Unless you’re an English nerd like me, most music lovers don’t realize the ways in which artists enhance their writing by using literary references. Building off authors’ themes, concepts or even writing styles, musicians have begun to use the world of literature to their advantage, challenging their creativity.
If you’re curious as to which artists have used this technique, here are five songs and albums with interesting literary references:
‘hopeless fountain kingdom’ by Halsey
On Halsey’s second album “hopeless fountain kingdom,” they were inspired by Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet.” Centering the album around the play’s themes of love at first sight, destruction, manipulation and sadness, the singer was able to create the perfect breakup album that was universal.
With songs such as “The Prologue,” which actually saw Halsey open with the same prologue from the play, to others like “Now or Never,” where the singer accompanied it with a music video portraying the feud between the Capulets and Montagues, this concept album proved their intelligence and integration of fiction with reality.
‘evermore’ by Taylor Swift
Obviously, “evermore” has become one of the staple albums of Taylor Swift’s discography, especially as fans noticed that her songwriting began to mirror the writings of authors such as Daphne Du Maurier and F. Scott Fitzgerald. For example, Swift’s “no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)” saw her take directly from the themes of Du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” a story about an unnamed protagonist who marries a man she believes to still be in love with his late wife Rebecca.
Meanwhile, the singer also referenced Fitzgerald in another song titled “happiness,” where she sang, “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool,” a direct quote from his most famous novel, “The Great Gatsby.” The song also included a nod to the iconic green light motif heavily present throughout the novel, using the lyric: “All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness.”
‘Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time)’ by Elton John
Inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Illustrated Man,” which details the life of a 14-year-old boy whose father travels to Mars for months at a time, leaving him and his mother behind, Elton John made one of his most famous songs, "Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time).”
In the song, the singer sang from the boy’s perspective, singing, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids / In fact, it’s cold as hell.” Overall, it was a bold step for John, yet one that paid off in the long run for its fantastic use of imagery, and once again, perspective.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen
Luckily, “Bohemian Rhapsody” wasn’t inspired by Freddie Mercury’s own personal life, but by Albert Camus’s “The Stranger.” In Camus’s novel, readers follow the story of Meursault, a settler in French Algeria, who kills an unnamed man in Algiers shortly after his mother’s funeral.
If you listen closely, you can hear the reference to this plot line within the Queen song as Mercury says, “Mama / Just killed a man / Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger / Now he’s dead / Mama, life had just begun / But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away,” making it a regretful, angsty track about grief.
‘Clocks’ by Coldplay
Lastly, “Clocks” by Coldplay uses references from “William Tell” by Frederich von Schiller, which was a fictional series about an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albrecht Gessler, a tyrannical leader of the Austrian dukes of the House of Habsburg.
The band’s lead singer Chris Martin sings, “Come out if things unsaid / Shoot an apple off my head and a / Trouble that can’t be named / Tigers waiting to be tamed,” pulling from one of the series’s storylines.
