(Fan)works that altered your associations with songs

[alias_sqbr]

There have been a few times when a particular fanwork (usually a fanmix or vid) has permanently changed my associations with a song, and it fits so well that I can only think of it as being about a particular character/pairing/canon. For example:

• Total Eclipse of the Heart (literal version): Revolutionary Girl Utena thanks to the vid Total Eclipse of the Heartsword
  
• Girl With One Eye: Vriska from Homestuck via the fanmix Just As Horrible as Me (it's a Terezi/Vriska mix but I think of it as more of an Aradia/Vriska song)
  
• Hide and Seek: Battlestar Gallactica via Meant Well: The Occupation despite TEN MILLION "mmm whatcha say" videos on tumblr
  
• Cosmic Love: Puella Magi Madoka Magica (and Homura/Madoka in particular) from the vid Mahou Shoujo Requiem
  
• Handlebars The Doctor, though I've seen it fit well for a number of characters.
  
• Seamstress: Nikita&Alex from Nikita from the vid Seamstress
  

Does anyone else have any examples? Preferably where the lyrics really do fit surprisingly well. Or just songs which are remarkable fits where you thought of the connection independently.

If you don't do fanworks, I guess songs from movies/tv where it fit the scene PERFECTLY and you no longer hear it as being about the original subject. But songs written for the soundtrack don't count :)

EDIT: Hee, and here's a vid which matches an association I got from just hearing the song: Take me To Church to Lucrecia and Cesare from The Borgias. I haven't even watched the show but I have a friend who goes on about it a lot, and the song really is perfect.

Comments

[flamebyrd]

I have a couple, not even counting songs I first heard through a vid and which are now permanently associated with it in my mind.

Lucky You - The National for Person of Interest (Reese/Finch). "You own me. There's nothing you can do."

My association for "Cosmic Love" is Howl's Moving Castle, although I don't even know which was the original vid I saw for it (there are many).

Bonus: "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift is a song I had very little opinion of until I saw this Lois & Clark vid by Sisabet, and now whenever I hear it I grin.

I have a few songs I associate with canons independently, most of which I came up with at age 16 and don't want to talk about, but I still hope someday I'll find a vid to Exile/Vilify about MCU Loki and Thor (and I don't even like Loki).

[alias_sqbr]

Oh wow that really is the perfect Reese/Finch song.

On the one hand Exile/Villify will always and forever be a Portal song for me (though being part of the official soundtrack it doesn't count for this post), but you're right it does fit Loki and Thor REALLY well.

[brainwane]

To me, Nicki Minaj's "Starships" is now indelibly linked to bironic's multifandom space vid.

[alias_sqbr]

Hee, yes, me too. Cannot hear it as about anything but literal starships :)

[tree]

HOW LONG HAVE YOU GOT?

[sanguinity]

AS LONG AS YOU'VE GOT TO TYPE IT ALL OUT.

[tree]

yeah, it was funnier at 5:55am when i was eating my breakfast. ;)

[sanguinity]

Boo! We want recs! :-P

[alias_sqbr]

As long or as short as you need :)

[owlmoose]

Totally agree on the Doctor and "Handlebars" -- it's an excellent fit, and the vid makes the connection perfectly.

One vid that's permanently tied a character and song together for me is this one, Black Widow and Dessa's "The Bullpen", although maybe it doesn't quite count because I didn't know the song before. Maybe a more accurate comparison is not from a fanvid, but from the use of a song in a TV show: Dire Strait's "Brothers in Arms" as it was used to close out the second season of The West Wing. Not only do I now form a strong association between the song and the scene, it makes the song feel more hopeful and less melancholy to me.

[alias_sqbr]

Ah, I wish I hadn't forgotten so much of West Wing and could hear the lyrics better, but even so that was definitely an affecting scene.

[anghraine]

/Borgias friend emerges from the depths

Yeah, it's not exactly hard to link "Take Me To Church" with the Borgias, but that does match up the fanvid in our heads pretty magnificently!

- 100% agreement on Starships
- Borgias again: this vid permanently glued Florence + the Machine's "Over the Love" to Cesare/Lucrezia for me, though not quite as powerfully as this manip and this one AND this gifset (and probably others) welded "Bedroom Prayers" to them. (Again, not much of a leap there. Pretty much all sexy religious imagery songs go with the Borgias. Okay, and Lana del Rey's "Young and Beautiful" because of this vid. I'll stop there :P)
- There are approximately a million "This Is War" fanvids for everything, but this vid made it a SW thing.
- Also Dare You to Move and Surrender is Stronger for Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
- Welcome To My Life for Anakin/Vader and Luke, out of sheer 'this is the first time I encountered the song and it amused me a lot'.
- this one managed to forever link The Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye" to ... Four/Romana? Okay!

[alias_sqbr]

I am really going to have to watch The Borgias one day it's so pretty! The Romana I episodes as well, I only ever saw Romana II.

I've always found "I dare you to Move" a confusing song and that fits really well! I hadn't heard "Surrender is Stronger" but it fits well too.

But now that you've gotten me thinking about "Welcome to My Life"...I'm sorry but I think it's a Loki song. NOBODY UNDERSTANDS.

[anghraine]

/emerges again, hopefully for good

It is very pretty! I respect people's squicks and all, so I try to confine myself to IMMENSE ENTHUSIASM rather than pushing it on people as such, but it's really a beautiful mess if you can tolerate all the murder/incest/corruption/profanation/nodding acquaintance with history/etc.

That vid was the first time I ever heard "I Dare You To Move" tbh, and when it comes on in the grocery store or wherever it's like... really odd to think it actually exists separately?

I DIDN'T THINK OF LOKI BUT YOU ARE COMPLETELY RIGHT.

[alias_sqbr]

I respect people's squicks and all, so I try to confine myself to IMMENSE ENTHUSIASM rather than pushing it on people as such

I appreciate that, and also all the pretty gif sets of attractive people being interesting in gorgeous clothing, which are are pleasant wallpaper even without context :)

[anghraine]

Heh, I'm jealous that I never came up with "attractive people being interesting in gorgeous clothing" myself, since I can't think of a better summary ;)

[fred_mouse]

Marching on by Hanna.

Also, there is a Fun. song that I can't hear without seeing bits of the Harry Potter movies in my head, although I haven't gone looking for it.

And another Fun. song - "Some Nights (Intro)" where my reaction the other day was that someone had to have done season 3 Teen Wolf, and lo, I found Stiles and the Nogitsune

[alias_sqbr]

I haven't watched that part of Teen Wolf but those both did fit pretty well! And now I have all these Harry Potter feels, ah.

[fred_mouse]

The first few times I watched Marching On, I was in tears. Now, I react to it as a much more upbeat commentary than I did then. Initially, I was all, yep, we keep marching on, because the alternative is to stop/die. Now, I read it as 'this will not defeat us, we will keep marching, and we *will* find our place in the sun'.

[ellethill]

Found my way here via anghraine's tumblr post and I can't help but add:
- Fleet Foxes' Mykonos and The Eagle bc of this vid
- Dessa's Crew and the Avengers bc of this vid
- I associate Cosmic Love with SPN bc of this vid
- Woodkid's Iron with Game of Thrones bc of this vid
- and Bjork's Bachelorette with BTVS bc of this vid

And the list can go on an on and on :)

[alias_sqbr]

Oh gosh you know you may have convinced me on Cosmic Love there, "you left me in the dark" works so well for God and angels (in Puella Magi Madoka Magica their hearts literally go black with despair, which also works pretty well) There's a bunch of great Supernatural vids taking advantage of all those songs about God and Hell etc. God Says Nothing Back comes to mind, and wow have those lyrics just gotten more relevant as the show's gone on (I've only watched bits of Supernatural but I hear a lot through osmosis. And it's a great source of vids)

Iron is a pretty amazing fit for Game of Throne too from those of the lyrics I can make out :)

And yess Bachelorette, I should totally have included that vid, thanks for reminding me. "I am a fountain of blood in the shape of a girl". The other classic use of that is for Revolutionary Girl Utena, though there's less literal blood and being drunk from so I think Buffy wins.