Dear O'Abby: Can I use song titles in my book?

 Dear O’Abby,

 

I’m writing a book that’s set during the ‘90s grunge era and there are a lot of references to songs from that period. I know song lyrics are copyrighted, but what about the titles?  Can I use these both as chapter titles and throughout the text as a kind of shorthand to illustrate what I’m talking about?

 

Any help you could give me would be great.  I don’t have any budget for licensing anything, so if it’s going to be an issue, I’ll just have to bite the bullet and write a bunch of lyrics for my fictional band instead.

 

Yours,

 

Copywronged

 

Dear Copywronged,

 

You are very right about song lyrics being copyrighted, so it is always best to steer clear of using even a snippet.  There are no rules about how much you can quote before you need to license the material, so it is better to just steer clear of lyrics all together.

 

Song titles, on the other hand, can be used without any issue.  Just make sure to either put them in “quotes” or itallics so your readers know they are titles.  Even better if you mention the artist as well.  For example:

 

As she strolled up the block, Sasha hummed along to Smells Like Teen Spirit, the first track on the CD that hadn’t left her Discman all summer.  When she reached the chorus, she started singing along, mangling the lyrics so much Nirvana would have struggled to recognise their own hit.

 

I agree that titles and band names are good shorthand, but make sure whatever you reference is well enough known to actually fulfil that purpose.  If you pick some obscure band that only a handful of people have heard of, that little plan might backfire.  Especially if you’re writing YA.  You have to remember that while the ‘90s might feel like yesterday to you, they were 30 or so years ago and many of your readers may not have been born at the time these songs were hits.

 

Hope that helps and good luck with your novel.

 

X O’Abby