Morty Shallman’s Literary Pop

Morty Shallman’s Literary Pop: A Mash-Up of Pop Music and Literary Fiction

Literary Pop

Morty Shallman's Literary Pop

Morty Shallman is the creator of Literary Pop—an original multimedia art form he invented that blends pop music and literary fiction into musical novels, stories, and albums. Literary Pop weaves original songs directly into narrative prose, including Theme Songs built to accompany each work.

Morty Shallman's excursions into Literary Pop:

Love's Oblivion, A Novel in Twelve Pop Songs (2002) — Shallman's first work of Literary Pop: a 12-song album in which each song serves as a chapter in the larger novel.

Last of the Zacharys: A Musical Novel (2010–present) — Shallman's flagship Literary Pop work, considered the definitive realization of the genre.

Pop Fiction—A Neo-Pop Indie Noir Musical Thriller (2018)

Shallman’s third experiment in Literary Pop is his indie noir neo-noir thriller, “Pop Fiction.” In Pop Fiction, each of the four songs in the EP corresponds to the acts in a traditional screenplay structure, with song one serving as ACT 1, songs two and three serving as ACT 2, and song 4 serving as ACT 3. In addition to the song/sections, additional voice-over narratives were added to narrate and contextualize the four songs that comprise the larger work. Pop Fiction was released worldwide in early 2018 as an audio EP and digital ebook with songs embedded in an enhanced PDF file.

Theme Songs & Playlists

Morty’s latest novels, The Tyranny of Desire (2023) and War and Sex (2024) are not strictly works of Literary Pop. But that doesn’t mean music has not been used to enhance the project. Using his own unique talents as a singer, songwriter AND novelist, Morty as written and released “The Tyranny of Desire, Theme Song for the Novel” and “War and Sex - Theme Song for the Novel.”

What’s Next

Next up for Shallman’s experiments in Literary Pop will be an audiobook version of Last of the Zacharys, A Novel with Songs, and a movie musical based on Book 3 of Last of Zacharys called Wrongheaded Town. Stay tuned for updates!