picks for romance shows

When I first thought about this post, the first song I went to was Guster’s Satellite. So there are a lot of songs that could fit into this spot. Pop music has a long history of slightly creepy songs about relationships, and Guster’s Satellite fits into that category. It slightly feels like this is supposed to be a love song, but it also feels like he’s talking down to her the entire time.

What anime do I pair this with? Initially, I was thinking that it might make a good compliment to School Days, but the more I think about it, this goes with a very particular brand of shoujo romance shows. The ones that involve a guy who spends the whole time looking down at the girl he is supposed to like. The ones where the whole conceit is that “Love will fix him.”

Which means I should come up with a different song for all of the creepy boyfriends and girlfriends who spend their time faithfully knitting until they need to start stabbing people. I mean there’s only one pick for this, and it’s the big daddy of all the creepy stalker songs — The Police’s Every Step You Take.

I know that’s a pretty obvious pick, but I’m a pretty obvious guy. It’s about a stalker who spends all of his time watching the girl. Does that sounds like any knitting heroines that we know of?

My picks for shows about fighting spirit

And here’s where I get even more mainstream. I have a couple of picks for shounen shows. I’m kind of in the same vein as the Masterplan track I shared earlier, I think 3 Doors Down’s Duck and Run is a good pick.

How can you not love lyrics like, “This world can turn me down/ But I won’t turn away/ I won’t duck and run/ Because I’m not built that way.” Yes. I know it’s really frat rock, but I don’t care.

The thing is the lyrics really sound like something that a shounen hero would say at his darkest moments.

When it comes to real robot shows, I would probably go with something from Harvey Danger’s last album. In particular, “War Buddies.” The lyrics in this mainly focus on two people who seem to be facing off against an implacable foe. (Knowing Harvey Danger, this is probably an allusion to the music industry.)

This feels like the anthem for a pair of mecha pilots like something from what I imagine Gundam should be. That and I love the line, “If you’ve got guns/ Now’s the time for sticking.”

I’ve always thought about putting together a list of my favorite openings, and somewhere on that list is the opening for Kaiji. I used to have a copy of that opening song.

It always makes me think of a similar song by The Offspring about a bleak world. This one is called “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” It gives me the same sense of hopelessness and the anger at that hopelessness that I feel from Kaiji.

Those are all the songs I can think of right now, but I’m sure I’m leaving a few behind. This list is largely affected by my mood and liable to change, but it’s what I was thinking about at the moment.

Now it’s time for some tags. These have no real order and for no real reason.

Keni over at Crackerheadz 

Pinkie at Pinkie’s Paradise 

Jonah at Jonah’s Daily Rants 

A Traditional Catholic Weeb 

So it’s always real fun to revisit some of my favorite music. I always appreciate the tag.

And, as always, thanks for reading.