Soundtrack to Writing

I've just finished writing an epic, kick-ass battle scene (essentially a boss fight) between toughbuthotandhonourable girl and badassevilsiren'ho woman. To really get into it I played lots of blasting, angry RAAAAWR music.

And this is something I've done for other chapters. It's predominantly scene-dependent but, at times, I think it can work the other way around and influence the tone of my writing. With my environment descriptions I certainly tend to have quite 'barren', minor-key music. It probably shifts whatever world I create into something equally stark and desperately oppressive.

Amongst other stuff, I tend to whack up the bass to:

Sadboohoocry scene - Allegri's Miserere, Handel's Sarabande, Nina Simone's Ain't no Sunshine, John Lennon's Jealous Guy

Battleangrygrrr scene - Muse's Uprising, Feeder's Buck Rogers, U2's Hold, Thrill, Kiss, Kill Me, Foo Fighters' Monkey Wrench, Kaiser Chiefs' I Predict A Riot

Thick description bits - Soundtrack to 28 Weeks Later or Sunshine (both John Murphy), Muse's Butterflies and Hurricanes, Adagio in G Minor

Lovesexyhot scene - Muse's Undisclosed Desires (theme emerging here), Kings of Leon: Sex on Fire (rather appropriate for my book, since their sex is... uh... on fire).

Funnyattemptingwit scene - See list for sadboohoocry.

Win scene - Calvin Harris' Acceptable in the 80s. I have many hugs for this song.

Musical writing turn-offs which occasionally come up on my playlist:

Anything by The Dubliners, as much as I love them.
Anything associated with Alan Partridge - That covers quite a lot of music. Makes me think of cheese and monkey tennis.
Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba  - Makes me want to vomit all over the screen every time - but some people say my writing's like that anyway :D
5ive - Slam Dunk (Da Funk) - I keep meaning to delete that, honest.
Berlin - Take My Breath Away - Brings on the giggles when I think of Tom Cruise 'playing with the boys'



To sum up: lots of Muse. But I've liked them for years, so no surprises. I try to avoid listening to Knights of Cydonia though. Love the song but even that's too hammy for writing.

PS: I've a madness bit coming up soon: lots of broken thoughts and interruptions. Any melodious suggestions?