The spark of creativity for writers can come from innumerable sources—a line from a television show or book, a color, seasons, watching Food Network; who knows. Sometimes for me getting started down that path to a thousand words and beyond can seem impossible, but there’s always one thing that seems to motivate me: music. While there’s certainly something to be said for the method of repeating a song on YouTube for hours on end, or clicking on the related videos until you get to that whispered about “strange side” of the streaming site, these days I find myself drawn more towards online mixes. While I’ve made quite a few mixes, I always love going on sites like 8tracks and Spotify to not only find new music to add to my library, but to see other interpretations of certain characters, ships, and events. And while I can’t link the sites themselves, I was lucky to recently come across a Tumblr that filled this niche of mine: the aptly named Fanmixes.
Though the Tumblr hasn’t even been up for a year, the six curators have managed to put together a staggering three-hundred pages of “the best fanmixes on Tumblr.” Being a chick with a limited amount of hours in my day, I haven’t had the chance to delve very far into the site’s archives, but I’m certainly impressed with what I’ve heard so far. The thing that brought me to Fanmixes in the first place: K-pop. Listen, sometimes you have an AU where you have idols, and sometimes those idols are girls and they just happen to be incredibly gay. Finding songs that fit these prerequisites on my own was a nightmare, but thanks to mixer metamor and their mix i want you my nightmare ended and all I was left with was the sweet, sweet inspiration of Sappho herself.
You’re the worst thing that ever happened to my life, but I love you.
As far as Fanmixes’s Tumblr goes, I was pleased to find it easy to navigate and easy to read (for the most part). Though they do not accept requests on genre/fandom, they do accept submissions, so if you have a cool fanmix you want to share with the world, make sure to hit them up. One thing that stuck out to me, though, was their rule about making sure all the album art of the mixes hosted on their site put credit where credit was due. This is a small thing, sure, but in an era where art theft is so easy to do and easy to ignore, it’s nice to know that some people are willing to go that extra little bit to make sure all artists get credit.
So what about you, lovely readers? Do fanmixes get your creative juices flowing? Do you have other sites that house the proverbial treasure pile of music? Or do you have another method to scare that nasty writer’s block away? Let me know in the comments! Lord knows I—and maybe a few others—need the help.
Follow Lady Geek Girl and Friends on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook!
Lady Geek Girl and Friends 