This post risks making a lot of pro-dommes very mad. I’m going to go out on a limb for my readers here and talk about a very taboo session activity. Something that almost all professionals will say absolutely never happens with any of their clients. Yet I’m here to tell you that just sometimes, if the mood and dynamic is right, if the right level of trust is established, it can happen. The submissive might actually be allowed to pick the playlist for the session music.
I know this to be true because – in the immortal words of the Penthouse readers letters page – I never thought it would happen to me, until a mysterious but very attractive lady propositioned me with it sometime last year. I say mysterious because I’m definitely not going to say who it was. I may be crazy enough to risk the general wrath of pro-dommes with this post, but I’m not going to risk the very specific wrath of someone who I may session with in the future. I’d hate for this to come back and haunt me when I’m naked, bound and she has me quite literally by the balls.
For those readers who have never done a session with a pro-domme, I should make clear that background music is the one true constant of sessions. More so than black dungeon walls, leather cuffs and incomprehensible controls on janky showers. I don’t think I’ve ever done a session without some sort of music. And given that pro-dommes are inevitably younger and hipper than I am, rarely have I any idea what’s being played. Typically it’s a grab bag of electronic, ambient, dance, industrial and obscure indie. Good for drowning out screams, but not exactly my kind of jams.
With the domme in question – who I should make clear is still very much younger and hipper than me – we actually share some musical interests. Which is how I came to get my ass beaten to some choice selections from the early oeuvre of Iron Maiden. Personally I think the energy and tempo changes in Phantom of the Opera make for great session music, but I’m not going to hold my breath for it to catch on more widely.
This image of a puppet pianist comes from the photographer Konrad Bak.
Paltego – I thought better of you. There are some things about our scene which are just not discussed publicly…and for everyone’s protection.
You’ve crossed a line.
By disclosing this on your widely read blog, you expose all the pro dommes out there to increased scrutiny by LE, in this case in the form of ASCAP.
I thought you understood the importance of discretion in our play and relationships with dommes.
Have you no shame sir?
My God! You’re right. That never crossed my mind. Local cops hassling dommes is bad enough, but those dastardly musicians with their lawyers will stop at nothing.
I can only hope my post doesn’t force all playspaces to get public music licenses, thereby drastically raising prices and ultimately forcing them all out of business. That would be a real oopsie on my part.
-paltego
you are a bit of a tease in that first parapgraph .. i do hope that one of your pro-domes does a really hard spanking for this . . 8)
I had fun writing that opening paragraph :-). I’m actually playing with a domme tomorrow night, so I guess we’ll see how that session unfolds!
-paltego
I actually see a pro domme who gave me an assignment to create a playlist for our session. It was great fun and created an intimacy before and during the session that enhanced the experience for me.
Interesting. I’ve not heard of that kind of assignment before, but it strikes me as a really good idea. Assuming of course that your musical tastes overlap somewhat. I can imagine it would create a connection and greater sense of intimacy. Thanks for sharing that.
-paltego
Another of the very many in-session activities that you have experienced and I have not, Paltego.
I agree there is quite a range of session music but there is always some. Almost every domme I have visited has worked in a city, so I mostly put it down to avoiding too much fuss from neighbours. My very first (and for a long time only) domme was into creepy plainsong, sometimes ‘vanilla’ sometimes with techno. A lovely lady in Washington introduced me to There is a Light that Never Goes Out and my elegant Parisian lady liked opera (or enjoyed inflicting it on me, anyway).
If I’m ever given a free choice in session it would have to be Bowie: ‘The Laughing Gnome’. His creativity went downhill after that.
Keep on keeping on
Servitor
Well when I said it had happened once, I wasn’t kidding. In literally hundreds of sessions, that’s the one time it happened.
I suspect music serves multiple purposes. Definitely helps cover stray noises that may disturb neighbors. Also helps people relax and prevents awkward silences when people might feel they had to talk. And of course it can help set mood. I’m not an opera fan, but Lydia used to play it quite often in sessions, and I thought the drama and overwrought emotion of it went well with kink.
The Laughing Gnome would definitely be a … unique choice for session music. You’d either get a laugh or get beaten a lot harder, so basically it’d all be upsides.
Cheers!
-paltego
I have experienced the preplanned playlist also functioning as a clock, freeing the professional dominant to move through a session with an openness to its progression: beginning, middle and end.
That’s a great idea. Seems like it would give a nice sense of progress and transition, while actually being functionally useful. I think it’s always disconcerting if I see the domme glancing at the clock, and that’s a nice way to avoid that. Obviously requires a bit of pre-scene organization, but seems like something more people should use.
-paltego