Updated Dorian Gray Playlist

My playlist outlines the development of the title character in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was written in 1890. The novel comments upon the fleeting and superficial nature of beauty, and its relationship to philosophy and morality.

A brief summary of the novel: Dorian Gray is a handsome young man whom the artist Basil Howard frequently uses as a model in his paintings. When Dorian meets Lord Henry Wootton while sitting for a portrait, the aristocrat’s radical ideas about hedonism and the pursuit of pleasure influence the impressionable and vain young Dorian. While later contemplating the potential degeneration of his physical good looks over time, Dorian wishes that his portrait could bear his signs of aging, while he himself remains physically beautiful and unchanged. Thus, Dorian degenerates morally, committing more and more debased acts in the name of pursuing pleasure above all else, while his portrait becomes increasingly hideous and bears the physical marks of his physical and mental abuse.

I chose to use contemporary rock bands to illustrate Dorian’s development (or, one might say, his course of moral degradation.) These bands all have a relative continuity in style, in that they all use electric guitars, drums and bass, and compose their songs using melodic hooks derived from earlier punk and prototypic rock precedents. However, the distinctive mood, tempo, lyrical presentation style, and tonality of each song differs enough from the others to present a distinctive sense of progression and change.
The rock genre is particularly appropriate to use in conjunction with this particular character because of the stereotypes and lifestyles that rock bands have espoused since rock’s inception in the 1940s and 1950s. Rock musicians are (perhaps stereotypically) known for pursuing pleasure, engaging in socially marginal behaviors (like drug use or abuse, promiscuity, and various other shock tactics like public demonstrations of rage, energy, etc.) Like Dorian Gray, whose beautiful appearance makes him palatable to society even though his immoral lifestyle is deemed reprehensible, contemporary society often simultaneously condemns and harbors a fascination with the lives of rock musicians, whose behavior is acceptable often because of their fame or their “creative genius” or “artistic temperaments.”
My playlist follows a general tempo change; it starts out slowly and melodically with Rufus Wainwright’s “Pretty Things,” and gradually builds in intensity and speed. The lulling and trancelike “Spike the Senses” by Of Montreal provides an interlude between more aggressive songs that suggest Dorian’s willingness to commit acts of violence against others, instead representing Dorian’s self-imposed repression of his physical senses as well as his moral values and feelings. The playlist reaches a climax with the frantic tempo of The Horrors’ song “Little Victories,” as Dorian reaches the depths of debasement, and decrescendos as Dorian becomes increasingly brooding and isolated, and wracked with guilt. The playlist ends with the rock-dirge “The Black Angel’s Death Song” by the Velvet Underground, to symbolize Dorian’s final degraded sense of self and ultimate suicide.

1. Pretty Things: Rufus Wainwright

Pretty things, so what if I like pretty things
Pretty lies, so what if I like pretty lies
From where you are, to where I am now
I need these pretty things, around the planets of our phase
Everything's a sign of my astrology
From where you are, to where I am now
Is its own galaxy
Be a star and fall down somewhere next to me
And make it past your color TV
This time will pass and with it will me
And all these pretty things
Don't say you don't notice them

The tragic story of Dorian Gray opens with the impressionable young man living in a state of somewhat insulated self-adulation. The tempo of Rufus Wainwright’s song is slow, indicating the stagnation of Dorian’s present mindset, as he sits still for his portrait and isn’t abraded by any new or controversial ideas from the genial painter Basil. Because he is valued by the painter primarily for his physical good looks, young Dorian is already imbued, to a certain extent, with the idea that physical appearance and beauty should be prized above all other attributes in the world. Wainwright’s lyrics indicate the shallowness of prizing only beauty, just as Wilde’s tone in the opening chapters of the novel indicates a distinct sense of disdain for the characters he has created.

2. Narcissist: The Libertines

We're living in a looking glass/ As the beauty of life goes by/ You're going to be so oh/ You're going to grow so old/ Your skin so cold
We’re just narcissists/ Well wouldn't it be nice to be Dorian Gray?/ Just for a day/ They're just narcissists/ Oh, what's so great to be Dorian Gray/ Every day?

After Dorian mulls over Lord Henry’s thoughts about the transient nature of beauty, his mindset becomes increasingly frantic. His life and personality have been defined by his external appearance thus far in his life, and the loss of his most prized asset truly frightens Dorian. The frantic pace of this song echoes the state of mind that the wealthy young man endures as he becomes increasingly distraught over the possible loss of his youth and beauty. The title of this song, “Narcissist” indicates Dorian’s most defining characteristic (and of course the song was inspired by the character). Ultimately, Dorian’s narcissism leads him to pledge his soul to his portrait, so that it will bear physical manifestations of his aging body and soul.

3. Babyshambles: Beg, Steal or Borrow

Why should I wait until tomorrow?/ I've already been/ I've already seen/ All the sorrow that's in store
But if I beg steal or borrow/ Just to hold on tighter/ To all the sorrow/ Tries to chaw/ If I change my tune/ Maybe well I won't be bound to doom/ Well I won't be bound to doom"
After Dorian decides to become a student of “new Hedonism,” the life philosophy advocated by Lord Henry, he initially endures a period of blissful and instant self-gratification. He pursues pleasure without thinking of its consequences on his body or mind. The tone of this Babyshambles song is likewise relaxed and lilting, indicating a carefree state of mind. The lyrics of this song are also reflective of Dorian’s willingness to commit acts that are morally frowned upon by society at large in order to pursue a life of superficial sensory pleasure. They also indicate the thirst for instant gratification of the hedonistic narcissist.

4. Black-Hearted Boy: The Fiery Furnaces

Darling black-hearted boy,
all the color's gone out of my ribbon loom
as I've only got the worst to assume.
Take your sheet metal sheers;
cut a slit up the the side of my dark blue dress;
for a last time lie your love confess.

Get your gut,
some home made twine-
string up silk your tiger bow.
Don't paint your board
moonlight white-
go dangle your fishhook out in the gutter again.

See the smoke from your kiln-
pine boughs burn the bricks dead hard in their fog
as I stand cold with my back broke by the bog.
Find your cross cut saw-
come blunt and jagged dry and try
cut my tongue out to keep on your wall up high.

Darling black hearted boy,
I went down to wash my robe in the river;
I thought of you and started to shake and to shiver.
Leaning there on the rocks.
I see myself slip down and float
'til the brackish warm current stops up my throat.

[Chorus] You swore you swore you'd never leave
you swore you swore you'd never leave
you swore you swore you'd never leave and now you're gone and
now I'm-

Early on in the novel, Dorian becomes enamored with a talented actress named Sibyl Vane. Sibyl falls in love with the handsome and charming Dorian, and decides that the emotions she portrays on stage aren’t real when compared to those she feels for Dorian, and decides to give up acting. However Dorian only loves her for her ability to act (he is, of course, incapable of feeling reciprocal and deep love, and spurns Sibyl thereafter.
This Fiery Furnaces song, “Black Hearted Boy,” is an electronically orchestrated pop-ballad that describes Dorian’s character, as told from the perspective of the spurned lover. The female singer in this eerie, mournful song acknowledges that the lover who has abandoned her is a debased liar, one who is capable of evoking extreme misery in others. Just as Sibyl mourns the fact that her chosen lover does not care about her well-being or happiness, the singer in “Black Hearted Boy” uses imagery that references decay, death and degeneration. Ultimately, both Sibyl and the song’s speaker commit suicide, a fact which reinforces Dorian’s power to cause unhappiness and pain in others. After Dorian rejects Sibyl, he notices for the first time that his portrait has
begun to change (now it sneers).

5. Spike The Senses: Of Montreal

http://www.last.fm/music/Of+Montreal/_/Spike+the+Senses

Every second of every day I let my fancy play/ And if the feeling strikes me/ I deliquesce into the sky without waving goodbye/ While contemplating a fractured pale cathedral wall
death can't touch me at all/ Let its rapacious fingers with venomous stingers try/ I'd like to see it try, try to find a way to spike the senses/ till everything goes white

Climbing climbing climbing never falling/ If it was up to me I'd freak the clouds/ let them fall and grip to the sea/ I think the chemicals have done/some evil thing to me

Lord Henry persuades Dorian to view Sibyl’s suicide as an act of ideal artistic tragedy. Dorian is easily influenced, and further shows how he is incapable of feeling true remorse and empathy. At this point in the story, Dorian increasingly sinks into the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure, particularly in London opium dens. In the mid-tempo song “Spike the Senses,” the surreal and transparent echoes from synthesizers record the course of a drug-induced stream of consciousness, and the craving to reach such an ecstasy repeatedly. The quiet volume is reminiscent of one floating in and out of consciousness. Also of note is the fact that the lead singer in “Spike the Senses” uses a falsetto in much of the song—a falsetto is an intentionally modified voice, one that disguises the true tones of the singing individual. The falsetto compares to Dorian’s false youth—it clings to him but does not naturally belong to him.

6. The Horrors: Little Victories

I press your hand in mine however cautiously, I keep a smile right to myself
And I lapse into the grasp of an overriding obsession
And I get sick as I watch my interests fall into suspension
This Winter
So cold, Creeping down your arm
Stealth soldiers, Creeping around your palm
It's hard, hard to understand
Little victories won creeping around your hand
The sickness has taken hold through violent, blurted syllables
Escape my mouth under my breath
The voice of pricking dread is whispering insistent in my ear
My paranoia galvanised by your gaze, so austere
This Winter...
I pinned your crest to my chest, hoping it might start to look right
There was hushed talk of young boy's corpse lying face down in some river
His hands used to move like mine
I can't stand myself this morning, i am practically that boy
No strength to endure, Ghostly insecure, Pallid through lack of choice
This winter...

A major turning point in The Picture of Dorian Gray occurs when the painter Basil Howard visits Dorian and realizes that his painting is bearing the physical scars of Dorian’s life actions. Dorian loses control of himself in a fit of rage, and kills Basil after the painter tries to remonstrate him. Just as the clashing guitars in “Little Victories” rise to a crescendo as the lyrics of the song describe a murder, Dorian’s anger reaches a macabre and fevered pitch as he is led to commit this heinous crime against humanity.

7. Isolation: Joy Divison

"Surrendered to self preservation/ From others who care for themselves/ A blindness that touches perfection/ But hurts just like anything else
Isolation, Isolation, Isolation
Mother, I tried, please believe me/ I'm doing the best that I can/ I'm ashamed of the things I've been put through/ I'm ashamed of the person I am
Isolation, Isolation, Isolation
But if you could just see the beauty/These things I could never describe/These pleasures a wayward distraction/This is my one broken prize"
Towards the end of the story, Dorian becomes increasingly depressed and experiences a bit of remorse and guilt because of the pain and crimes he has committed against others. The hollow tones of the singer in “Isolation” represent the despondence and almost apathetic state that Dorian reaches, as he trudges through his day to day life. Dorian’s only consolation in his loneliness is his beauty and youth (his “broken prize.”)

8. The Black Angel’s Death Song: Velvet Underground

Sacrificial remains make it hard to forget
Where you come from
The stools of your eyes
Serve to realize fame, choose again

And if Epiphany's terror reduced you to shame
Have your head bobbed and weaved
Choose a side to be on

If the stone glances off
Split didactics in two
Leave the colors of the mouse trails
Don't scream, try between
If you choose, if you choose, try to lose
For the loss of remain come and start

At the end of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the title character experiences a final flood of grief and remorse for his actions. He is overcome by self-hatred, and confronts his hideous and disfigured portrait, and slashes it with a knife. Of course the painting has come to represent Dorian’s true essence, and both the painting and the physical Dorian bleed, leaving the painting ultimately restored to its original condition, and Dorian dead, old and disfigured, disgraced upon the floor.
“The Black Angel’s Death Song” is an especially appropriate way to represent the ending of his narrative, because the lyrical imagery references blood, violence, death, decay, and desperation (all characteristics of Dorian’s interior state by the end of the novel, as well as the hideous appearance of his portrait.) The song represents the feelings of a worn out soul, someone who has seen a too much of the world, and who cannot deny baser instincts. The speaker sees suffering and even can acknowledge that it is caused by the self, but cannot do anything to relieve it or to even apologize because of vanity or any other variety of confused emotions.