Soundtracking Stories: How Instagram’s music feature makes your life a movie

I’m surely not the only one who spends as much time choosing the music I post on my story as I spend choosing the photo itself. Why? Because the music conveys just as much as the photo does, and if anything, can completely change the vibe of a post.

Now you might be thinking: does anyone care that much? For me, my Instagram is like my digital diary. So, with the precious fifteen seconds the app gifts me to encapsulate a moment in time, I will be sure to use every tool in my arsenal to create a series of still time capsules that capture what those experiences felt like, not just what they looked like.

That’s why often my first go-to for music choice is the songs I have recently been listening to. I’m sure nobody is watching my stories more than I am, which is why I love using the music I was listening to at the time, because I am then transported straight back to that moment when I hear it.

We can use music both to try and perfectly freeze moments in time, but also to make our lives a little more like a movie

But how do you accurately soundtrack your story? I love matching both lyrics and the music’s vibe to what the story is depicting. For example, ‘Woodland’ by The Paper Kites is the perfect accompaniment to a forest walk, not only because of its name but also its sheer whimsy which is exactly how I feel when I’m strolling through the woods (even Gibbet Hill).

That brings me to the other reason music is such a great addition to stories: you can use it to unashamedly romanticise things. What may feel like the mundane can become a main character moment, in the movie that is your life. The minute I hear ‘Tongue Tied’ by  GROUPLOVE I’m immediately conjuring a classic 2000s movie scene of a group of friends in school or university; why can’t that be us? Sci-fi and fantasy aside, we do actually share a lot of the typical experiences that characters in movies do, and I would say that means we can also share their soundtracks.

So, we can use music both to try and perfectly freeze moments in time, but also to make our lives a little more like a movie (and going into exam season I don’t think I will survive without all of the romanticising I can get). If you’re stumped on where to start, here are a couple of ideas to get the ball rolling:

‘the sky looked nice today‘ – Now the sun has finally made its reappearance, I love this song by Lexie Carroll to capture the serenity of your sunset pictures.

‘Solamente’ – If you’ve got a photo dump of you bopping around town on a weekend, Tai Verdes’ track from TV is great to express a fun day out.

‘The Lamp is Low’ – By Laurindo Almeida: A sweet and soothing melody to accompany any of your low lighting pictures, whether at home, of a street, in a bar, etc.

‘Swimming’ – This is one of many beautiful, relaxing instrumentals by Flawed Mangoes, an artist who makes music that equally portray calmness and fun in the everyday.

‘Ribs’ – An iconic song by Lorde is perfect to convey the chaos of that slightly rogue night out where you don’t know what happened but you know you had a great time.

‘Good Days’ – SZA, in this single from 2020, equally sums up a great time, even if you’re just chilling with your friends.

‘Stay Young’ – When nostalgia is hitting, Maisie Peters can provide a sound that’s exactly like the feeling of wanting to go back in time.

A picture speaks a thousand words, but an accompanying song adds on so many more

I also love getting absolutely literal and silly with my song choices. ‘Blur’ by Dhruv for a blurry photo, ‘butterfly’ by Sody for a picture of a butterfly, or my personal favourite is ‘Dinosaurs in Love’ by Fenn Rosenthal (Tom Rosenthal’s daughter!) for a picture of the dinosaurs on the way to the Sports Centre. If I’m stumped, I will literally type in a relevant word into the search bar and see what comes up.

And when travelling, who doesn’t love a location-based song, like ‘Amsterdam’ by Alfie Jukes if you’re in Amsterdam or ‘Copenhagen’ by Jack Vallier, or even finding a song in the local language if you’re abroad.

My final consideration is the emotion I want to convey. When I’m posting a story with my best friends, I also want to convey how much they mean to me, and a solid love song is not only limited to significant others! Beabadoobee’s ‘Soren’, Annika Bennett’s ‘Your World’, and Noah Kahan’s ‘All My Love’ are some of my personal favourites for also showing your friends that you love them.

If it wasn’t already clear, I am a massive fan of Instagram’s music feature. From silly and obvious lyric choices to matching the vibe of your experience with music to conveying an emotion even further than the photo does, a well-selected song lets you take a still photo and turn it into a live experience. A picture speaks a thousand words, but an accompanying song adds on so many more.

Listen to the mentioned songs here: