History Main / IncessantMusicMadness

Related to BigShutUp, which is often the outcome. Also related to DreadfulMusician. Can be related to ItWontTurnOff. Could be a case of TheThingThatWouldNotLeave if this happens inside a person's house or AnnoyinglyRepetitiveChild if the one making the music is a child. Compare BrownNote, which is a related trope. (The difference? This trope is when the music is not harmful itself but irritates you to madness; Brown Note is when the music is ''inherently'' harmful.) Also compare LoudOfWar, which is this trope done maliciously. ''Also'' compare HellIsThatNoise. Not to be confused with EarWorm, although it could be caused by one. Make it so only one character (or a few) can hear the music, and it becomes a form of TerribleTicking.

* In ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'', Hei's downstairs neighbors practice for their band into the wee hours of nonstop. This never bothered him, either due to his zen-like calm, or the fact that he's generally never home. But when he has Kenji Sakurai as a guest, he complains about the noise.

* A Film/NationalLampoon comic strip had a guy with a downstairs neighbor who had the worst taste in music, who left for a couple of weeks with his phonograph playing Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" - the record started skipping, repeating "owe my soul to" over and over. Nobody could get in and shut it off, and eventually the guy ended up on the street, blank-eyed and chanting [[MadnessMantra "Owe my soul to Tennessee Ernie...Owe my soul to Tennessee Ernie..."]]

* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': In one episode, a musician relative of the Herkimers arrives to the Ranch and pesters Francis by [[MickeyMousing constantly playing the piano to accompany his actions whenever Francis enters the room]]. Unlike other examples of this trope in this page, Francis actually tells him (and goes as far to learn German to make sure he understands) that this is beginning to annoy him and to please cut it out -- the musician's response is to pick Francis' German/English dictionary and tell him in English "[[{{Jerkass}} screw you]]". The subplot ends with Francis smashing the electronic piano [[RageBreakingPoint in a rage]].

-->''Drive, drive, drive, drive, drive''
-->''It feels so good (So good!)''
-->''To be alive (Alive!)''
-->''Are we there yet? No!''
-->''Are we there yet? No!''
-->''Well then it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5''
-->''Let's...''
-->'' '''repeat ad infinitum''' ''

* Played for drama in one episode of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', where Dwight uses a ridiculously cheesy song to torture Daryl into giving up information.

* In the Australian indie film ''Samson and Delilah'', the main character's brother is in a band. As they are living on an Aboriginal compound in the middle of the bush, they pretty much don't do anything but play music all day, right outside Samson's bedroom, and throughout the movie every time we hear them play it is the exact same song. Mid-way through the movie, Samson gets so sick of listening to it that he attacks them, smashing their instruments.

* Bagpipes are no stranger to people's general criticism for their sound...

Related to BigShutUp, which is often the outcome. Also related to DreadfulMusician. Can be related to ItWontTurnOff. Could be a case of TheThingThatWouldNotLeave if this happens inside a person's house. Compare BrownNote, which is a related trope. (The difference? This trope is when the music is not harmful itself but irritates you to madness; Brown Note is when the music is ''inherently'' harmful.) Also compare LoudOfWar, which is this trope done maliciously. ''Also'' compare HellIsThatNoise. Not to be confused with EarWorm, although it could be caused by one. Make it so only one character (or a few) can hear the music, and it becomes a form of TerribleTicking.

* The first boss of ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'', the Clock Tower, is driven to madness by having to constantly listen to "It's A Small World". Fittingly enough, the boss theme is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJte6E2v1Sg a warped and demented version of that very song]]. Interestingly, a rumor once circulated that a Disney employee committed suicide because "It's A Small World" continuously playing drove him nuts, this rumor may be the basis for the battle.

->''"GIR, would you please...stop...singing?"''
-->-- '''Zim''' after GIR has been singing the Doom Song for 6 months, ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''

* The music video for Music/BillyIdol's "Cradle of Love." The guy is so desperate to stop the girl's efforts to seduce him that at one point he runs over to the stereo - [[SorryILeftTheBGMON which is actually playing the song]] - and tries to turn it off, but [[ItWontTurnOff even pulling the plug doesn't work]]. By the end of the scene he's reduced to a sobbing, quivering wreck.

Sometimes, someone is singing or playing a musical instrument or a [[JungleDrums drum]] -- not to be malicious or anything -- and he just WILL. NOT. SHUT. UP, until it finally makes another character yell for him to stop or just start screaming insanely, or lash out in some way. It doesn't necessarily have to be ''bad'' music (though it often is), it's just that it's incessant (or sometimes just in a style the hearer just can't stand to hear) and goes beyond the hearer's point of enduring, and to him it becomes like NailsOnABlackboard and he just wants it to end. The "madness" is usually figurative and temporary, but can occasionally be literal and permanent.

** In "Maximum Homerdrive", Marge and Lisa buy a doorbell that plays Music/TheCarpenters' "(They Long To Be) Close To You", hers and Homer's love song. Annoyed that nobody will ring the bell, Lisa decides to do that herself. However, it won't stop ringing, and when Marge tries to unplug it, it makes it play faster, annoying their neighbors. Thankfully, Señor Ding Dong, the mascot to the doorbell shop, arrives and stops it himself.

** In "Maximum Homerdrive", Marge and Lisa buy a doorbell that plays Music/TheCarpenters' "(They Long To Be) Close To You)", hers and Homer's love song. Annoyed that nobody will ring the bell, Lisa decides to do that herself. However, it won't stop ringing, and when Marge tries to unplug it, it makes it play faster, annoying their neighbors. Thankfully, Señor Ding Dong, the mascot to the doorbell shop, arrives and stops it himself.

* In early seasons of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', one of Homer's catch phrases was "Will you cut out that infernal racket?!" directed at Lisa rehearsing her sax. In the episode where he thinks he's dying from having poisonous sushi, he goes to her room as she's playing. "Hi, Dad. Want me to cut out this infernal racket?"
** Another episode has Bart take up the drums, which drives everyone in the house crazy.

* There was a story in the news about a 9-year-old boy who was abducted and sang the gospel song "Every Praise" over and over for 3 hours until [[PityTheKidnapper the kidnapper gave up and threw him out of the car.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', episode "Jellyfish Jam". [=SpongeBob=] and a jellyfish keep Squidward up all night playing loud music. When more jellyfish show up and play the music even louder, Squidward has had enough and counterattacks by playing his clarinet. This angers the jellyfish, and when [=SpongeBob's=] pleas to stop result in Squidward playing even louder, the jellyfish goes over to Squidward's and stings him.
--> '''Squidward:''' [=SpongeBob=] is the only guy I know that can have fun with a jellyfish...'''''[[SuddenlyShouting FOR TWELVE HOURS!!!]]'''

* The WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "WesternAnimation/LongHairedHare" begins with Bugs playing various instruments (a banjo, a harp and a tuba) and singing while an opera singer is trying to rehearse, leading the opera singer to smash Bugs' instruments and beat him up.

-->-- '''Zim''' after GIR has been singing the Doom Song for 6 months straight, ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''

[[quoteright:338:[[WesternAnimation/LongHairedHare https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lhh_combo.PNG]]]]
[[caption-width-right:338:Of course you know, ThisMeansWar]]

** In the episode "Qpid", Q turned the bridge crew into Robin Hood and his merry men. Geordie became the Alan a-Dale analog, and kept plucking annoyingly at a lute. Finally Worf had had enough, walked up, snatched the lute and smashed it against a tree (in an homage to ''Film/AnimalHouse'').

** In the episode "The Survivors", the only apparent survivors of a massacre on Rana IV are an old man and his wife. Little does the Enterprise crew know that the old man is actually a nigh-omnipotent being with a terrible secret. He implants [[OminousMusicBoxTune the melody of his wife's music box]] [[TerribleTicking into Counselor Troi's mind]] in order to [[PsychicStatic distract her from delving further into his emotions]].
* In the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "It's Only a Paper Moon", Nog starts out listening to Vic's recording of "I'll Be Seeing You" so often that it starts to drive Jake nuts, leading him to kick him out of their quarters.
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Naked Time", the psychoactive Psi 2000 water causes Kevin Riley to hole up in Engineering and repeatedly subject the crew to his [[DreadfulMusician horribly off-key]] rendition of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen".