History Main / TheDayTheMusicLied

Compare CatScare for when dramatic tension is built up with music only for a harmless outcome and NoSell for an explicitly all-powerful attack that is shrugged off by the target. Related to the HopeSpot.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', [[spoiler: when Anna asks Hans to kiss her. Hans leans in, both pucker, the romantic music swells... But then the music stops, Hans pulls back, and delivers his [[WhamLine wham line]]:]]
--->[[spoiler:'''Hans:''' Oh, Anna...''if only there was someone out there who loved you.'']]

* ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'': When Jackson outruns Lightning, he struggles to catch up to him as the background music swells dramatically...then his back tires explode, causing him to lose control and crash as the music stops, before resuming on an ominous chord as the ambulances surround him.

* In the anime adaptation of ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventure'' Stardust Crusaders, Kakyoin fights DIO in one of the last episodes. Having trapped DIO with a special barrier, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjg3Ib-y54 Noble Pope]] starts to play, being an almost signature theme of Kakyoin. He launches a 20-meter radius emerald splash attack against DIO, but just then, the music abruptly stops as DIO [[CallingYourAttacks shouts out "The World!"]]. [[spoiler: All of the surrounding barrier is then broken, and Kakyoin is fatally blown away before anyone can understand what happened.]]

* ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'': During Scott Pilgrim's first encounter with Gideon Graves, he dispatches Gideon's mooks accompanied by an up-tempo version of [[ThemeMusicPowerUp Sex Bob-omb's signature song]], then leaps in for the kill ... only to be soundly smashed down by Gideon. Appropriately, the music segues straight into a video-game "you lose"-style 8-bit riff.

If played for laughs, expect it to be accompanied with a RecordNeedleScratch or a [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand fading to bass]] or even a duck call for extra humiliation. Goes hand-in-hand with DeniedMomentOfAwesome pretty well, too.

If played for laughs, expect it to be accompanied with a RecordNeedleScratch or a [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand fading to bass]] or even a duck call for extra humiliation.

* ''Film/MightyMorphinPowerRangersTheMovie'' pulls something similar. As the team morphs for the first time in the film, we are treated to a pumped-up version of the [[ThemeMusicPowerUp theme song]] and obligatory [[AssKickingPose posing]], after which it is revealed that the bad guys have ''fled the scene'' during all the buildup. Even the post-reveal ''guitar riff'' sounds disappointed.

* A gag in one ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' strip had Popuko waking up, with a caption indicating "Morning Mood from ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' is playing. Then she opens the curtain and sees it's still night out. Cue Popuko [[HairTriggerTemper losing her shit]] and [[BreakingTheFourthWall beating the crap out of the caption]] for lying to her.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Stinkmeaner possesses Tom and tries to get his revenge on Robert... but then Huey and Riley jump in and Huey tosses Robert his [[WeaponOfChoice belt]] as the [[ThemeMusicPowerUp show's theme starts.]] The three of them proceed to [[CurbStompBattle get their asses kicked]] while the music is playing.

* ''[[{{Franchise/WallaceAndGromit}} Wallace & Gromit]]'': ''WesternAnimation/ACloseShave'' pulls this in the climax. Gromit dives his monoplane through three walls to get inside [[BigBad Preston]]'s factory, losing his wings in the process. He sees Preston and the music kicks in as he begins unloading porridge on the villain while nose diving him...then the music stops abruptly as Preston catches Gromit's plane by the propeller.

* A gag in one ''Manga/PopTeamEpic'' strip had Popuko waking up in the morning, with a caption indicating "Morning Mood from ''Theatre/PeerGynt'' is playing. Then she opens the curtain and sees it's still night out. Cue Popuko [[HairTriggerTemper losing her shit]] and [[BreakingTheFourthWall beating the crap out of the caption]] for lying to her.

* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' has what seems to be a CrowningMomentOfAwesome after the final boss's first four forms, complete with victory music playing and you starting to do your victory howl, when suddenly the music stops as the boss comes up from behind and proceeds to strip you of your Brush Techniques again!

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'': "'''[[color:red:OBJECTION!]]''' ...[[ThemeMusicPowerUp I was hoping to come up with a question]] [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome while I was objecting]], Your Honor... [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand I didn't]]."

However, this one's subverted (and promptly [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]], of course), as the very appropriately epic song [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome "Explore"]] accompanies the End of Act 2 immediately after.

* [[Franchise/Wallace&Gromit]]: [[WesternAnimation/ACloseShave]] pulls this in the climax. Gromit dives his monoplane through three walls to get inside [[BigBad Preston]]'s factory, losing his wings in the process. He sees Preston and the music kicks in as he begins unloading porridge on the villain while nose diving him...then the music stops abruptly as Preston catches Gromit's plane by the propeller.

* In pretty much every ''WesternAnimation/{{Popeye}}'' cartoon, Popeye will [[PowerUpFood eat spinach for some instant muscle power]], with an [[ThemeMusicPowerUp accompanying Theme Song]]. However, the ThemeTune is abruptly interrupted when the can of spinach is taken away somehow (such as by an explosion, or some moving machinery). In one cartoon (''How Green Is My Spinach''), Popeye ate some other assorted vegetables but failed to get the desired effect (since Bluto invented a formula the wiped out the world's spinach), and in another (''A Date To Skate''), Popeye ''just plain forgot it.''

* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridge'': During the climactic battle with [[spoiler:Heathcliff]], the intro music is allowed to play for the duration of the battle... at which point Kirito's sword breaks.

** In "Fear Itself", the MonsterOfTheWeek turns out to be a [[BigLittleMan lot smaller than anticipated]], so Buffy stomps it like a bug. At the end of the episode, Giles is reading up on the monster in his TomeOfEldritchLore and suddenly exclaims (to accompanying dramatic music) that [[DontCelebrateJustYet he made a terrible mistake]]...because the picture of the monster is labelled, "Actual size".

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': Stinkmeaner possesses Tom and tries to get his revenge on Robert...but then Huey and Riley jump in and Huey tosses Robert his [[WeaponOfChoice belt]] as the [[ThemeMusicPowerUp show's theme starts.]] The three of them proceed to [[CurbStompBattle get their asses kicked]] while the music is playing.

** In [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005596 the 4/2/11 update]], where [[spoiler: John and Rose square off against their parents' killer, a suitably epic remix of Chorale starts up, a big Round 1 appears at the top of the screen - and then John is stabbed through the chest, at which point the music '''stops'''.]][[note]]Of course, this example could also count as a MusicalSpoiler. Chorale is one of the songs related to Rose (although it was originally Jaspers's {{Leitmotif}}), [[spoiler: and she continues the battle after John falls.]][[/note]]

The name of this trope is a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died "The Day the Music Died,"]] as recounted by Don [=McLean=] in the 1971 song "American Pie".

The name of this trope is a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died The Day the Music Died]], as recounted by Don [=McLean=] in the 1971 song "American Pie".

** In "Anne", Buffy has run away to Los Angeles, in her HeroicBSOD after Angel's death, working at a diner to pay the bills. In one scene Buffy waits on two trucker types. She instructs Trucker #1 to pay at the counter, and he offers to [[DoubleEntendre pay in trade]]. Trucker #2 slaps Buffy's behind as she walks away. She glares over her shoulder, and from the music we're meant to think an ass-kicking is imminent, but instead she keeps walking.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'', the same thing happens with Armagohma. Link destroys it, the epic victory music plays, Link does that badass sword sheathe and... Armagohma's not dead. The music promptly dies, though what's left of the monster is laughably easy to defeat.

* During Kira Yamato's first intervention in Gundam Seed Destiny "Meteor" his song that played when he was doing something heroic in the first series starts to play as he disables mobile suits and stops the battle without hurting anyone, as per usual, only to suddenly stop when Heine (a sympathetic character) is suddenly killed from behind by another character after Kira disables him, suddenly changing the POV from Kira helping everyone, to Kira making everything worse. In fact you can tell if Kira's actions are meant to be viewed as heroic by how the music is. In his later interventions where he knows he caused problems last time but does it again anyway, and rather cruelly wrecks Athrun when he tells him he's not helping he has rather sinister music playing. A few episodes later, when he goes out of his way to rescue civilians from the Destroy Gundam, he gets his heroic music back.