I’m excited to be the next stop on the Rock It blog tour! Author Jennifer Chance stops by to chat about music vs. lyrics – which is most important to you in a song? You can also enter a giveaway for your chance to win some cool prizes for the book/music lover in you.
Rock It is the first book in the Rule Breakers series and comes to you from Random House Loveswept. Rock It is Jennifer Chance’s New Adult debut and is for readers who love bad boys and/or musicians. Rock It is about a fangirl who gets to work with her rock star fantasy guy.
About Rock It :
Jennifer Chance unleashes her hot new series with the tale of a smoldering rock star and the fangirl who catches his eye—and finds herself living out her wildest dreams.
Lacey Dawes is a total pro at the talent agency where she works, and it doesn’t hurt that IMO Worldwide Media represents Dante Falcone. The rock god has starred in her fantasies since she was sixteen—and remains her secret crush to this day. So when Dante picks her to be the interim manager on his Dream It tour, Lacey can’t believe her luck. Handling Dante is sure to be the most exquisite, spine-tingling, nerve-wracking mix of business and pleasure ever.
Although Dante is grateful for the adoring fans who scream for one more of his full-throttle, soul-searing songs, being surrounded by a cadre of corporate types backstage is wearing thin. Then Lacey shows up. Yeah, she’s organized, smart, quick to get him what he wants before he knows he wants it—but Dante senses there’s something else going on with sweet, sexy Lacey. One kiss tells him what that “something” might be . . . and makes him hungry for more.
Rock It is on sale now:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Google Play | iBooks
And now I’m thrilled to welcome author Jennifer Chance with a music-themed guest post:
The Great Debate: Music or Lyrics
They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?
–The Way, by Fastball
In writing Rock It, I thought a lot about how music can help define you as a person. Lacey found herself—and her true love—in the music of Dante Falcone, and was willing to wrap her life around that music as a teenager and even into her adult years.
While Lacey took things farther than most of us would go, there are just certain songs that stick with you year after year, and if you hear those songs again—even thirty years later—they take you back to the time and place you were whenever you first heard that music.
I’m talking the kind of “take you back” that happens when you hear the music from the theme song to the original Star Trek series—or music that takes you back just to 2010 (waves to Katy Perry//Firework). I can remember the song that made me cry when I was a lonely 4-H camper… and yes, I’m still completely embarrassed by that memory (but still waves to Bette Midler//The Rose). I can remember the song that marks the love-of-my-life moment (waves to The King & I//Something Wonderful). I can remember the song that reminds me of seeing two people fall in love who didn’t expect to get a second chance (waves to The Way//Fastball).
But for me, while the music is catchy and helps me remember the words, it is the lyrics of a song that make the tears flow. I assumed it was this way for everyone—but I was wrong.
As I was writing Rock It, I chatted with a friend of mine who is a musician. He writes and records, he’s played in cover bands and distributed his own music, the whole thing. And his inability to even REMEMBER lyrics absolutely staggers me. When he writes music with vocal tracks, the words are the LAST PIECE he adds. He couldn’t care less. For him, the music is about the melodies and harmonies, and the interplay of instruments—not what the words are actually saying. To him, you need lyrics added to a piece of music about as much as you need them added to a painting.
I completely disagree. And in writing Rock It, I actually started writing snippets of songs (word to the wise, I’m a terrible lyrics writer) that I thought Dante would sing. I even have a recurring lyric that I reference in the book, that I won’t include here. (As a hint, a portion of that lyric is the Tour name in the book). I thought so much about the words of Dante’s music, and what they might mean to a teenaged me, that the music was almost an afterthought.
I wonder if I’m in the minority or the majority here? Are words more important than the music in helping ground you in a song? OR is the music what plucks at your heartstrings, stirs your soul, settles into your bones.
For Dante, it’s definitely the music. For Lacey, it started out being the lyrics, but when she fell in love with Dante, it became the music.
But for me, I’m holding out. The poetry of the lyrics are what gets me every time.
And as to that couple who got their second chance at love, well, I suspect one day I’ll find them again, walking on the beach somewhere, talking about how sweet it is.
Their children woke up
And they couldn’t find them
They left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off and left it all behind ’em
But where were they going without ever
Knowing the way?
–The Way, by Fastball
Thanks, Jennifer! I feel like I feel the music more than the lyrics but you are making me want to pay more attention the words!
About Jennifer:
I come by romance honestly, having spent several years writing adult romance and entering romance contests through Romance Writers of America–including finaling twice in the prestigious Golden Heart contest and winning once. But despite these and other contest wins, my first published novel came not in adult romance, but as a writer of YA historical fiction (you can read all about my Elizabethan spy girls stories, the Maids of Honor, here.)
Still, despite my love of Elizabethan spies, I could never quite give up those super Alpha contemporary romance heroes. So, in the summer of 2013, I decided to see if perhaps I might still have a romance or two up my sleeve.
I wrote a tale about a girl whose biggest high-school and college crush–a rock star–suddenly becomes her biggest client, only now she has to be professional and not betray the fact that she’s completely in love with the guy. It was a fun, sexy, romantic fantasy, and I suggested the idea to my agent… who asked what other ideas I had in addition to this story. Shortly after, the Rule Breakers series was born.
To separate these books from my historical work, I adopted the name Jennifer Chance. I am now pursuing my dreams (pretty much round the clock as it turns out) and am THRILLED to be able to have four e-books coming out in 2014 and early 2015, all with Random House LoveSwept’s New Adult romance line.
As to what will happen from here, who knows? But as long as there is a story to be written and an HEA to be had, I’ll be the one over in the corner, tapping away on my keyboard.
Connect with Jennifer at her Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
Follow the tour and win some awesome prizes including:
An iPod Shuffle (open to US entrants only, if international entrant is chosen they’ll receive a $50 gift card to the eTailer of their choice).
Additionally, Random House is sponsoring the tour with a $50 e-giftcard, and swag including a Loveswept mug and tote (open to US entrants only).
Click here to enter —> Rafflecopter giveaway
Rock It is on sale now, and you can check out a review and excerpt here.
My bf is the same way, he prefers the music and doesn’t usually care about the lyrics while I like both, I definitely don’t like annoying lyrics, but the music has to be good too. Sounds like a good read!
Thank you so much, Lucy, for hosting me today! Your site is very cool. And thebookishmanicurist – you make a great point: there are some lyrics that when you listen to them, you want to smack the writer. I suspect those were written by people who don’t care about lyrics! 🙂