History MoralEventHorizon / Music

MoralEventHorizon in {{Music}}.

* As for gangsta rappers up to eleven such as Music/EazyE, Music/TheNotoriousBIG, Music/GetoBoys, Music/{{Gravediggaz}} or Music/{{Esham}}, this is practically a recurring theme for almost any song of theirs.
* Music/{{GWAR}} (and sometimes their enemies) do this ALL the time.

Never cross a picket line!''

* [[Music/{{Gorillaz}} Murdoc]] finally crossed it when he kidnapped and imprisoned 2D. It wouldn't be quite so bad if not for all the [[FridgeHorror horrific undertones]] of the drugging, incarceration and physical abuse. Granted, 2D was never the bravest or keenest individual, but he was always pretty harmless. Murdoc's brutality and the constant isolation have all but [[BreakTheCutie broken]] the singer, and it's around that point that Murdoc bridged the MoralEventHorizon.

* As stated above in the page quote, Dr. Wily killing Emily and framing Dr. Light in Music/TheProtomen's ''Act II'' album, even lampshading how he's already crossed the MEH and there's no turning back.
* [[Music/{{TheyMightBeGiants}} They Might Be Giants's]] "Kiss Me Son of God" strikes me as this. A tyrant, now worshiped as a god by the commoners, yet hated by "anyone how'd even look me eye". His reign is so vile that everyone who knew him on any personal level has lost any respect or like they held for him.
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Excitable boy, they all said\\

Excitable boy, they all said\\

** This is then taken UpToEleven (and arguably CrossesTheLineTwice) in the final verse where upon finally being released for his crimes, he proceeds to [[spoiler: "dig up her grave and build a cage with her bones."]]
* As for gangsta rappers UpToEleven such as Music/EazyE, Music/TheNotoriousBIG, Music/GetoBoys, Music/{{Gravediggaz}} or Music/{{Esham}}, this is practically a recurring theme for almost any song of theirs.

-->--'''Dr. Wily''', "[[Music/TheProtomen The Hounds]]"

->''If there ever was a time, if there ever was a chance''
->''To undo these things I've done, and wash these bloodstains from my hands''
->''It has passed and been forgotten; these are the paths that we must take''
->'''Cause you and I, Tom, we are men, and we can bend and we can break''

* An InUniverse example in ''Music/{{Charlemagne}}''. Act III of the album's story concerns the infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_Verden Massacre of Verden]], and sees King Charlemagne ruminating over fears that his religiously motivated genocide against the Saxons might be seen as this for him, and that the event will give him a legacy as a ruthless butcher rather than a brave warrior-king.

--> I'm goin' out to the barn with that never-stoppin' pain
--> I'm goin' out to the barn to hang myself in shame...

--> He took little Susie to the junior prom
--> Excitable boy, they all said
--> [[spoiler: And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home]]
--> Excitable boy, they all said
--> Well, he's just an excitable boy!

* An InUniverse example in ''Music/[[Charlemagne}}''. Act III of the album's story concerns the infamous Massacre of Verden, and sees King Charlemagne ruminating over fears that his religiously motivated genocide against the Saxons might be seen as this for him, and that the event will give him a legacy as a ruthless butcher rather than a brave warrior-king.

-->''Two years gone by but still they never,''
-->''Ever cross a picket line.''
-->''With their wives and children they stand together.''
-->''Never cross a picket line!''
-->''You must never cross a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picketing_(protest) picket line]]!''

* In the "Servant of Pain" portion of the Fireaxe epic ''Music/FoodForTheGods'', we're introduced to a band of WellIntentionedExtremist revolutionaries fighting to free their land from TheEmpire, and they at first seem quite heroic, leading a furious assault upon the Citadel that oppresses the people through the tyranny of their priesthood and their gods. But when they actually breach the Citadel, things get horrific in short order in "Cut or Be Cut" and "Atrocity", which showcase just how [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized this revolution actually is]]. People are slaughtered left and right, the priests are flayed alive and left for the rats, and when they get to the royal family, things get ''truly'' ugly: all but one of the sons are slaughtered, the daughters and their mother are raped and killed (the queen's ordeal in particular suffering the worst of it), and the sole surviving son, who is [[ForcedToWatch made to watch all of this]], is then coaxed into murdering his royal father. And ''then'' we learn that the leader of the revolutionaries did all of this to further subjugate the populace under divine tyranny, by subjecting them to so much fear and horror at this atrocity that they'll follow their god's every dictate in the name of "never again".

* In the "Servant of Pain" portion of the Fireaxe epic ''Music/FoodForTheGods'', we're introduced to a band of WellIntentionedExtremist revolutionaries fighting to free their land from TheEmpire, and they at first seem quite heroic, leading a furious assault upon the Citadel that oppresses the people through the tyranny of their priesthood and their gods. But when they actually breach the Citadel, things get horrific in short order in "Cut or Be Cut" and "Atrocity", which showcase just how [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized this revolution actually is]]. People are slaughtered left and right, the priests are flayed alive and left for the rats, and when they get to the royal family, things get ''truly'' ugly: all but one of the sons are slaughtered, the daughters and their mother are raped and killed (the queen's ordeal in particular getting quite {{squick}}y), and the sole surviving son, who is [[ForcedToWatch made to watch all of this]], is then coaxed into murdering his royal father. And ''then'' we learn that the leader of the revolutionaries did all of this to further subjugate the populace under divine tyranny, by subjecting them to so much fear and horror at this atrocity that they'll follow their god's every dictate in the name of "never again".

* In the "Servant of Pain" portion of the Fireaxe epic ''Music/FoodForTheGods'', we're introduced to a band of WellIntentionedExtremist revolutionaries fighting to free their land from TheEmpire, and they at first seem quite heroic, leading a furious assault upon the Citadel that oppresses the people through the tyranny of their priesthood and their gods. But when they actually breach the Citadel, things get horrific in short order in "Cut or Be Cut" and "Atrocity", which showcase just how [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized this revolution actually is]]. People are slaughtered left and right, the priests are flayed alive and left for the rats, and when they get to the royal family, all but one of the sons are slaughtered, the daughters and their mother are raped and killed, and the sole surviving son, who is [[ForcedToWatch made to watch all of this]], is then coaxed into murdering his royal father. And ''then'' we learn that the leader of the revolutionaries did all of this to further subjugate the populace under divine tyranny, by subjecting them to so much fear and horror at this atrocity that they'll follow their god's every dictate in the name of "never again".

* GWAR (and sometimes their enemies) do this ALL the time.

* [[Music/CoheedandCambria Amory Wars']] BigBad, Wilhelm Ryan, and [[TheDragon Dragon]], Mayo Deftinwolf, crossed this right off the bat. Ryan orders the titular characters' children killed because one ''might'' grow up to be TheChosenOne. Mayo gleefully [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates]] Coheed into doing the deed, making him believe his children are going to go AxeCrazy and destroy the universe because of a (nonexistent) virus. And all of this transpires in the ''second song'' on the first album. [[SelfFulfillingProphecy One survives]], and grows up to be a rather dark and cynical MessianicArchetype.

** Wagner's "Ring" cycle has one Moral Event Horizon after another. Alberich crosses it at the start by stealing the Rhinemaidens' gold: Wotan and the gods cross it by stealing it (and the eponymous ring) off him purely because they need to pay off a debt: Fafner, the giant they pay off, kills his brother to keep all the treasure. Siegmund, the one who should have been the gods' DesignatedHero, crosses it by committing incest with his sister, and thus must die against Hunding rather than being allowed to defeat him: Brunnhilde crosses it herself by disobeying Wotan's orders and protecting Siegmund, and as a punishment is stripped of her status as a Valkyrie and forced to become mortal. Even Siegfried is tricked into it by betraying Brunnhilde and not only marrying Gutrune but forcing Brunnhilde to marry Gunther. It's repeatedly made clear that there's no way back for any of them, although Brunnhilde is the only one to actually realise the situation, seize the moment and turn it into a case of RedemptionEqualsDeath, by throwing the Ring back into the Rhine, to its only rightful owners the Rhinemaidens (thus breaking its curse), and immolating herself on Siegfried's funeral pyre.

** At the start of Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart's "Don Giovanni", the title character - already portrayed as somewhere between a MagnificentBastard and AffablyEvil - first tries (and fails) to rape Donna Anna offstage, then murders her father onstage while trying to escape after she's fought him off. Later on, he shows his AffablyEvil side by trying to seduce the village girl Zerlina - on the day before her planned wedding, no less. This actually fails when his ex-lover (or ex-wife, if you believe her claim) shows up. He throws a party at his home, invites the whole village as a distraction, drags the girl offstage and has his wicked way with her. And that's just Act 1... in Act 2, whilst still on the run, he manages to humiliate the ex-lover by setting her up with his servant disguised as himself beat up Zerlina's husband-to-be: and, off-stage, seduce the wife of his own loyal servant Leporello. And brag to Leporello onstage about it afterwards. And then, mockingly, invite the statue of the man he murdered, to come to dinner. Unfortunately, that didn't end well for him... but the statue gives him a chance to repent of his evil ways, and Don Giovanni *refuses*. He knows perfectly well he's crossed the Moral Event Horizon - he's talking to the statue of the man he killed when he did it.
** In Bizet's "Carmen", Don Jose actually LOST the real reason for his moment of Moral Event Horizon Crossing in the opera, as compared to the original novel that the opera was based on. In the book, he actually kills his commanding officer, in the fight over the eponymous Carmen: at the corresponding point in the opera, the fight is broken up by Carmen's smuggler friends (who arrived too late in the book), and Officer Zuniga is still alive when dragged offstage by them. (His fate would seem uncertain, except he has one line in a crowd scene an hour later to reassure us he is still alive - although the line could equally well be sung by his deputy, Sergeant Morales.) Nevertheless, Jose decides he has no choice but to join the bandits (rather than remain behind and face the music from his still-alive officer.) Part of Act 3 of the opera revolves around references to his aging, sick mother (off-stage), the only person left who believes he might be redeemable... He ends the opera by murdering Carmen and turning himself in to the guards. But it's kind of less clear when he crossed the MEH although he certainly did at some point.
** In Beethoven's "Fidelio", the corrupt governor Pizzaro is already pretty evil - imprisoning political enemies after show trials, and in one case no trial at all. But his Moral Event Horizon could be ordering the murder of Florestan, in the prison, to prevent Florestan (the one who never got a trial, and had evidence of Pizzaro's corruption) being found or freed by the new Minister of Justice. His jailer, Rocco, is offered the chance to cross the Moral Event Horizon himself (by doing the murder), for money, but refuses - it is not clear whether out of cowardice or principle - and agrees only to dig the grave and let his boss do his own dirty work. Rocco even later does a HeelFaceTurn, at a point where he technically could have got away with backing his boss (by picking up the pistol dropped by "Fidelio" and pointing it at Pizzaro instead of handing it to him, just before the Minister arrives for the prison inspection. To his credit he doesn't even seem to realise that there was an alternative option.)

* The Billy Bragg song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPTz4VAOMA Never Cross a Picket Line]]'' argues that...well, [[CaptainObvious crossing picket lines]] is a moral event horizon. It was written to support the three-year long, and ultimately successful Liverpool Dockers' Strike of 1995-8.

* The Music/WarrenZevon song "Excitable Boy" starts off as a story of a fairly typical EnfantTerrible, but the third verse really shows him to be a CompleteMonster:

** This is then taken UpToEleven (and arguably CrossesTheLineTwice) in the final verse where upon finally being released for his crimes, he proceeds to [[spoiler: "dig up her grave and make a cage with her bones."]]

* In the "Servant of Pain" portion of the Fireaxe epic ''Music/FoodForTheGods'', we're introduced to a band of WellIntentionedExtremist revolutionaries fighting to free their land from TheEmpire, and they at first seem quite heroic, leading a furious assault upon the Citadel. But when they actually breach the Citadel, things get horrific in short order in "Cut or Be Cut" and "Atrocity", which showcase just how [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uncivilized this revolution actually is]]. People are slaughtered left and right, the priests are flayed alive and left for the rats, and when they get to the royal family, all but one of the sons are slaughtered, the daughters and their mother are raped and killed, and the sole surviving son, who is [[ForcedToWatch made to watch all of this]], is then coaxed into murdering his royal father. And ''then'' we learn that the leader of the revolutionaries did all of this to further subjugate the populace under divine tyranny, by subjecting them to so much fear and horror at this atrocity that they'll follow their god's every dictate in the name of "never again".

* As stated above in the page quote, Dr. Wily killing Emily and framing Dr. Light in Music/TheProtomen's Act II album, even lampshading how he's already crossed the MEH and there's no turning back.