My Lolita Playlist

Art by Kira Imai

I haven't forgotten about the 30 day Lolita meme! I just took a break from it for a while, but I'd like to resume with day 8 (even though it's very much past 8 days!) with "10 songs that inspire you for Lolita" I've actually been meaning to make a real-life mix CD of Lolita songs for a long time now, but have never really gotten around to even making a play list on my computer until now. These aren't necessarily songs that seem to directly reference anything Lolita-like but are more like what I like to listen to when I am in the mood to lounge around in a frilly dress.


Rasputina- 1816, The Year Without A Summer. I am sure I have mentioned on this blog before that I'm a pretty big Rasputina fan, and I tend to like to associate them in my head with Lolita. This is a song off of one of their more recent albums about, you guessed it, 1816, also known as the year without a summer. Not necessarily Lolita, but the historical imagery, of a pretty gloomy nature at that, is fitting for my own ideal Lolita aesthetic.


Nine Inch Nails- The Perfect Drug. Okay, so maybe this song is on this playlist because the scenery is like my dream house and gardens and I have never been able to separate the song from the music video after seeing so long ago, I also like to pretend that this song is about vampires, which it probably isn't. Scary hedge mazes, vampires, mandolins, these things are Lolita to me.


Cinema Strange- Catacomb Kittens. Another band that I have mentioned on this blog before! Again, picked for it's gloomy lyrics that are reminiscent of times gone by. A song about orphans who run away to live in catacombs, definitely more on the Gothic side of the Lolita spectrum, but still very Lolita to me.


Tori Amos- Raspberry Swirl. Tori Amos is another musician that I have always just sort of put on when I am in a particularly Lolita mood, but no real one song in particular. I just so happen to like this one at the moment.


Sopor Aeternus- Hades Pluton. This is actually the first Sopor Aeternus song, which I actually heard when I was first starting to get into Lolita and trying to create (not always successful) coordinates with the goth clothes in my closet, so this particular song always sort of reminds me of that time in my Lolita timeline. Also, it's a great song, even if it took a little bit to grow on me, as I had honestly never heard anything like Sopor Aeternus before this song. I had absolutely no idea what to make of it!


Malice Mizer- Beast of Blood. Another song that I discovered when I was first getting into Lolita, so it instantly reminds me of the fashion. And how could it not? A Jrock song about vampires with Mana pretending to play a violin while twirling around in an Aristocrat dress, what's more Lolita than that?


Darren Hayes- Waking the Monster. A little different from some of the other songs on here, but really on here mostly because my friend Janet and I are both huge Savage Garden/Darren Hayes fans, and the soundtracks on the way to many a far away Lolita meetup has been Savage Garden. Plus, this song is about a mad professor building a time machine, that's sort of cool and fitting I think XD


Schwarz Stein- Release Me. I was never really big on Jrock, with the exception of the first summer I discovered it, which was the summer of 2003, and also the summer after I decided I wanted to be a Lolita for reals this time. So, the few Jrock songs I still listen to really make me feel all fuzzy and nostalgic inside towards Lolita.


Aqua- My Mamma Said. Aqua is such an ultra girly band, mostly known for Barbie Girl (quite possibly the girliest of all songs?), but they make a few really great songs along with all the goofy ones. This is one of their best I think. Not particularly Lolita, besides the fact that they are generally a girly band.

A Coordinate Inspired by Cinema Strange & Lolita Music Musings

Every now and then I like to play around on Polyvore and design an outfit around a favorite song of mine. This particular coordinate is based on Needlefeet by Cinema Strange, a song about a little girl playing in the forest with her dolls and hears some strange things.

The lyrics allude to a very elegant and old fashioned time period. The little girl is not simply a little girl, she is a marchioness, her dolls are maids, her fort made of sticks and leaves a manor and they are sitting down for tea. It is both a charming song and a creepy song. The vocals and the music are a stark contrast to the lyrics and, typical of the post-punk/deathrock genre, feature nearly unintelligible dramatic vocals and scratchy guitars. If I was actually trying to turn someone on to Cinema Strange I wouldn't turn them straight to Needlefeet, but instead to the song Catacomb Kittens, which is the song that turned me onto the band.

I would post the actual song, but I don't know if anyone would actually like it XD So instead, the story version of the song, which I somehow managed to hear first, or at least, I noticed it first. Whenever I would put my music on random this story always caught my ear and held my interest. It's not a spoken word version of the song, but instead a whole story based on the song.

I occasionally get questions on my formspring asking about Lolita music, much like what to do when your petticoat deflates, I am really clueless about most Lolita music! To me, there is really no such thing as "Lolita music" because I don't really think that Lolitas have to listen to specific music, and if they did, you would get a bunch of different opinions, depending on who you asked! The Momoko purists would claim that classical music is Lolita music, Jrock fans would claim that the Jrock bands who wear actual Lolita is Lolita music, some people claim that Emilie Autumn is Lolita music simply because she once wrote a song called "Gothic Lolita", and the list goes on. Of course, none of these people are either right or wrong, if to them that's what Lolita music is then it is, for them.

Personally, I don't really go out in search of Lolita bands. I have tried in the past but have been mainly uninterested in what I found. Although, there are a number of bands I listen to who remind me of the Lolita aesthetic for one reason or another. Some other time I would like to get a play list of sorts up of "Lolitay" songs, but in the mean time, here are a few bands that remind me a bit of the Lolita aesthetic:

• Rasputina- The number one Lolitay band on my list. Besides being fronted by a bunch of girls in Victorian underwear with cellos they are well known for singing about obscure and strange historical events and Victorianesque themes. If the music that Rasputina makes could create a world, I feel that Lolitas would make up a large percentage of the population, or at least frequently vacation there!
  
• Sopor Aeternus- One of my favorite musicians of all time! Like Rasputina, Anna Varney of Sopor Aeternus creates a sort of world with her lyrics, this world is often much darker than Rasputina's, very much on the Gothic side of Lolita, but it is still a beautiful world.
  
• Cinema Strange- They have a lot of lyrics that are about creepy Victorian things, and a lot of their lyrics are very cemetery/death centric, but they are sung in a very dramatic and fast-paced way so they aren't exactly gloomy.
  
• Dead Can Dance- Dead Can Dance has a very wide range of styles, ranging from mellow folk to rock. They are a much more peaceful band than the other bands on this list and often have a very ethereal feel to their music.
  
• Kokusyoku Sumire- The only band on this list that is actually considered a Lolita band! Also the only Lolita band that I found I really enjoy. They wear the fashion, with their own twist, so I guess that's how they became known as a Lolita band, I don't speak Japanese, so I have no idea if their lyrics helped them become known as one. Despite the fact I don't know what they are singing about, they are very dramatic and operatic and quite fun to listen to.
  

Now, just as much as I listen to these bands I listen to things that are in no way, shape, or form Lolita, ranging from early 90's rock to Arabian pop/dance to power metal. While I don't think that fitting music is needed to even be a Lifestyle Lolita, it is sometimes fun to come across a band that reminds you of the frills, or to find out a band that you have always loved sings about loli-appropriate things, whatever they may be to you!

Do you feel that proper music is a requirement for Lolita, or are your favorite bands about as far as you can get from Lolita? I would love to hear any more Lolitay music suggestions, while I don't go around looking for music to match my frills, I always love to hear new bands!

Les Fleurs Du Mal: A Sopor Aeternus Inspired Coordinate

 A few months ago I made a Rasputina inspired Lolita coordinate, well, I'm back with another coordinate inspired by some of my favorite music, this time inspired by the music of Sopor Aeternus. I had a huge wall of text about here rambling about my love of Sopor Aeternus and me trying to explain it, but honestly, that is a lot of text, if you are curious about the long answer to WTF is Sopor Aeternus, check out the wiki page, if you want the short answer, well Sopor Aeternus is one of my most favorite musical groups, fronted by Anna-Varney Cantodea, a mysterious 50-something Goth. Musically, she is a bit Gothic, a bit Medieval, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and almost always over-the-top. In recent years Anna-Varney has gone from the grotesque to elegant, dusty Victorian finery, a change that has inspired a bit of my own wardrobe.

Anna-Varney's color of choice at the moment, when not simply black, is a pinkish lavender color, so I've spiced up a Gothic Lolita coordinate with Victorian accents with a few accessories, some as close to that lavender as I could find, that are inspired by various songs and images. A coffin ring, a black feather plume, an umbrella with a cathedral print on the inside, roses, and lacy fingerless gloves.

I, of course, can't end this post without having a Sopor Aeternus song up! So here is one off of the most recent album, Les Fleurs du Mal. This particular song "Some Men Are Like Chocolate" is incredibly catchy, upbeat, and generally optimistic for the majority of Sopor Aeternus songs out there, but I love it so much. If you haven't heard Sopor Aeternus before, well, this is as good as any to listen to at first XD Anna-Varney has a rather unique voice, that honestly boggled my mind a bit when I first heard it, but it has since grown on me quite a bit, if you couldn't tell.

Antique High Heel Red Doll Shoes: A Rasputina Inspired Coordinate

If you haven't picked it up from the occasional mention, and this meme I did, I am a huge fan of the cello-rock band Rasputina. Now, they are not for everyone, so I wouldn't suggest that you go out and buy their whole discography, but I, personally, can't get enough of them. When I first really got into Lolita, the song AntiqueHighHeelRedDollShoes instantly reminded me of the style. I don't quite know why it always reminds me of Lolita, maybe the bitchy tone of the song, as Lolitas are often infamous for being bitchy on the internet (something I think that we are wrongly accused of I might add). Or, maybe it's the line in the chorus "Daintier, smarter, better dressed" which is sort of the ideal Lolita, even though it may not always be true.

So, in honor of the song that I love so much, here is a coordinate based around it. Ever since hearing that song, so many years ago, I've really wanted a pair of red Victorian boots to wear with an all black outfit. A few red elements are thrown in to give it some balance, but really, I'm not so much going for a black and red outfit as I am a black outfit with a few red details.

If you're open to some new music, give Rasputina a chance. Their music ranges from hauntingly beautiful to downright silly. Their music has made me laugh, cry, and even dance. If you're interested in hearing the song that inspired this coordinate, check out this video. It's just the song set to someone doodling, as Rasputina really doesn't make too many music videos.

While I love this song to pieces, it doesn't really give a good idea of what Rasputina typically sounds like. If you cringed away from Melora's penchant for fake British accents, give them another chance with My Little Shirtwaist Fire, one of my favorite Rasputina songs.