#and he said ‘i’m hoping once I complete the trifecta I can just ascend to this new lesbian plane of existence’

[terrainofheartfelt]

Musicians!Humphreys my beloved!!! So you alluded to them working with some of Lincoln Hawk’s old material, but apart from that, what genre(s?) of music do you see them working in? For Jenny I definitely picture rock, but also that’s probably because of Taylor Momsen more than anything else lol. For Dan I’m actually not sure - for someone with as many opinions on art and film and literature as he had, I can’t actually remember if he ever talked about music? I mean, with his upbringing and personality you have to imagine the guy would have some strong opinions, but I’m not entirely sure what they would be!

(Also this is an incredibly minor nitpick, but unless there was fraud, deception, or coercion involved in their marriage (or physical incapacity that was unknown at the time of marriage), Dan and Serena would be getting a divorce, not an annulment. The reason Rufus and Lily got their marriage annulled was because they were technically married under false pretenses i.e. an undissolved previous marriage. The whole short marriage = easy annulment thing is a misconception and, at least in New York, the rules are quite specific and pretty strict. Anyway I love literally everything else you wrote sjskfjfjdkd that is just one of those tropes for me lol)

Yesssss my kind of question! This is multi-pronged, so come on this journey through my thought process with me.

I’ll be honest, all these hcs are based off my own personal music tastes, but hey, my fic my blorbos my rules. Which is just to say, Momsen’s work with TPR isn’t really my cup of tea, nor is Badgley’s musical moonlighting, so that’s kind of…separate from how I’ve painted this all in my brain.

Music tastes-wise (I actually wrote meta for Ivy about this but it was sooooooo long ago, but I could probs hunt it down if you’re interested) I think both Dan and Jenny are the type whose taste is shaped SO much by their parents, and then as they became their own people, those tastes diverged and converged and evolved. One thing I think about a lot is a passing comment from Jen in s2 when she’s like…sorting the record collection? and she mentions Muddy Waters and when I first heard that my heart went !!!! bc I listened to Muddy Waters growing up too bc my dad LOVES that artist (self recognition through the other, etc.) so I think, in addition to the Lincoln Hawk 90s rock of it all, Dan and Jenny were brought up on a diet of blues, classic rock, and folk—think Laurel Canyon. (Some artists: Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Nina Simone, Mavis Staples, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley—Rufus and Alison actually would have been settling into the Brooklyn artist scene in the late 80s/early 90s when he was there too, right?—Simon & Garfunkel, Rolling Stones, Beatles, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, I should probs stop now…)And another pet hc of mine is that Alison was into some country music, but like, the good kind—not this bullshit stadium country, but what my friends and I call ~Lady Country~: like Brandi Carlile and The Chicks formerly known as Dixie. Dan and Jenny both know “Cowboy Take Me Away” by heart. now I’m tempted to share my lady country playlist…

So for Dan, he grows into a pretentious music lover: we see him talk about Eliot Smith & Morrissey, and I think growing up he and Vanessa get each other more entrenched in their own pretentious tastes—he’s a classics and rock and punk and indie and folk guy. He sticks to the genres he deems as “Good” and it’s not really until Serena and Nate come into his life that he takes off his blinders. In his 20s, he doesn’t really have a set framework for what constitutes as “good music” in terms of genre, if it’s well-written, it’s well-written. He becomes a lowkey swiftie, not in a like, internet girl kinda way—he just respects her game, and he LOVES the geniuses behind boygenius, and, as we’ve established in this corner of the fandom, Hozier is His. Some other artists for him: Paramore (Jimmy Stewart was his first celeb crush but Haley Williams was his second), Frank Turner, Bleachers, Andrew McMahon and Brian Fallon (and all their associated acts), Lord Huron

Jenny has always just liked everything in the way that girls are allowed to/have to like everything. Her tastes range from the artists she learned from her parents, the poppunk overlap between her & Dan & Vanessa, her riot grrl rock, plus pop music, plus the indie finds she loves to sniff out. My Jenny playlist jumps from genre to genre like nothing else—actually, my blorbo playlists, I don’t really put something on there unless I think it is something that suita the character’s taste, so Jenny’s has Range, darling, and Dan’s keeps to his hipster-light taste, and Blair’s leans towards vintage sound, and Serena’s is poppier…anyways… Some artists that I keep in mind for Jen: Kesha, Halsey, Panic! at the Disco, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks (and Fleetwood Mac), Amy Winehouse

Which brings us back to: what kind of musicians would this make them? In the post-canon fic-let that you responded to with this ask, I have a particular album in mind: In the Game, by Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill. It’s a collab between two very excellent artists—whose lyrics just scream dan & jenny to me. O’Neill just—she sounds like Jenny to me. She has this captivating, bluesy, raw kind of voice, she can be so tender, but wail when she has to. (and I think, if you were to strip her voice of the hard rock affectation she sings with—bc that’s her genre, no shade—Momsen would sound the same). And genre-wise, the more I think about it the more it fits. Bc this album is an interesting blend of blues & folk with a little bit of rock, and I think that suits, bc neither Dan nor Jenny would want to write music that sounds too much like Lincoln Hawk and their dad, they’d want to create their own thing, and what happens is a gelling of their tastes, starting in the overlap of their venn diagram, and stretching the other into branching out. In the way that Jenny loves listening to anything and everything, she is also down for trying any genre, but I think Dan—whose not a frontman like his sister and father are—would stick to his comfort zone, but his comfort zone is like, fantastic.

And there’s this note I made for this au—which will maybe someday become a fic?—that sort of defines how I hear them as performers. Jenny sings like she’s trying to pull the emotion out of the listener, to make them feel what she’s feeling. Dan sings like it’s the very words that are being pulled out of him. They’re both emotive, but in different ways; one is more…in your face, while the other is more turned inward. Artists that I think are like Jenny in this sense (it’s not genre-based, it’s more a vibe): tswift, Kesha, Hayley Williams, Brendan Urie, Mick Jagger, Brandi Carlile. Artists that remind me of Dan with this kind of emotive, lyrics led vibe are: Phoebe Bridgers, Hozier, Sara Bareilles, Jeff Buckley. Also important notes: Jenny can WAIL, okay? Like she has so much voice in such a little body. And Dan is really, really good at hooking into his falsetto at all the right moments that can make a person just— he’s not a belter like Jen is—her voice is undoubtedly bigger—but he has that command over his instrument. Like the way Hozier and Jeff Buckley and Brendan Urie can just — hook into their head voice and make a Moment? yeah.

I could go on about musician!Humphreys forever, so if you have more to ask, by all means 💜💜💜💜

And bestie. listen. I so appreciate everyone who has their pet centers of knowledge and information and is very into sharing them (see above) music is mine, but marriage law is not, so please, when a girl says she posted a thing after writing it in mostly one sitting and without any proofing, please give her a little bit of grace. ♥️

#asks #anon #musician!humphreys my most beloved #ty for asking! i love talking about this in case you couldn’t tell #gg hcs #plus a lil bit of #gg meta #the other day I was talking to my brother #and he’s seen lucy daucus & julien baker live #and has tickets for phoebe #and he said ‘i’m hoping once I complete the trifecta I can just ascend to this new lesbian plane of existence’ #which is a hilarious but also very dan humphrey thing to say #his gf definitely gave him side eye for it tho