WRITING WEDNESDAY: Ocean-Themed Music

For two weeks, come celebrate mermaids, whether it’s winter or summer where you live. Splash into Summer runs from June 28th to July 12th. There will be author interviews, guest posts, giveaways, reviews, and more! Now is the time to celebrate mermaids, especially with so many new novels about them coming out.

People have been obsessed with mermaids for hundreds of years. Back when there were still bards, people were still telling tales of their fin-tailed cousins. Music can really set the mood when you want to pretend you’re a mermaid, be it at the pool or in front of your computer with an unfinished mermaid manuscript.

I was lucky enough to visit Disney Tokyo Sea twice when I was still living in Japan. I keep wishing that a Disney Sea will come to the States. For one thing, the park has not one, but TWO castles—and they’re from my two favorite Disney movies, ALADDIN and THE LITTLE MERMAID. During the park’s fifth anniversary celebrations, a theme song was commissioned to be sung (and co-written by) Japanese pop star Misia. I’m still in love with this song and love when it comes onto my ipod. It reminds me very much of the sea:



The song also features in a professional video that the park put together, which has been subtitled in English. It shows the characters throughout the park, giving you a taste of the magical world of Tokyo Disney Sea. The stories all come together in a LOVE ACTUALLY fashion, too. There were five episodes, and fansubber ZeekSlider has uploaded each onto YouTube in two parts, creating a total of ten parts and showing you the park if you’re unable to get to TDS (or desperately wishing to return!). [The final part is my favorite because it incorporates the beautiful night show, BraviSEAmo!]

PART 1 A PART 1 B PART 2 A PART 2 B PART 3 A
PART 3 B PART 4 A PART 4 B PART 5 A PART 5 B

There was also a fun day show called Legend of Mythica, which took place on Mediterranean Harbor and can be seen in its entirety on YouTube:

PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 SUMMARY OF SHOW

Or, you know, you can watch a professionally edited video with clips (and an English song) here:


Also, the night show on Meditteranean Harbor, BraviSEAmo! can be seen here:

Part 1 Part 2 SUMMARY OF SHOW


Another song that released while I lived in Japan was URBAN MERMAID by one of my favorite Japanese singers, Yuna Ito, who was born and raised in Hawaii before her Japanese career took off. She did a contemporary song where modern women are like mermaids:




The official music video is on YouTube off and on, but the link I had last week has been pulled by Sony Music Japan. [Yes, this post was supposed to go live last Wednesday…]

That isn’t to say that there aren’t great songs about mermaids or sea life in other languages—including my own native tongue, English. Take, for example, island king Jimmy Buffet’s “Mermaids in the Night.” The following video has some fun mermaid artwork, too!



Or what about music we all grew up with? I was a big fan of Disney’s THE LITTLE MERMAID, from the spectacular movie songs, to songs created just for the animated TV series. IN HARMONY was always one of my favorites:





Then, of course, there are traditional types of music to listen to such as the crash of ocean waves or the songs of dolphins and whales and seals. Such natural music can really set the mood and due to their lack of words, may be easier to work with than others. I personally have trouble listening to words while writing, but the sounds of nature can be so calming!




I could go on and on about music, but this post is already longer than a mermaid's tail...tale...tail... You've already been subjected to enough of my craziness!


What are some ocean-themed songs near and dear to your hearts?