I just finished The Turnaround, by the exceedingly talented Washington DC writer George Pelecanos. One thing that struck me while reading it--something I try to do, but am not always as successful as he is--is how well he relates what music his characters are listening to, and connects that to who they are as people, in order to make his characters all the more fully developed. He not only talks about their musical tastes throughout the book, but discusses how they listen, and what they think as they look at album covers, and more. He is the best I've ever read, I think, at remembering what music means to people and incorporating that into the book.
Here's an example, from The Turnaround: "Kryponite," a TCB tune recorded live at the Club Neon, was playing loudly in the room from Kruger's iPod, which he had hooked into his system. Kruger was baked and singing off-key the chorus to the song.
Just a passing moment, yet combined with all the other moments, it helps create a fully realized character on the page.
Here are a couple of my attempts to do the same. From The Devil's Bait:
He turned the key. Music blared from the speaker beside her head. She recognized The Clash’s London’s Burning.
“Sorry,” he said, turning the music down.
She rubbed her ear. “I didn’t think FBI guys were allowed to listen to stuff like that. Is punk rock on J. Edgar’s approved music list?”
And from River Runs Red:
He had been to El Paso with his mom, where she let him buy a bunch of new comics, the cyberpunk science fiction novel Neuromancer, by William Gibson, and the new Joe Jackson album. He bought it on vinyl, and would record it on a cassette tape later to take to the Canyon. As soon as he got home, he called Byrd and invited him over to check out his haul.
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