History Main / OneManBand

"At once" is ''definitely'' the real key phrase needing to be emphasized here; while it's true that, through the magic of overdubbing, such musicians as Music/ToddRundgren, Music/{{Prince}}, [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], [[Music/FooFighters Dave Grohl]] and Music/PaulMcCartney have played ''all'' the instruments on some of their albums, we wouldn't refer to any of them as {{One Man Band}}s. (In fact, we have [[IAmTheBand another trope entirely about them]].) Of course RuleOfFunny says the more instruments the funnier -- and of course they're all badly tuned and played with no sense of melody or rhythm, prone to causing the person stuck in such an arrangement to tumble and get tangled in the resulting mess. Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days (except for the very occasional street performer), but a PeriodPiece or HistoricalFiction may still have them as background characters.

Some definitions of One-Man Band define it as "being able to play '''two''' or more instruments at once." Others say "'''three''' or more instruments at once," and some purists even define it as "three or more instruments at once while able to remain mobile while cranking out the jams." "At once" is ''definitely'' the real key phrase needing to be emphasized here; while it's true that, through the magic of overdubbing, such musicians as Music/ToddRundgren, Music/{{Prince}}, [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], [[Music/FooFighters Dave Grohl]] and Music/PaulMcCartney have played ''all'' the instruments on some of their albums, we wouldn't refer to any of them as {{One Man Band}}s. (In fact, we have [[IAmTheBand another trope entirely about them]].) Of course RuleOfFunny says the more instruments the funnier -- and of course they're all badly tuned and played with no sense of melody or rhythm, prone to causing the person stuck in such an arrangement to tumble and get tangled in the resulting mess. Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days (except for the very occasional street performer), but a PeriodPiece or HistoricalFiction may still have them as background characters.

Say you need some cheerful music to draw attention, but can't find anyone to help you. Then do it yourself!

* ''Series/TedLasso'' has real-life one-man band performer Cam Cole appear as a busker and then emergency main musical event during Rebecca’s benefit for underprivileged children.

* A feature of Orchestrions (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrion the article]] on Wiki/TheOtherWiki), where they are designed to replicate an entire orchestra within them.

* ''VideoGame/DontStarve'': The One-man Band is an item of dark magic that, whend equipped, causes the player character to play an accordion, drum and cymbal all at once. This music attracts creatures that can be followers (Pigmen, Bunnymen, Merms) who will do your bidding while the music goes on, but will decrease the user's sanity drastically. [[AwesomeButImpractical It has limited uses]].

** In "Bart Gets Famous", Homer has a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band (and tried to do a cover of "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells). He had a bass drum on his back, a guitar in his hands, a harmonica in his mouth, and a bicycle horn at his feet. Not only did crowds not like it, but he ended up getting attacked by an Italian organ grinder's pet monkey.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQrA0usWMk Scratchmen Apoo]] in ''Manga/OnePiece'', thanks to his Devil Fruit giving him the turn his body into different kinds of instruments. Doubles with MusicalAssassin.

* El Chinchhinero from ''Film/BringMeTheHeadOfTheMachineGunWoman'' is a one man band and ProfessionalKiller who uses his bass drum as an InstrumentOfMurder. He is part of the CarnivalOfKillers who is sent after the Machine Gun Woman.

* In ''[[Literature/DeadBeat Dead Beat]]'', Butters of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' constructs a suit to make himself into a One-Man Polka Band. [[spoiler:He then proceeds to use it to control a zombie ''Tyrannosaurus rex''.]]
* ''Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window'': The titular Totto-chan causes trouble in class when she spots a one-man band under the window of her classroom and calls him over for a performance.

* ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'' claimed to be the only "Two Man One Band" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m30BwhWhWPs]]
* Christopher Lillicrap as the title character in the 1980s Creator/{{CBBC}} series ''Busker'' had the full one-man band kit including the bass drum on his back, as he told stories outside a railway station.
* The AnimatedCreditsOpening for ''Series/TheMickeyMouseClub'' features WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} as a one-man band.

** Also a feature of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAJ66ZSQ4b4 Photoplayers]], a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Fotoplayer related device]] meant to not only play music, but provide sound effects when silent films played in the theatre.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXMuWi0dUBc Cigo Man Band]] from Croatia. He plays the guitar, tambourine, kazoo, drum, harmonica and bike horn ''as well as singing''!
** He plays all these instruments and is still able to walk around the city squares he performs in!

* Australian singer/songwriter Xavier Rudd sings, plays slide guitar, didgeridoo and percussion all by himself.
* Ray Davies plays one in the video for Music/TheKinks' song "Do It Again".
* Reverend Beat Man
* ''Music/KidsPraise'': In a supernatural way, Psalty the Singing Songbook himself qualifies, as musical song accompaniments spontaneously start around him when kids near him praise The Lord. A straighter example of this is his Songmobile, a vehicle ''made of'' musical instruments, but [[{{Magitek}} even that still requires]] the user to be praising God for it to work, and interestingly, Psalty said the Songmobile was designed primarily to help ''write'' songs; actually performing them is a secondary purpose.

[[folder:VideoGame]]

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'': [[MultiArmedAndDangerous Kollector's]] Friendship has him doing this.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''Blog/ThingsMrWelchIsNoLongerAllowedToDoInAnRPG'': "One-man band" is not a bard instrument of choice.

* WesternAnimation/PixarShorts:
** In a short called ''WesternAnimation/OneManBand'', there are two of these competing with each other.
** In the earlier Pixar short ''WesternAnimation/TinToy'', the eponymous toy is a one-man band. This turns out to be a disadvantage when he encounters a scary baby and tries to hide, because he can't move without playing a tune.
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny did this several times in various WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes shorts, often using his prehensile ears to play additional instruments.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** In "Bart Gets Famous", Homer has a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band (and tried to do a cover of "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells). He had a bass drum on his back, a guitar in his hands, a harmonica in his mouth, and a bicycle horn at his feet. Not only did crowds not like it, but he ended up getting attacked by an Italian organ grinder's pet monkey.
** In "Springfield Up", Homer does it again in another flashback to 16 years before the show's present, trying to be a rock star by being the whole band. This time, he plays the instruments one at a time in quick succession. First he strums the guitar, then he drums for a few seconds, shouts "Yeah, yeah!" into the microphone, and plays harmonica before falling down in exhaustion.
** During a WholePlotReference to ''Mary Poppins'', Groundskeeper Willie played a one-man band in the park, playing "Maniac" by Michael Sembello, followed by a ShoutOut to the water scene in ''Film/{{Flashdance}}'' as he dumps water on himself while lying back on a chair, still wielding his one-man band paraphernalia.
* Characters attempting to wake up a HeavySleeper are often seen employing a one-man band (after trying BangingPotsAndPans, blowing a party horn, crashing cymbals, or other loud noises), to no success. Variation: In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes "WesternAnimation/BackAlleyOproar", Sylvester has been keeping Elmer up all night with his loud singing. At one point he lulls Elmer to sleep with a lullabye...and just as Elmer happily drops off, Sylvester jolts him up with a raucous one-man-band routine. Carl Stalling's score then goes hilariously berserk as Sylvester -- still carrying all his instruments -- has to run from a shotgun-wielding Elmer.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Cellbound}}'' has a lone prisoner forced to perform an imitation of several TV shows, including a concert, which he achieves by effortfully playing several instruments at once, "off-screen".

Some definitions of One-Man Band define it as "being able to play '''two''' or more instruments at once." Others say "'''three''' or more instruments at once," and some purists even define it as "three or more instruments at once while able to remain mobile while cranking out the jams." "At once" is ''definitely'' the real key phrase needing to be emphasized here; while it's true that, through the magic of overdubbing, such musicians as Music/ToddRundgren, Music/{{Prince}}, [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], [[Music/FooFighters Dave Grohl]] and Music/PaulMcCartney have played ''all'' the instruments on some of their albums, we wouldn't refer to any of them as {{One Man Band}}s. (In fact, we have [[IAmTheBand another trope entirely about them]].) Of course RuleOfFunny says the more instruments the funnier--and of course they're all badly tuned and played with no sense of melody or rhythm, prone to causing the person stuck in such an arrangement to tumble and get tangled in the resulting mess. Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days (except for the very occasional street performer), but a PeriodPiece or HistoricalFiction may still have them as background characters.

* ''Film/WeeSing in the Marvelous Musical Mansion'' features Andy Bandy Man, a miniature one-man band in a music box that comes to life with a hand motion. [[spoiler: When Aunty Annabella forgets to deactivate him, he becomes jealous of the other music boxes in Uncle Rubato's collection and attempts to add their instruments to his collection of instruments.]]

* In ''Dead Beat'', Butters of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' constructs a suit to make himself into a One Man Polka Band. [[spoiler: He then proceeds to use it to control zombie Tyrannosaurus rex.]]

* Characters attempting to wake up a HeavySleeper are often seen employing a one-man band (after trying BangingPotsAndPans, blowing a party horn, crashing cymbals, or other loud noises), to no success. Variation: In the WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes "WesternAnimation/BackAlleyOproar", Sylvester has been keeping Elmer up all night with his loud singing. At one point he lulls Elmer to sleep with a lullabye...and just as Elmer happily drops off, Sylvester jolts him up with a raucous one-man-band routine. Carl Stalling's score then goes hilariously berserk as Sylvester-- still carrying all his instruments-- has to run from a shotgun-wielding Elmer.

* Jazz musician Music/RolandKirk would often play three saxophones at once.

* Music/RobertJohnson could play melody, rhythm, and bass line on his guitar, stomp his foot to give a drum part, and sing, all simultaneously, acting as a one-man five-piece band.

* A feature of Orchestrions (see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrion the article]] on TheOtherWiki), where they are designed to replicate an entire orchestra within them.

Some definitions of One-Man Band define it as "being able to play '''two''' or more instruments at once." Others say "'''three''' or more instruments at once," and some purists even define it as "three or more instruments at once while able to remain mobile while cranking out the jams." "At once" is ''definitely'' the real key phrase needing to be emphasized here; while it's true that, through the magic of overdubbing, such musicians as Music/ToddRundgren, Music/{{Prince}}, [[Music/NineInchNails Trent Reznor]], and [[Music/FooFighters Dave Grohl]] have played ''all'' the instruments on some of their albums, we wouldn't refer to any of them as {{One Man Band}}s. (In fact, we have [[IAmTheBand another trope entirely about them]].) Of course RuleOfFunny says the more instruments the funnier--and of course they're all badly tuned and played with no sense of melody or rhythm, prone to causing the person stuck in such an arrangement to tumble and get tangled in the resulting mess. Pretty much a DeadHorseTrope these days (except for the very occasional street performer), but a PeriodPiece or HistoricalFiction may still have them as background characters.

Compare with IAmTheBand, where one musician plays each instrument separately and combines the tracks to sound like a full band. Subtrope of StreetPerformer. Contrasts FiveManBand. For a lethal variant see OneManArmy.

** On the season five episode "Bart Gets Famous", Homer has a flashback to his teenage years where he played in a one-man band (and tried to do a cover of "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells). He had a bass drum on his back, a guitar in his hands, a harmonica in his mouth, and a bicycle horn at his feet. Not only did crowds not like it, but he ended up getting attacked by an Italian organ grinder's pet monkey.
** In the episode "Springfield Up", Homer does it again in another flashback to 16 years before the show's present, trying to be a rock star by being the whole band. This time, he plays the instruments one at a time in quick succession. First he strums the guitar, then he drums for a few seconds, shouts "Yeah, yeah!" into the microphone, and plays harmonica before falling down in exhaustion.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjQrA0usWMk Scratchmen Apoo]] in ''Manga/OnePiece''. Doubles with MusicalAssassin.

* Big Band from ''VideoGame/SkullGirls'' is a fighting version of this; he keeps most of his instruments underneath his detective's longcoat.