I'm not sure how many times I mentioned how Apollonia 6's lone single "Sex Shooter" was the "activating incident" for this story I'd been writing since 2012... but I'll say it again.
As a HUGE fan of Prince's music and his movie "Purple Rain," I'd put together a playlist of all the music from the movie. Most are songs from the albums, but longer versions. Others are B-sides and outtakes that he'd set aside for the movie, but never made it to the soundtrack.
I believe that particular afternoon, I was listening to another outtake [that later got revamped for Jill Jones's debut album] called "G-Spot" and followed it up with "Sex Shooter"... it didn't just bring me back to the scene in the movie, but gears started turning in my head.
Maybe "Te Busque" was simply my way of resurrecting the "Vanity" look in another time and place with a completely different story...
but this one song gave me an idea I'd been chasing ever since. And also helped me realize ideas I'd been gathering when I had Nelly Furtado's "Loose" album on heavy rotation.
My story has evolved IMMENSELY since then. But the one thing that remains is that these girls are dancers, they flaunt their sexuality in musical numbers, and some of them offer sexual favors to close business deals for their bosses- who happen to work in the drug trade. [Taking that into account, maybe this should take place in Columbia instead of Brazil... but I have plenty of time to figure that out].
The one difference in my version of this cliché- the latter part of the job is something that some of the girls do of their own free will [not all of them participate in this]. They aren't hookers who were forced into the sex trade. It's maybe a little cliché that all of them had less than perfect childhoods and it helped contribute to this. But there's also the fact that there are few options to make a living in this poor town.
Vanity 6 featured three girls dressed in leather boots, heels and lingerie. On stage, their prerogative was to bring sexual fantasies alive with their dancing and their music. Listening to their album, they have songs like "Nasty Girl" and "Wet Dream"... really risqué stuff... I mean, these songs were written by the same guy who wrote "Darling Nikki."
Not all of the songs on my inspirational playlists are nearly that risqué, but I find their stage presence very inspiring. They're confident with their bodies and flaunting their sexuality. All part of the female empowerment motif I'm going for.
I watched some concert footage that I downloaded for inspiration the way I'd used a bunch of music videos and my playlists...
it made me wish I could dance like that :P I promise, it'd just be for research. Another way to get into my characters' heads.
The "Vanity" look suits Amber so well and not unlike Vanity herself [shocking considering how AMAZING she looked while performing], she's not entirely comfortable with this way of performing.
I could totally see her having a similar look and stage presence.
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