->''"Welcome to the rock if you come from away\\
You'll probably understand about half of what we say\\
They say no man's an island, but an island makes a man\\
'Specially when one comes from one like Newfoundland\\
Welcome to the rock!"''
-->-- '''Newfoundland citizens''', ''Theatre/ComeFromAway'', "Welcome To The Rock"

The song usually near the beginning of a musical that describes the main locale of the work. If the song doesn't occur near the beginning of the show, it'll most likely be when a a new setting is introduced or when a character is introduced to a new place.

The song's purpose is to describe and introduce the setting to the viewer, possibly introduce a few (or [[MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber all]]) of the characters), and tell you something about how the singer feels about the place -- whether [[IAmGreatSong it's great]], or [[NothingExcitingEverHappensHere boring]], or oppressive.

If it occurs a long time after the start of the story, or a long time after the setting has already been established, then it isn't this trope, but may be a WelcomingSong.

Contrast SomewhereSong, about a place the singer ''[[IWantSong wants]]'' to be, and WanderlustSong, expressing that no one place can ever equal the joys of the open road.

Subtrope of LocationSong.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Theatre ]]

* ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'' opens with a big song about Finland, where none of the action in the show takes place. [[note]] The narrator said ENGLAND. [[/note]]
** There's also "The Knights of the Round Table", although they spend a ''little'' more time there than in [[Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail the movie]]. It's still a silly place.
* In the concert version of ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'', the second song of Act I is "Merano", which describes Merano, Italy. In Act II, the first song is "One Night in Bangkok", which describes Bangkok, Thailand.
* ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' has one for every act:
** Act I, "Sur la place" is the soldiers singing about watching the people of Seville
** Act II, "Les Tringles des Sistres Tintaient" introduces the festive atmosphere at the inn, which was only mentioned in act 1. It also introduces the gypsies and their community in the inn.
** Act III, "Écoute, Écoute, compagnons" is the smugglers singing about the mountains.
** Act IV's chorus of the crowd waiting for the bullfight could also count.
* ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' has its first two songs be setting intro songs. The song "Little Shop of Horrors" is a upbeat song performed by the Urchins, the show’s GreekChorus; it forewarns of the evils that await inside of Mushnik's flower shop. Then "(Downtown) Skid Row" is a depressing CrowdSong sung by the denizens of Skid Row deploring their lives. It gives a good amount of backstory to Seymour and Audrey's lives.
* The second song in ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' is "Iowa Stubborn", which introduces the audience to the small town of River City, Iowa and the attitude of its citizens.
* ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'' starts its main action with "There's No Place Like London", which contrasts both the idealistic Anthony's and the cynical Sweeney's views of the title city.
* In ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'', the first song is "Christopher Street", which describes the street in Greenwich Village.
* The lyrical version of "The Coney Island Waltz" in ''Theatre/LoveNeverDies'' describes Coney Island.
* It happens about halfway through the first act, but ''Another Hundred People'' from ''[[Theatre/CompanySondheim Company]]'' otherwise fits, as it describes the city of New York and the busy lives of the people in it.
* In ''Theatre/ShrekTheMusical'', "Big Bright Beautiful World" introduces Shrek and Fiona (and their parents), and explains the role of an Ogre in this fairy-tale world.
* "Tradition," the prologue to ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', introduces us to the townspeople of Anatevka in a slice of their daily lives.
* The opening number of ''Theatre/TheGoldenApple'' is about how people live in the small town Angel's Roost (and how many people now live there), and [[SmallTownBoredom how much it dissatisfies]] Helen.
* ''Theatre/InTheHeights'' opens with the lyrics "lights up on Washington Heights," followed by a musical tour of the neighborhood. Usnavi even throws in directions on how to get there.
* ''Theatre/ComeFromAway'' begins with "Welcome to the Rock," introducing the audience to the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 airplanes were forced to land after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
* "Good Morning Baltimore," the opening number to the musical version of ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'', introduces both the setting and Tracy Turnblad, the main character.
** ''Theatre/Portal2TheUnauthorizedMusical'' has a parody version of it called "Good Morning Apature", where the audience is introduced to the facility, as well as Wheatley and Chell.
* "Welcome to the Renaissance" from ''Theatre/SomethingRotten'' introduces the time period and setting as England during (you guessed it) the Renaissance era, explaining all the new advancements in art and technology, as well as everyone's obsession with William Shakespeare.
* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}'' has "One Short Day", which introduces Elphaba and Glinda to Emerald City.
* Like the below entry, the stage adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' has "The Bells of Notre Dame" to introduce the focal cathedral, although the song itself isn't very similar to the movie's version: it's sung by a Greek chorus (including the characters themselves) instead of Clopin, and much of it is changed to match [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame the book]] more closely, including the introduction of Frollo's brother Jehan and detailing Frollo's StartOfDarkness.
* ''Theatre/{{Hadestown}}'' opens with "Road to Hell". Hermes, the narrator, shows the audience the dilapidated surface world and the railroad line to Hadestown (the "road to hell") that much of the story involves, and introduces the main characters who gather by it for one reason or another.
* "Oklahoma" from the musical ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}''. (It's about Oklahoma.)
* ''Theatre/LilAbner'': Halfway through the first act of the show, "Unnecessary Town" is sung about Dogpatch.
* ''Lost in the Stars'' begins with the GreekChorus singing "The Hills of Ixopo," a description of the place where the story begins taken straight out of the opening paragraphs of ''Literature/CryTheBelovedCountry''.
* ''Theatre/{{Shucked}}'': "Corn", the first song, tells us all about Cob County and how much they love corn.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Films - Animated ]]

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' and its first sequel, ''The Return of Jafar'', open with "Arabian Nights". ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves'' starts with its own intro song, "There's a Party Here in Agrabah", which describes the preparations and emotions leading up to Aladdin and Jasmine's wedding.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame|Disney}}'' opens with "The Bells of Notre Dame", which does double-duty both as a introduction to the setting of the movie, but also as an introduction to the movie's main characters, particularly [[KnightTemplar its villain]].
* ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' opens with "Once Upon a Time in [[BigApplesauce New York City]]".
* ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast'' begins with Belle singing about what a small, provincial town she lives in and how it hasn't changed in all the time she's lived there and the townsfolk singing about how unusual Belle is. All this is interspersed with the bustle of townsfolk in the outdoor marketplace.
* "Mountain Town" in ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', describing the whitebread Colorado town in which the boys live. Reprised at the end of the movie by the whole town.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' starts with "This is Halloween," about {{Halloweentown}} and its citizens. The song spends its climax describing the film’s protagonist, Jack Skellington, who makes quite a dramatic entrance by disguising himself as a scarecrow, setting himself on fire, and jumping into a well before rising from it, perfectly fine.
* Non-musical example: "Inner Sanctum/The Nesting Grounds" and "The Egg Travels" from ''{{WesternAnimation/Dinosaur}}'', with the former being heard when the Mesozoic era is introduced to the viewers for the very first time with Aladar's birth mother looking after her eggs before the Carnotaurus attacks and kills her and most of her eggs, with only Aladar's egg surviving the attack, while the latter starts to play as Aladar's egg is initially snatched away by an Oviraptor who tries to eat the egg, only to accidentally drop it into a river and have it taken to Lemur Island by a Pteranodon, with said Pteranodon flying across a vast landscape filled with dinosaurs along the way. "The Egg Travels" later receives a TriumphantReprise, called "Epilogue" at the end of the film, [[spoiler: where Aladar and Neera's eggs begin to hatch after Aladar finally defeats the Carnotaurus and safely allows the Herd to finally arrive at the Nesting Grounds.]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Films - Live Action ]]

* ''Film/{{Popeye}}'' opens with "Sweethaven" sung by the people of the town, going about their routines as Popeye rows into the harbor.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' sequels;
** ''Film/ShockTreatment'' starts with "Denton [=USA=]" which describes the titular EverytownAmerica.
** The script to the unmade ''Script/RevengeOfTheOldQueen'' starts with "[[https://youtu.be/1FnI47v77oI The Moon Drenched Shores Of Transylvania]]" about the PleasurePlanet, Transsexual.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* The first full song in "My Musical", the MusicalEpisode of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'', is a song that describes Sacred Heart hospital and welcomes the patient inside to be treated.
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "The Gunfighters" has a song called "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" that functions as a GreekChorus. The version performed [[SourceMusic diagetically]] by the characters is this, as well as the non-diagetic version performed when we first arrive in Tombstone.
* ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'''s first song (discounting the theme song) is a soaring BusbyBerkeleyNumber about [[LocationSong West Covina]], CA, after Rebecca spontaneously decides to relocate there. The series is set in that city.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', there are a couple examples. In ''Martin the Warrior'', Rose sings two songs ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hW6u-2Ajzw for example, this one]]) about her home, Noonvale, where she and the other characters plan to live after they defeat Badrang. In ''High Rhulain'', the otter clans [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-h_OdBfB4 sing about traveling to Holt Summerdell]] when they're on their way there.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Music ]]

* ''Music/QueenOfTheWave'' opens with "Queenswave", which establishes the setting in time: the GoldenAge "before the ocean won". The first song of act 2, "Temple of Unfed Fire", establishes the place, by describing Atlantis and its technological wonders.
* The Overture of the ''Music/{{Wintersmith}}'' ConceptAlbum by Music/SteeleyeSpan begins "Through the dark the turtle comes/Drifting past a thousand suns/Under the weight of Literature/{{Discworld}}". The full version of the A'Tuin song, "Ancient Eyes", comes near the end for some reason.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Animation ]]

* "In the Haven" from [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU9MduXvaXQ Episode One]] of ''WebAnimation/OfWeaselsAndChickens'' introduces the Haven, a compound of houses in the forest built and inhabited by small woodland creatures.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''Website/CollegeHumor'' has improv musicals in the series ''Play it by Ear'' (spinning off from ''Game Changer''), and naturally, many of them open with this. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbF1AJPqP1M Welcome to Mountport]]" from the musical of the same name introduces the QuirkyTown, where the mountains ''somehow'' rise up from the sea. "Another Day in Merkmere" from ''The Muck of Merkmere'' introduces the CrapsackWorld that is the polluted Victorian town it's set in, and like the rest of that musical, it ends up played as a pastiche of the above-mentioned ''Theatre/SweeneyTodd'' example.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbStarWars'' has "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLt7oRpwbPc Tattooine]]," which offers [[ContrastingSequelMainCharacter a marked contrast]] to [[SmallTownBoredom the film's portrayal]].
* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' MusicalEpisode's opening song, "Morning in the 'Burbs," is about how nice Lawndale is (and how eternally annoyed with it [[TheCynic Daria]] is). [[BookEnds Gets a reprise at the end]], wherein Daria is more cheerful.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where the musical adaptation of ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' that Marge stars in opens with an absolutely venomous and [[CrossesTheLineTwice over-the-top]] slandering of New Orleans as a WretchedHive, which inspired a lot of real life complaints against the episode.
-->''New Orleans! Home of pirates, drunks and whores!\\
New Orleans! Tacky, overpriced souvenir stores!\\
If you wanna go to hell you should take a trip to the Sodom and Gomorrah on the Mississip', New Orleans!''
* The very first song in ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'' is "Central in My Heart", an [[MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber Ensemble Song]] all about the titular NYC park.
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