#liz's spectacular niche music recs

[terrainofheartfelt]

here’s a though i’ve been pondering over - if the main characters from gg were musicians, what type of musicians do you think they would be? like in terms of what genres they would play in, artists that you think they’d be like, etc.

Wow anon this is exactly my brand i love you for asking this. Buckle up this post shalt be long >:)

(I know many of the cast have had music careers but I’m not really that up on them, this is more my impressions of their characters than them.)

I’ll start with the Humphreys bc they are the ones I’ve thought about the Most.

Like, I see Dan as the folk-punk type, a poet-with-a-guitar type. Frank Turner and Brian Fallon are two of my favorite songwriters, and their writing has a very Dan Humphrey Professional Yearner kind of vibe (And when I’m writing Dan-centric fic which is all my fic tbh I listen to them A Lot). Hozier and Phoebe Bridgers also carry a similar energy, though Hozier is more on the blues/folk side & Bridgers is more indie pop meets country. He’s mostly a guitar guy, but has the skill to branch out into other similar instruments, (he gets a banjo and mandolin just for the challenge). Ivy and I have talked a lot about the idea of pianist!Dan, which I also find v appealing, but I haven’t thought much beyond: Dan playing this Chopin...

Jenny, my best girl, I’ve thought about it and exchanged many a message with @bisexualdanhumphrey about Jen. She has this fascinating, bluesy & raw kind of voice. She’s a vocalist primarily, but can play her way through most chord progressions on a keyboard, she has a ukulele that she loves. Really, she can pick up an instrument for an afternoon and do pretty well, which annoys her brother to no end (“I’ve been playing for 12 years and she figures it out in a day?!”). As for musical acts I think are similar I always come back to Stevie Nicks and Halsey, for the vocals and the vibes. There’s actually an artist I’ve been really into lately called Susan O’Neill (she goes by SON some places) and when I listen to her I think “That’s Jenny’s voice”

Throwing Eric in bc I don’t have much to say about him, but I made him Beth in my Little Women au and I loooooooooved writing baby virtuoso Eric. Eric & Liszt. That is all.

Vanessa is a drummer in my brain. Like a pop-punk drummer. Ivy actually has this fic in which she plays piano in a band which is an idea I also love - like a Carole King/Sara Bareilles kind of vibe. Maybe she joins her sister’s band? Vanessa and Dan on tour with Ruby, picture it…

Blair as a musician I imagine a couple of ways. If we’re going the classical route, I can see her being really into something that requires a lot of technical skill, like the harp. (Slightly related: listen to this performance, the harp is so gorgeous I love it.) Ooh OOH, and from being a harpist she goes to become a conductor. I can SO see Blair Waldorf as an orchestra conductor. If we’re going a more pop route, I think Blair’d be like one of her beloved chanteuses, singing jazz standards and French classics a la Edith Piaf, or like Robyn Adele Anderson, or like Zoey Deschanel in She & Him (an au of Dair as She & Him…?)

Serena is another enigma. The easy answer would be to go with S the pop diva. I’ve said before that Kesha’s whole journey as an artist really resonates with Serena’s character, so I could see that—the character of the “party girl” that evolves into this lovely, zany blend of pop & country & rock & whatever the hell she wants. (Cowboy Blues is literally a SVDW character study. All of High Road is honestly) The other idea I had when I got this ask is Serena the Band Kid. But I see her going for the low brass section, bc the chillest, most easily charismatic people I know have been low brass players. Just, Serena playing trombone and euphonium makes me very happy.

Nate...idk, friend. He doesn’t particularly strike me as the artsy type, like he would play an instrument because his parents made him (reccing yet another Ivy fic because they Get It). I could see him doing something low key, like playing bass maybe in the band I made Dan, Vanessa, and Jenny form above. Bass is also like, the steady supportive thing in an ensemble, which I think suits our Natie. Or, if Nate were a band kid with Serena, I could see him doing something himbo-ish like drumline.

I am first and foremost an opera person, and a fun habit me and my friends have is thinking about “if this were an opera, what voice types would the characters be?” (my college roommate and I spent a whole evening brainstorming Mean Girls the opera once--before the musical was even a thing, so fight me Tina Fey), so I have thought a bit about that too…

Like Nate is def a lyric baritone, because they are the himbos of opera: comedic, handsome, drink the respect women juice-- a la Figaro in Barber or Escamillo in Carmen. Dan is a Puccini spinto tenor (more on the Rondine & Boheme side of the spectrum). Because of the Pining. Blair is a soprano, like a Musetta or Donna Anna or Marschallin or Magda in Rondine: romantic, but can cut a bitch. Serena is a Rossini mezzo, like Rosina or Cenerentola: bubbly, charismatic, kind, loves to pull one over on men. Jenny is a mezzo of the kind I’d like to call Gay, like Komponist or Octavian in Rosenkav - a bit more dramatic and nothing heterosexual about em. Vanessa is also a mezzo (I am one too, okay #lowvoicesupremacy) like, Susan Graham.

#this was SO much fun to think about tysm #anon #asks #gossip girl meta #gg meta #dan humphrey #jenny humphrey #vanessa abrams #serena van der woodsen #blair waldorf #nate archibald #yes i did omit a certain chip wiskers mostly bc writing about him does not spark joy #liz's spectacular niche music recs #guys I only discovered SON bc she opened for hozier at this online music festival #but I have NOT stopped thinking about her since #also I clowned myself into 2 or 3 more fic ideas so thanks for that <3