Throwback Thursday #6: Top Five Favorite Musical Moments

We’re just over a month away from Dreamer’s Sanctuary’s twenty-fifth anniversary, so I’m back with another Throwback Thursday blog. This week, I’m blogging about my favorite musical moments from my fanfiction. Music has always been a big part of my stories, which makes sense when you consider the fact that most of my main characters are musicians. Because I’ve written so many musical scenes over the years, choosing my top five favorites was a challenge. This was the hardest time I’ve had making one of these lists so far! In the end, I went with five scenes that made me feel some sort of way when I reread them – and what a wide range of feelings are represented here! But that’s the power of music. It packs an emotional punch!

5. Who Needs the World

In Chapter 86 of Broken, Nick visits a very sick Claire in the hospital and soothes her with a sweet, bedside serenade of his solo song, “Who Needs the World.” Music had a huge influence on me when I was writing the Broken series. Along with listening to music while I wrote it, I made lengthy playlists for it, included lyrics in its chapters, and incorporated songs into many of its scenes. Sometimes music made the scenes more emotional, and sometimes it just came across as cringy. Those who read BMS as I was writing it may remember that the original version of Chapter 196 once contained Nickleback lyrics interspersed throughout Nick’s dramatic near-death experience. When I moved my site to WordPress back in 2012, which required reposting every page and chapter, I removed the song lyrics I had put at the beginning, end, and sometimes even middle of chapters because I’d realized by then that most readers found them annoying, distracting, and, in the case of Chapter 196, incredibly cheesy. While Chapter 86 is admittedly cheesy, too, it’s a good kind of cheesy, the kind that makes me smile instead of cringe. It’s a sweet moment that captures both the simplicity and the caring nature of Nick and Claire’s relationship. To this day, I’m still reminded of this scene when I hear “Who Needs the World.” But that’s not the only song included in this chapter; it also contains references to Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” because it’s a product of its time and my teenage brain.

4. Shy Donnie

Music plays a big part in 00Carter, which may be surprising, considering it’s an AU. The guys may not be the Backstreet Boys in this universe, but they still love music – well, at least, Nick does. Much to the annoyance of his colleagues, 00Carter is always singing something, so I had a lot of fun musical moments to choose from: the hypnotic performance of “Mr. Roboto” at Global Idol, the FANS minions singing the crowd parts in “One Jump Ahead” while chasing Nick and K through the Magic Kingdom, Nick and Pearl singing “4 Minutes” (to save the world) when they literally had four minutes to save K’s life, and so many more! But, because I love parodies, I picked the musical number from the beginning of Episode 12: “Mr. Body Beautiful,” in which Drums (Justin Timberlake) and Donnie (Wahlberg) rap in front of the rest of the FANS minions. Their performance is part homage to the SNL sketch “Shy Ronnie” and part parody of the New Kids on the Block song “Games,” specifically Donnie’s rap and the “Oh-ee-oh” chant. I discovered the latter during the NKOTBSB era, and it quickly became one of my favorite NKOTB songs, purely for its cheesy, early-nineties hip-hop epicness, so I jumped at the chance to use it in an episode of 00Carter. While the episode wasn’t published until 2022, I actually wrote this scene back in 2012 or so, right before our nine-year hiatus. I thought it might never see the light of day, but I’m so happy it did! I still adore the mental image of Drums thinking he’s a gangsta rapper, only to get his prosthetic hook stuck in his fro, and shy, shivering Donnie (who is often portrayed as his character from The Sixth Sense) busting out this badass verse while the FANS minions play Twister in their rumpus room. This sort of absurdity is what makes 00Carter so much fun to write!

3. The Carter Brothers’ Sing-Off

This is a controversial pick because it comes from a story that, admittedly, has not aged well, given everything that has happened to the Carter family in the last few years. In The Year Without a Pandaskunk, part three of The Pandaskunk Saga, Nick invites his whole family to Vegas for a fun, old-fashioned Carter family Christmas in an effort to heal his strained relationship with Aaron. I started writing this story in late 2019, when Aaron was conspiring with Melissa Schuman to paint Nick as a serial rapist after Nick and Angel filed their restraining order against him. I channeled my frustration into fanfic, working through my anger toward these Melissa and Aaron by making them characters in my next pandaskunk story. As one would expect, their portrayals are far from flattering. This story probably seems mean-spirited now, in light of Aaron’s death, but he was very much alive and acting like a complete jackass when I wrote it. It’s a product of its time, and I make no apologies for it. In fact, I would be lying if I left it off of this list because it does contain one of my favorite musical moments: the Miser Brothers-style sing-off between Nick and Aaron. I love the old Rankin Bass stop motion Christmas specials, and since my original pandaskunk story started as a parody of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, it only made sense to pay homage to another Rankin Bass special, The Year Without a Santa Claus, in the third installment. Snow Miser, Heat Miser, and their respective musical numbers are the best part of that special, so I wrote a parody for Nick and Aaron to perform as they faced off to determine who was the better singer, once and for all. I was honestly really proud of this parody when I wrote it, and that’s why I put it in my top five, even if it seems in poor taste now.

2. Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite

You wouldn’t expect there to be many musical moments in My Brother’s Keeper, considering it takes place during Kevin’s hiatus and centers around his recovery from a life-altering injury. But while you can take the boy out of Backstreet, you can’t take the Backstreet out of the boy. Music remains an important part of Kevin’s life after his injury, and the trauma he’s endured makes each musical moment all the more poignant. From singing in his hospital bed to singing with the Boys on a stage, it’s a journey for Kevin to find both his voice and his confidence to sing in front of an audience again. I love the second to last chapter of this story, when Kevin makes a surprise appearance at the Boys’ show in L.A. to sing “Shape of My Heart” with them (just like he did in real life, except in a wheelchair). But for my second favorite musical moment, I chose Chapter 29, in which Kevin, Nick, and AJ steal a scene from the movie Three Men and a Baby and sing Mason to sleep with a sweet rendition of “Goodnite, Sweetheart, Goodnite” by The Spaniels. While the brotherhood between Kevin and Nick is my favorite part of MBK, I also enjoyed seeing Nick and AJ step up as Mason’s “uncles” and help Kevin care for him after his injury makes it impossible for him to do so independently. This scene spotlights both. It also marks an important milestone in Kevin’s musical journey, as he learns how to manipulate his newly-paralyzed body to make his weakened voice more powerful. Plus, picturing the guys singing a lullaby in three-part harmony to put a baby to sleep is just adorable. 🥹

1. Thriller

For my favorite musical moment, I picked the most epic one I’ve ever written: Chapter 60 of Song for the Undead, in which the guys ride around in the back of an ambulance, blaring Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to lure the zombies still lurking nearby and singing along at the top of their lungs as they shoot them all. It’s more cinematic than the others on this list; I can see it play out like a movie in my mind as I read it. That was intentional, as it was at least partly inspired by my favorite scene from Shaun of the Dead, in which the main characters take turns pummeling a zombie with pool cues to the beat of “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. As a matter of fact, Chapter 60 includes a bit of Queen as well – AJ also sings “Another One Bites the Dust” as he picks off zombies. I love this scene because it combines so many of my favorite things: the Backstreet Boys (even if they’re not actually the Backstreet Boys), Michael Jackson (and Queen) music, ambulances, and zombies! My co-writer Rose and I both love “Thriller” – we even dressed up as Michael Jackson and a zombie from the music video for ‘80s Night on the 2011 BSB cruise, which took place as we were writing Undead. We had already made references to the song in previous chapters, but this was the one that really put it in the spotlight. It’s a lighthearted moment in a story full of darkness, and I love it.

And there you have it! Music can move you, make you laugh, make you cry, make you smile, and sometimes make you cringe. Even in written form, music evokes an emotional response. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my list of favorite musical moments. That’s it for this month, but I’ll be back in April with more Throwback Thursday blogs!