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1Some albums start off with a sort of prelude before the rest of the "proper" songs. The Album Intro Track is a short track or sometimes a short section of the first track, usually less than three minutes, that is meant to be an introduction to the rest of the album.
2
3Some common types of intros:
4* SurprisinglyGentleSong - Common in HeavyMetal
5* An EpicInstrumentalOpener which leads into the second track
6* Spoken words including dialog
7* Sound clips
8* Music that is of a different genre than the rest of the album
9
10The opposite trope to AlbumClosure, where the last track or a section thereof serves as an outro to the album.
11----
12!!Examples:
13
14[[foldercontrol]]
15
16[[folder:Alternative]]
17* ''All Hail Bright Futures'' by And So I Watch You From Afar begins with a track called "Eunoia" which leads into the first proper track.
18* ''Hey Everyone'' by Dananananaykroyd begins with an instrumental intro track which is also called "Hey Everyone".
19* "Theme from ''Flood''" from Music/TheyMightBeGiants' ''Music/{{Flood|TheyMightBeGiants}}''. A 27 second choral piece introducing the album.
20-->''Why is the world in love again?\
21Why are we marching hand in hand?\
22Why are the ocean levels rising up?\
23It's a brand new record for 1990:\
24They Might Be Giants' brand new album... [[TitleDrop Flooooood]]''
25* Music/{{Fun}}'s ''Some Nights'' kicks off with "Some Nights (Intro)", which pretty much highlights the musical and thematic elements of the rest of the work.
26* The xx's SelfTitledAlbum ''xx'' starts with the instrumental "Intro". Ironically, due to being sampled for Music/{{Rihanna}}'s "Drunk On Love", along with some usage on national television, it's one of their more famous songs.
27* Music/{{Spiritualized}}'s ''Sweet Heart, Sweet Light'' begins with "Huh?", a brief instrumental track that segues into the first proper song, "Hey Jane". The melody from "Huh?" reappears at the end of the album as the chorus to "Life Is a Problem".
28* Mae's ''The Everglow'' begins with "Prologue", which features a simple piano melody and narration welcoming the listener and encouraging them to read the liner notes as the music plays. As BookEnds, the last track is "Epilogue", which has the same piano and the same narrator, thanking the audience for listening.
29* Music/ModestMouse's ''Good News For People Who Love Bad News'' starts with "Horn Intro", a 9 second track that has a horn section (The Dirty Dozen Brass Band) playing a couple of sustained notes that lead right into "The World At Large", the album's first proper song. This turns out to be taken from the very beginning of "This Devil's Workday", which comes later on the same album, and is a full song collaboration with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
30* Music/JarsOfClay's ''The Long Fall Back to Earth'' begins with "The Long Fall", a mostly-instrumental track that starts quiet and builds up to a segue into "Weapons".
31* {{Music/Mudhoney}}'s ''Piece of Cake'' starts with an [[NoTitle untitled]] 40-second parody of OrchestraHitTechnoBattle-style rave music (albeit performed solely with organ, guitar, drums, and distorted vocals). This is definitely in the "different genre from the rest of the album" category, because the other songs are primarily {{Grunge}}.
32* Music/{{Muse}}'s 2003 album ''Absolution'' opens with a brief percussive intro that gradually builds up in volume, leading directly into, and forming the main rhythm of, the first proper song on the album, "Apocalypse Please".
33* Music/GoodCharlotte: ''The Chronicles of Life and Death'' ("Once Upon A Time: The Battle of Life and Death"), ''Good Morning Revival'' ("[[AlbumTitleDrop Good Morning Revival]]") '''and''' ''Cardiology'' ("Introduction To Cardiology").
34* Every album by Bright Eyes has included an example of this, usually either spoken word (''I'm Wide Awake It's Morning'') or some sort of sample which could either be musical or some sort of speaking.
35* {{Music/Sakanaction}}, in three different albums: ''Kikuuiki'' starts with the aptly named "Intro=Kikuuiki", made of random noises and music snippets, ''[=DocumentaLy=]'' starts with "RL", which consists mostly of voices spelling the album name and typing sounds; ''Sakanaction'' starts again with a track named "Intro", which is mostly ambient noises.
36* Music/StoneTemplePilots' ''Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop'' opens with "Press Play", a minute and 21 seconds of funky, organ-based instrumental jamming that fades into the next song. Interestingly, [[LongSongShortScene the track is three minutes longer on LP copies]], which is how long it was on the original master tapes - it starts repeating itself after the first minute and a half, so they may have just recorded a longer-than-neccesary version so they could decide when to start fading it out later.
37* Music/GreenDay's album ''Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown'' begins with the radio-staticed acapella "Song of the Century" later reprised for the song "American Eulogy".
38* Music/{{Morphine}}'s ''Cure for Pain'' starts with "Dawna", a 44-second ambient instrumental mostly centered on Dana Colley's saxophone playing. ''Like Swimming'' starts with the minute-long "Lilah", which is similar, but based around Mark Sandman's bass instead.
39* Music/The1975's self-titled album opens with "The 1975", a short track that sets the mood for the album. A reworked version serves the same role for their second album, ''I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it''.
40* Music/{{Gorillaz}} included:
41** "Intro" (''Demon Days'') uses a sample of background music from ''Dawn of the Dead'' to suggest the listener has been transported somewhere surreal.
42** "Orchestral Intro" (''Plastic Beach'') is a short orchestral piece that starts off sounding melancholy and ends on a bright chord, displaying the range of tones that the album covers.
43** "Intro: I Switched My Robot Off" (''Humanz'') is the first in a number of spoken interludes that pop up every few songs, each setting the tone for its given section of the album.
44* ''Music/AgaetisByrjun'' by Music/SigurRos starts off with an instrumental called "Intro," which is a segment of the TitleTrack played backwards. It fades directly into the next song, "Svefn-g-englar."
45* The Music/TheDears album ''Gang of Losers'' begins with an instrumental track called "Sinthtro" that starts quite and gradually builds, leading into the main album tracks.
46* Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' album ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' begins with a mellow instrumental TitleTrack that starts off very quiet and gradually builds. Since the album is a ConceptAlbum following the cycle of the day, this track can be seen as the sound of the sun rising/waking up.
47* ''Handcream For a Generation'' by Music/{{Cornershop}} opens with "Heavy Soup" in which guest star Otis Clay introduces the album and the band, and drops the titles of some of the songs to come.
48* Music/OrigamiAngel:
49** ''Music/SomewhereCity'': "Welcome to..." introduces Somewhere City as a place that the singer goes when he feels "so lost", somewhere where "there's places you can go, there's people you should know" and he feels more at home there than where he was before.
50** ''Music/GamiGang'': "#GAMIGANG", the shortest track on the album and the only instrumental one.
51* Music/{{Jhariah}}:
52** ''The Great Tale of How I Ruined It All'' has a short instrumental opener.
53** ''A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FAKING YOUR DEATH'' opens with "ENTER: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO FAKING YOUR DEATH'', which is 1 minute and 31 seconds long. It follows a man deciding to go through with his [[FakingTheDead plan to fake his death]], even though he hasn't really thought it through yet.
54* ''Music/ZugIzland'': ''Cracked Tiles'' and ''[[GreatestHitsAlbum Toxicology]]'' begin their albums with a few simple and repeated words, four times.
55-->"''Welcome to, Zug Izland\
56Your very own, Zug Izland\
57Welcome, welcome, Zug Izland\
58Welcome, welcome, Zug Izland''"
59* Music/{{Qbomb}}: "Buzzkiller" opens the album by introducing the band's new brand of music, with lyrics about their determination to make it work.
60[[/folder]]
61
62[[folder:Electronic]]
63* ''18 Months'' by Music/CalvinHarris has "Green Valley", a short instrumental that fades right into lead single "Bounce".
64* Music/JoyElectric. "The White Songbook", off the album ''The White Songbook'', has an EpicInstrumentalOpener making full use of the BoleroEffect, and ends with some spoken-word lyrics. The rest of the album is more conventional synthpop. "Hello Mannequin", off the album ''Hello Mannequin'': a slow, spoken word piece on an album otherwise full of danceable synthpop. "And This No More", off ''Dwarf Mountain Alphabet'', is the album's only instrumental track.
65* Music/{{Orbital}}'s second album, ''Orbital II'', opens with "Time Becomes..." which is just a looped vocal sample from ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. And ''Blue Album'' opens with "Transient"--a full song, but it's an ambient one with no percussion. The rest of the album is techno.
66* Hybrid's album ''Wide Angle'' begins with "Opening Credits", a brief orchestral piece followed by a single drum machine fill. The rest of the album is progressive house (with prominent orchestral bits on several tracks).
67* Music/TheKLF's ''The White Room'' opens with "What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral)", which begins with Black Steel singing a verse over some mellow keys. He then gets cut off by a sampled "[[Music/{{MC5}} Kick Out the Jams!"]] shout, and the album launches into frantic stadium house music. (The previously-released single version of "What Time is Love? [Live at Trancentral]" completely lacked the mellow intro.) Black Steel's verse shows up again at the end of the album, on the song "Justified and Ancient", and this time he gets to finish.
68* Dr Israel's ''Inna City Pressure'' begins with "Inna City", a slow spoken-word piece. It segues seamlessly into the LyricalColdOpen of the next track, the ragga jungle-influenced "Pressure".
69* Figure's dubstep album ''Monsters Vol. 4'' starts off with the three-and-a-half-minute "Death's Gospel", which sets the mood with (in order) creepy ambience, a DroneOfDread, an ominous EtherealChoir coupled with a LonelyPianoPiece, and another [[DroneofDread drone]], before wrapping things up with some WhisperingGhosts and FallingBass.
70* All of Music/VNVNation's albums have one of these. ''Transnational'' opens with "Generator", which is a SiameseTwinSong and EpicInstrumentalOpener to "Everything."
71* The {{title track}}s of Music/{{Covenant}}'s ''Modern Ruin'' and ''Leaving Babylon''.
72* All of Music/{{Hexode}}'s albums have intro and outro tracks. As a general rule, the outros are absolutely terrifying.
73* Todd Terje's ''It's Album Time'' begins with "Intro (It's Album Time)". It's a bit over a minute long, with a short tune that builds and repeats, while voices chant "It's album time!"
74* Music/{{Gotye}}'s ''Like Drawing Blood'' has its 22-second title track play soflty before segueing into into the song "The Only Way".
75* The first track of Music/MachineGirl's ''WLFGRL'', "[=MG1=]", consists entirely of spoken dialogue from the movie ''Film/TheMachineGirl'' with eerie ambient backing, setting the mood for the rest of the album.
76* [[Music/MusicHasTheRightToChildren Every]] [[Music/{{Geogaddi}} single]] [[Music/TheCampfireHeadphase studio]] [[Music/TomorrowsHarvest album]] by Music/BoardsOfCanada has one. ''MHTRTC'' has "Wildlife Analysis", ''Geogaddi'' has "Ready Lets Go", ''The Campfire Headphase'' has "Into The Rainbow Vein" and ''Tomorrow's Harvest'' has "Gemini".
77[[/folder]]
78
79[[folder:Hip Hop]]
80* The appropriately titled ''Intro'' in Music/OutKast's ''Stankonia.''
81* Wyclef Jean's "The Ecleftic" has a intro scene with spoken word.
82* Both of noise-rap group clipping.'s full albums, Midciy and CLPPNG, have tracks named 'intro', which consist of their rapper Daveed Diggs rapping quickly over whining tones and blaring chaotic noise, serving to very quickly introduce the albums.
83* ''Music/TheHamiltonMixtape'' has the song "No John Trumbull ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Intro]])" which asserts that the following album would be nothing like Trumbull's famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was originally supposed to be used in the [[Theatre/{{Hamilton}} play proper]] but was quickly dropped in favor of the now-iconic song "Alexander Hamilton", and found a home on the Mixtape.
84* ''Music/{{Eminem}}'':
85** ''Slim Shady EP'' opens with an audio play of Slim Shady's SplitPersonalityTakeover of Eminem, serving to warn listeners about the [[{{Horrorcore}} direction]] of his [[NewSoundAlbum new sound]].
86** ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'' and ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' both start with a public service announcement from an announcer, with Slim Shady whispering instructions in his ear. On ''The Slim Shady LP'', it's a lighthearted [[ContentWarnings warning]] about the suicide-heavy, AntiRoleModel lyrical content, and telling kids not to do drugs. On ''The Marshall Mathers LP'', [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou it's just death threats]].
87** ''Music/TheEminemShow'' opens with a gentle music box tune as the curtain is lifted, Eminem appears on stage, and walks up to the mic, checks it, and takes a deep breath (before leading into the screamed intro of the next track, "White America"). ''Encore'' has a similar intro, but with a darker, more stressful piece of music, and the crowd chanting his name.
88** ''Relapse'' opens with a skit in which Creator/DominicWest plays a ''very unhelpful'' rehab counsellor, who is actually [[EnemyWithin Slim Shady]] trying to get Marshall to relapse so he can take over him again. [[TheBadGuyWins It works]].
89** ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' has a rapped introduction to the concept of the album at the ''end'' of the first song, "Bad Guy", in which Eminem expresses the impossibility of being able to match up to the original ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' but states his intention to do his best, and invites us to pick up where the first album left off.
90[[/folder]]
91
92[[folder:Jazz]]
93* Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: The CD reissue of ''Moanin’'' opens with a 30 second sample of a rehearsal, complete with StudioChatter between trumpeter Lee Morgan and producer Rudy Van Gelder. (The original LP version of the album omitted this track.)
94* Music/JagaJazzist's ''One-Armed Bandit'' starts with "The Thing Introduces...", a 23 second track performed by a completely different band (The Thing).
95[[/folder]]
96
97[[folder:Metal]]
98* Der fünfzehnjährige Krieg'' by Music/{{Absurd|Band}} has one (weirdly, it's actually longer than a couple of the actual songs.)
99* Many Music/{{Bathory}} albums have an intro track, consisting mainly of keyboard parts.
100* ''V'' from Music/BulletForMyValentine's album ''Venom''.
101* "Det Som Engang Var" and "Fallen" by Music/{{Burzum}}
102* Music/{{Cormorant}}'s album ''Earth Diver'' opens with "Eris", a short instrumental piece that contains sampling from later tracks on the album, opening to the song "Daughter of Void".
103* Music/CradleOfFilth is fond of these, and they often overlap with EpicInstrumentalOpener.
104* Music/CultOfLuna has "Inside Fort Meade", "Marching To the Heartbeats" and "The One".
105* Most of Music/{{Dalriada}}'s albums have both and outro tracks, sometimes taking motifs from songs within the album.
106* Music/DemonHunter. ''The Triptych'' opens with "The Flame That Guides Us Home", an a cappella piece sung by a women's choir, leading directly into the second track, "Not I". On ''True Defiance'', the first twenty seconds of the first track are very lo-fi (as if they were recorded on cheap tapes in someone's garage) before abruptly switching to a louder and clearer studio recording. ''Extremist'' opens with "Death", featuring choral chanting and death metal, in contrast with the metalcore-influenced sound of the rest of the album.
107* Limp Bizkit's ''Chocolate Starfish at the Hot Dog Flavoured Water'' and ''Significant Other'' both have intro tracks lasting roughly 30-40 seconds.
108* "Generation Why?" by Music/DiamondPlate starts of with various soundbites.
109* ''V - Metal Machine Music'' by Music/DieKrupps has "Die Verdammten (Prelude)" as its EpicInstrumentalOpener.
110* Music/{{Dragonforce}}'s first album, ''Valley of the Damned'', begins with "Invocation of Apocalyptic Evil", which is generally an instrumental lead-up to the title track.
111* Music/DreamTheater's "Regression" from ''Music/MetropolisPt2ScenesFromAMemory'' and "False Awakening Suite" from ''Dream Theater''. The intro to "Root of All Evil" from ''Octavarium'' also counts.
112* "Slainia" and "Helvetios" by Music/{{Eluveitie}} start off with bits of spoken word.
113* ''Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk'' by Music/{{Emperor}} starts with ''Al Svartr (The Oath)'' a slow atmospheric piece.
114* On ''Frost'' by Music/{{Enslaved}} the album starts out with the TitleTrack, a keyboard piece.
115* Music/{{Gamma Ray}}:
116** ''Heading for Tomorrow'' starts with the aptly-named "Welcome", a powerful intro piece leading onto "Lust for Life".
117** ''No World Order!'' begins with "Induction", a calling out of the Illuminati and those who would seek to control others, which leads up to "Dethrone Tyranny."
118* "Tunes Of War" by Music/GraveDigger starts off with the track ''The Brave'' a song played on bag pipes.
119* Music/{{Helloween}} examples:
120** ''Walls of Jericho'' opens with "Walls of Jericho", an orchestrated piece with trumpets which end with a castle door being opened.
121** ''Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1'' opens with "Initiation", a piece which leads into "I'm Alive". The piece itself also opens the music video for the single version of "Halloween".
122** ''Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 2'' opens with "Invitation", a hymn-like piece which leads into "Eagle Fly Free". Music/VisionDivine repeats this for their cover on ''Keepers of Jericho: A Tribute to Helloween''.
123** ''Pink Bubbles Go Ape'' opens with a swell guitar-and-voice piece called "Pink Bubbles Go Ape".
124** ''Master of the Rings'' start with "Irritation", a nice-sounding piece leading onto "Sole Survivor".
125** ''Better Than Raw'' starts with an hymn-like mix of metal and opera called "Deliberately Limited Preliminary Prelude Period In Z" which ends in the furious "Push".
126** ''The Dark Ride'' starts with "Beyond the Portal", a small effect piece leading onto "All Over The Nations".
127** ''Gambling With The Devil'' starts with "Crack The Riddle", a sinister piece starting with a circus-like scene and ending with [[Music/{{Saxon}} Biff Byford]] welcoming everyone with a sinister voice before spinning a wheel leading onto "Kill It".
128* Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism by Music/{{Immortal|Band}}
129* "SGNL>01" and "SGNL>05 (Final Transmission)" by Music/{{Isis}}, taken from ''Celestial'' and ''SGNL>05'', respectively.
130* Music/JudasPriest's album ''Music/ScreamingForVengeance'' starts with a 41 second instrumental, "The Hellion", before kicking things into gear with "Electric Eye".
131* Music/LinkinPark:
132** The remix album of ''Music/HybridTheory'', titled ''Reanimation'' has [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Opening"]], which samples the violin and piano [[{{Foreshadowing}} later used]] [[BookEnds in the final track "Krwlng".]]
133** ''Music/{{Meteora}}'' has "Foreword", a 13-second track [[http://web.archive.org/web/20030412184824/http://www.shoutweb.com/features/linkinpark0303.phtml described by]] co-lead singer Mike Shinoda as an attempt at Foley work. It leads up to the first full song, "Don't Stay".
134** ''Music/MinutesToMidnight'' has "Wake", a calm and uplifting instrumental transitioning to "Given Up".
135** ''A Thousand Suns'' features ''two'' intros. The first is "The Requiem", which [[{{Foreshadowing}} samples lyrics of the lead single "The Catalyst"]] and sets the tone of the album. It transitions into another one, "The Radiance", which is essentially just electronics with samples of J. UsefulNotes/RobertOppenheimer and transitions into "Burning in the Skies".
136* "Paranoid Circus" by Music/{{Lyriel}} starts out with spoken word.
137* Music/{{Massacration}} has the aptly-named "Intro" in ''Gates of Metal Fried Chicken of Death'', a recipe communicated with a sinister voice as if Satan himself is doing a spell.
138* ''Music/{{Metallica}}'' starts off both ''Music/RideTheLightning'' and ''Music/MasterOfPuppets'' with an acoustic guitar part, part of "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Battery," respectively.
139* ''Shout at the Devil'' by Music/MotleyCrue starts with the track "In The Beginning" with highly distorted spoken word.
140* ''Annihilation of the Wicked'' by Music/{{Nile}} starts off with the instrumental "Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise".
141* Music/NothingMore's self-titled album opens with a song called "Ocean Floor", which is the lead-in to "This is the Time (Ballast)".
142* Music/Powerman5000's ''Tonight The Stars Revolt'' opens with "An Eye Is Upon You", a short track of ambient sounds and pulpy science fiction narration by actor Malachi Throne, which segues into the first proper song, "Supernova Goes Pop".
143* Music/{{Sabaton}}'s album ''Carolus Rex'' begins with a short track titled "Dominium Maris Baltici", which is also the EpicInstrumentalOpener for the second track on the album, "Lion from the North".
144* Music/{{Sentenced}} had three, "[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Intro - The Gate]] on ''Down'', "Kaamos" on ''Frozen'' and "Konevitsan Kirkonkellot" on ''The Cold White Light''.
145* Music/{{Showbread}}'s ''No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical'' uses this for a joke at the listener's expense. The first track, "A Llama Eats a Giraffe (and Vice Versa)" begins with a quiet phone conversation between two people which lasts for about 30 seconds. An unsuspecting listener who turn up the volume to understand it will then get assaulted by a MetalScream and blaring guitars when the song itself starts without any prior warning.
146* Music/{{Slipknot}} are quite fond of this.
147** "742617000027" from their first album is an intro to "(sic)".
148** "(515)" from ''Iowa'' is likewise into "People = Shit".
149** ".execute." from ''All Hope Is Gone'' into "Gematria (The Killing Name)''.
150** "XIX" from ''.5: The Gray Chapter'' would also qualify.
151* Music/{{Stryper}}'s ''To Hell with the Devil'' started off with an ominous instrumental intro, titled "Abyss (To Hell with the Devil)". Listeners might expect it to lead into the title track, especially after [[ScareChord the sudden clap of thunder]], but instead it just fades out.
152* "Mezmerize" by Music/SystemOfADown begins with an intro version of the song "Soldier Side", the full version of which isn't heard until the last track of the sister album "Hypnotize."
153* "Ascendancy" by Music/{{Trivium}} begins with an instrumental track titled "The End of Everything."
154* Music/TypeONegative's ''October Rust'' has the joke track "Bad Ground," which is just an amplifier hum, followed by introductory dialogue from the band members.
155** They pulled a similar trick with the first track of their next album, ''World Coming Down'': "Skip It" is an 11 second track of what sounds like a skipping CD, followed by a member of the band shouting "Sucker!" There was even a format specific version of this intro for the cassette edition, which sounded like a tape being eaten instead.
156* Music/VisionDivine examples:
157** ''Send Me An Angel'' starts with an instrumental piece called "Incipit".
158** ''Stream of Consciousness'' kicks off with a scene of a person relaxing and turning the radio called "Stream of Consciousness", which leads onto "Secret of Life".
159** ''The 25th. Hour'' starts with a small voice-and-piano piece called "My Angel Died".
160** ''Destination Set to Nowhere'' starts with an italian-spoken piece of ambientation called "S'il Fosse Foco" which ends with a countdown to a rocket launch. This piece leads onto "The Dream Maker".
161[[/folder]]
162
163[[folder:Mixed]]
164* [[http://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/strife Strife]], from ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'', opens with "Stormspirit", a 46-seconds long piano piece in contrast to the mix of electronic and rock music of the other songs.
165* ''Another Monty Python Record'' starts with an apology:
166-->Good evening. We apologize most sincerely to those of you who have bought this record under the impression it was in any way connected with the television programme ''Monty Python's Flying Circus.'' This was due to an error in the printing stage of the album cover. This album is in fact called ''Pleasures of the Dance,'' a selection of Norwegian carpenter songs compiled by Oskar Tritt.
167[[/folder]]
168
169[[folder:Pop]]
170* ''#willpower'' by Will.I.Am has "Good Morning". It's his way of saying "hello" to the listeners.
171* Christina Aguilera's ''Back to Basics'' begins with a short, mellow, midtempo track intended to summarize the purpose of the album; namely, paying homage to the legendary jazz and blues artists of the early 20th century.
172---> So here I stand today, in tribute I do pay, to those before me who laid it down and paved the way
173* ''Music/{{Rated R|RihannaAlbum}}'' by Music/{{Rihanna}} starts with "Mad House", which incorporates a Creator/VincentPrice-like speech "warning" uneasy listeners and inviting those "who can take it".
174* The album ''Goodbye Lullaby'' from Music/AvrilLavigne starts with "Black Star", a piano track with one verse.
175* KoreanPopMusic quartet Music/{{Mamamoo}} starts off their first album ''Hello'' with a song of the same name, which also introduces the group's members.
176* Fun Boy Three's self-titled debut has the intro track "Sanctuary", 1:22 of OminousLatinChanting. Their second album ''Waiting'' begins with "Murder, She Said", a cover of the theme from the 1950s ''Miss Marple'' movies - an instrumental which acts as a showcase for their new backing group and their [[NewSoundAlbum new sound]].
177* Music/HayleyKiyoko's first full album begins with the brief instrumental "[[TitleTrack Expectations]]/[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Overture]]".
178* Music/{{LOONA}} has intros in all of their albums. LOONA 1/3's ''Love & Live'' has "Into the New Heart" and ''Love & Evil'' has an intro of the same name. LOONA Odd Eye Circle has ''Mix & Match'' with the intro "ODD" and ''Max & Match'' with "ADD". LOONA yyxy's ''beauty&thebeat'' has "dal segno". LOONA's ''+ +'', ''X X'' and ''#'' all start with intros of the same name as their respective album. "+ +" (the intro) is notable for being a fusion of "Into the New Heart", "ODD" and "dal segno".
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:Punk]]
182* The self-titled debut album by Music/BadBrains inverts this trope by having a 45 second track called "Intro" appear as the last song on the album.
183* On Music/{{Fugazi}}'s ''The Argument'', the opening track is ambient noise intertwined with voices from a radio and the recording studio.
184* ''Ixnay on the Hombre'' by Music/TheOffspring begins with "Disclaimer", an exceedingly sarcastic disclaimer (narrated by [[Music/DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]]) about its objectionable content. The following two albums, ''Americana'' and ''Conspiracy of One'', follow suit, except with shorter intros: the former, "Welcome" in the form of ForInconveniencePressOne (fitting one of the album's themes, of automated life in America), and the latter, "Intro", sounding like [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an intro to a song in a concert]].
185* Music/{{Fastbacks}} compilation ''The Question Is No'' begins with the spoken word "Dear Mr. Oswald" refusing the request of an [[ExecutiveMeddling executive attempting to replace the singer]].
186* Almost every album by Music/FuckedUp has some kind of instrumental lead-in:
187** The first track of ''The Chemistry of Common Life'' begins with a long, solo flute vignette before becoming much more hardcore.
188** ''David Comes to Life'' begins with "Let Her Rest", an electronic instrumental that gains more and more layers of sound as it progresses.
189** On ''Dose Your Dreams'', the first three minutes of "None of Your Business Man", the first track, is a classical-sounding orchestral piece, which becomes suddenly very hardcore in the middle of the song, but nevertheless eases the listener into the album.
190[[/folder]]
191
192[[folder:R&B]]
193* ''Channel Orange'' by Frank Ocean starts with the track "Start", which samples a sound of a Platform/PlayStation starting up, along with other electronic sounds.
194[[/folder]]
195
196[[folder:Rock]]
197* ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' is presented as a concert by the eponymous band, with the first song an intro track. (2:02 per Website/{{Wikipedia}}, with a reprise at the end of the record @ 1:08, followed by an {{Encore}} song.)
198* The Music/JimiHendrix album ''Axis: Bold as Love'' begins with a track depicting a British-accented talk show host, with a slightly sped-up "chipmunk" voice, talking skeptically about U.F.O.s and aliens, with his guest revealing himself to be an alien (with guitar noises depicting his ship picking him up)--the track is called "EXP", and segues into "Up From the Skies", a song from the point of view of an [[AncientAstronauts Ancient Astronaut]] returning to Earth.
199* "Son et lumiere", the first track of Music/TheMarsVolta's ''Deloused in the Comatorium'', provides an ambient rise to the first song.
200* Music/TheMoodyBlues' 1969 album ''On The Threshold Of a Dream'' begins with a short spoken playlet that riffs on the idea of computer intelligence and Descartes' famous axiom "I think, therefore I am". This was an idea they first used on the preceding album ''In Search of the Lost Chord''. A subsequent LP ''Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'' also begins with an off-beat spoken piece.
201* A short 30-second prologue precedes Otherwise's "Die for You".
202* Music/{{Pink Floyd}}'s ''Dark Side of the Moon'' begins with a cacophony of ringing clocks, cash registers, voices, and screams called "Speak to Me". Many of the sounds occur individually on subsequent tracks on the album (such as the cash registers from "Money", the clocks from "Time", and the high arias from "The Great Gig in the Sky").
203* JRock band Donutman's album ''Start Up To Get Over'' begins with a 30 second track that's a mellow guitar riff with a spoken word sample of an [[GratuitousEnglish English conversation]]. The rest of the album is standard rock, albeit sung in wonderful Engrish.
204* Music/DavidBowie's ''Diamond Dogs'' has an OpeningNarration as its first track: "Future Legend", which establishes the CrapsackWorld setting of the album. ''1. Outside'' has "Leon Takes Us Outside", an instrumental with a few cryptic spoken-word phrases sprinkled over it.
205* Music/{{Queen}}'s second album ''Queen II'' opens with the track "Procession", a short faux-classical Brian May composed instrumental that segues directly into the second track (which in turn segues into the third track). More importantly however, "Procession" served as an introduction for many fans to Brian May's trademark guitar sound and the guitar harmonies that often accompanied them. It also served as the intro music for most of their concerts between 1973 (before the album was released) and 1975, with a brief revival for two shows at Earl’s Court in 1977, with shows from 1973 using an earlier recording of the song, as heard on their widely-bootlegged Golders Green concert, which was later released officially on Queen On Air in 2016.
206* Music/TheBeachBoys' Music/{{SMiLE|TheBeachBoys}} begins with 'Our Prayer,' a church-like hymn with huge echo that provides just a taste of the amazing music to follow it.
207* Several albums by Music/TheAlanParsonsProject begin with an instrumental piece that segues into the first song. The remix version of their first, ''Tales of Mystery and Imagination'' features spoken intros to the first and second halves, read by Creator/OrsonWelles as Creator/EdgarAllanPoe.
208* Music/{{Petra}}'s ''Not of This World'' starts and ends with instrumental BookEnds titled "Visions".
209* Music/RelientK's second album ''The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek'' starts with the short track "Kick-Off", with these lyrics:
210-->Here's the kick-off\
211Hope you're not sick of\
212Relient K\
213Or all the songs we play\
214'Cause then you'll want to throw our CD away
215* Music/TomWaits' ''Music/ForeignAffairs'' opens with "Cinny's Waltz", a chamber instrumental that leads into the anguished OneWomanSong "Muriel".
216* The [[Music/KISSSoloAlbums Gene Simmons 1978 solo album]] begins with what sounds like a dark orchestral music intro that lasts for 1 minute 4 seconds before the first song "Radioactive" starts.
217* ''Music/TheAquabats'':
218** The first track on ''Myths, Legends, and Other Amazing Adventures'' is a short instrumental synthesizer piece called "Robot Theme Song!".
219** ''Charge!!'' opens with a brief clip of a sci-fi narrator type warning listeners "Now stand back, for your own safety!"
220* Music/ThankYouScientist includes one for all three of their studio albums:
221** ''Maps of Non-Existent Places'' has the aptly-named "Prelude".
222** ''Stranger Heads Prevail'' has both an intro track ("Prologue... A Faint Applause") along with [[InvertedTrope an outro track]] ("Epilogue... And The Clever Depart").
223** ''Terraformer'' has the instrumental "Wrinkle".
224[[/folder]]
225
226[[folder:Soundtrack]]
227* The soundtrack for the film Film/SingStreet starts with Brendan's brief "Rock n Roll is a Risk" spoken word monologue.
228* From the ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'' soundtrack album ''Music/MakeItSweet'', "Let's Jam Together!" briefly shows Katy, Ma-san, and Lammy initially meeting each other and deciding to form a band.
229* The original soundtrack for ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' begins with a track called "It's a me, Mario!", which is Mario saying exactly that. Unlike the game, it has no echo effect.
230* The ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'' soundtrack's first track is called "Link." It's an 11-second track containing the "linking book" sound effect that's used in the game when the player travels between worlds.
231[[/folder]]

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