Song titles in stories

[Immaterialist]

It's there any issue with respect to referencing song titles in stories?

I'm about to submit a story where the point of view character creates a Playlist of songs she had imagined being the soundtracks to the love scenes she would have with her lover, only for them to be separated and reunited decades later. I reference "Because the Night" by 10,000 Maniacs at the start of a scene and "Criminal" by Fiona Apple at the end (with a quote of the first line "I've been a bad bad girl).

 

[Voboy]

Perfectly fine.

Quoting lyrics excessively can be a problem. You're not doing that.

 

[MelissaBaby]

There is no copyright on titles.

 

[Immaterialist]

Perfectly fine.

Quoting lyrics excessively can be a problem. You're not doing that.

Thank you for the insight

 

[Immaterialist]

There is no copyright on titles.

Thank you very much

 

[Fatdog25]

Many of my stories have referenced titles and a couple have referenced specific lines. I credit the artist in the text.

 

[Erozetta]

I literally title a lot of my stories using song titles.

Referencing them within the story text should be fine.

 

[THBGato]

As others have said, you'll be fine. My series "Love is a Place" is named after a Jamie Wyatt song, while "Thirty" was inspired by The Weather Station song of the same name.

 

[StillStunned]

A couple of song titles for story titles - Flesh for Fantasy and Fairytale of New York - and even a line of lyrics to open a story - Love at First Sight - that were all approved with no problem seem to indicate that Lit doesn't have any issue with this.

 

[LonRivers]

I would say go for it, just don't bash a band or mention a popular product just to trash it. That may put readers off if they like that particular band or product.

You can actually reach the readers more if you mention someone or something that they can relate to.

I try to create new names when possible. I am writing a story that takes place in Chicago and Kansas. Chicago and Kansas are real of course, but the places the characters go are fictional.

 

[OffNSFW]

My story "Summer of Sydney" includes lyrics from "Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran (and Alan Jackson, and Rush, and...), while my most recent story, "Storyteller," includes lyrics from "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes. I never ran into any trouble with the mods. In fact, the latter was kicked back to me with a reminder of how to format the line breaks correctly.

I also ended my geek pride story, "The Virgin Islands," with a list of the co-lead character's favorite science fiction movies. Again, no problems.

 

[RawSilhouette]

What are the rules/parameters for using whole songs with lyrics in your work? The current story I'm writing is about a musical artist and one of the songs he sings is a real song from the real life artist my character is based on. If I use the real life song, how do you credit it? Like how to provide a citation? Or is it something I shouldn't do?

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Whole songs, entire lyrics ... No.

A stanza or two, maybe. Attribute the artist at the end of the story.

 

[RawSilhouette]

Whole songs, entire lyrics ... No.

A stanza or two, maybe. Attribute the artist at the end of the story.

Awesome. Thank you for the response and advice.

 

[Bamagan]

What are the rules/parameters for using whole songs with lyrics in your work? The current story I'm writing is about a musical artist and one of the songs he sings is a real song from the real life artist my character is based on. If I use the real life song, how do you credit it? Like how to provide a citation? Or is it something I shouldn't do?

Unless the song is old enough to be public domain you should not use the lyrics without permission. There is no hard-and-fast rule about how much is too much, but if you quote more than a couple of lines the site may well play it safe and reject your story.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's there any issue with respect to referencing song titles in stories?

I'm about to submit a story where the point of view character creates a Playlist of songs she had imagined being the soundtracks to the love scenes she would have with her lover, only for them to be separated and reunited decades later. I reference "Because the Night" by 10,000 Maniacs at the start of a scene and "Criminal" by Fiona Apple at the end (with a quote of the first line "I've been a bad bad girl).

No.

There's no copyright in Titles.

One of my stories is named after the Three Dog Night song: Mama Told Me Not To Come.

No problem at all.

Quoting lyrics is a different issue, because lyrics ARE copyrighted, but I can't imagine a problem just quoting the line "I've been a bad bad girl." Nobody can own an exclusive right to say that.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Awesome. Thank you for the response and advice.

There's a whole story contest going now focusing on music and ideas inspired by songs and there have been several others. I've embedded single lines or titles many times.

This has several subtle references: https://literotica.com/s/amorous-goods-2024-those-shoes-little-red-shoes

But none quote more than that.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Whole songs, entire lyrics ... No.

A stanza or two, maybe. Attribute the artist at the end of the story.

Attribute the songwriters, not the performers. For example, the OP refers to “Because the Night by 10,000 Maniacs”. A proper attribution would be “by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen”

 

[RawSilhouette]

Attribute the songwriters, not the performers. For example, the OP refers to “Because the Night by 10,000 Maniacs”. A proper attribution would be “by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen”

That's brilliant, thank you!

 

[NoTalentHack]

I’m pretty sure every title by HardDaysKnight, an extremely prolific LW author with like 15-20 years under his belt here, is also a song title.

 

[SimonDoom]

Just to be clear, there's no real legal or ethical requirement to give attribution when you incorporate a song title into your work. As said before, there's no proprietary ownership in a song title. If you want to, that's fine, but there's no industry expectation that you must do so. I didn't do it with my story. I assumed many people would know the origin of "Mama Told Me Not To Come" and that they might be amused by the reference.

 

[RawSilhouette]

Attribute the songwriters, not the performers. For example, the OP refers to “Because the Night by 10,000 Maniacs”. A proper attribution would be “by Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen”

I have searched high and low for the writers that wrote the specific song I want to use. It's an unpublished and unofficial song, but the whole series I'm writing is kind of based on these lyrics, so I could write my own, but the song I write would still be based on that song. Do you think this is enough credit:

"POST SCRIPT NOTE: *Song lyrics included in this story are from an unpublished song by Justin Timberlake and unnamed writers and producers. This song is added for authenticity to this story and is not owned by this author."

Or would you recommend that I don't use this song at all?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I have searched high and low for the writers that wrote the specific song I want to use. It's an unpublished and unofficial song, but the whole series I'm writing is kind of based on these lyrics, so I could write my own, but the song I write would still be based on that song. Do you think this is enough credit:

"POST SCRIPT NOTE: *Song lyrics included in this story are from an unpublished song by Justin Timberlake and unnamed writers and producers. This song is added for authenticity to this story and is not owned by this author."

Or would you recommend that I don't use this song at all?

Are you citing the lyrics? If so, cite only one or two lines and you should be okay; start citing too many, and it's likely your story will get rejected, no matter what attribution you give.

 

[RawSilhouette]

Are you citing the lyrics? If so, cite only one or two lines and you should be okay; start citing too many, and it's likely your story will get rejected, no matter what attribution you give.

Thank you. I was citing the lyrics. I’ll just rewrite the song then. Thank you so much for your quick reply.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Thank you. I was citing the lyrics. I’ll just rewrite the song then. Thank you so much for your quick reply.

If the song becomes all your own lyric, I'd drop the attribution. Make sure you can't be accused of plagiarism - you can have a similar idea, but keep well away from any of the original phrases or word usage. Make it your own.