35MM: A Musical Exhibition: "The Ballad of Sara Berry" is set to a relatively peppy tune... and is about a girl descending into insanity and killing her classmates.
The musical 13 features Evan and Archie cheerfully singing about how Archie is terminally ill and how Evan plans to exploit it for movie tickets.
The Addams Family gives us "Just Around the Corner", an up-beat number, complete with kickline, about how everybody is eventually going to die. Possibly justified, as it's sung by Morticia Addams.
In something of the opposite way to how this trope normally goes, Aladdin has "High Adventure", which sounds epic but is actually a huge piss take as it's being sung by Aladdin's friends, who aren't cowards exactly but are still rather inept swashbucklers, leading to lines like "He's got a damsel in despair, guys! Heck, that's not fair, guys, and I'm mad!"
Annie famously has all the girls from an orphanage happily singing and dancing to "It's the Hard-Knock Life", which describes the miseries of being in the orphanage: basically being kid slaves with never-ending work, and no one ever caring for them:
Empty-belly life Rotten, smelly life Full-of-sorrow life No-tomorrow life Santa Claus we never see Santa Claus, what's that? Who's he? No one cares for you a smidge When you're in an orphanage It's the hard-knock life
The Ballads of Booth, Czolgosz, and Guiteau. They're upbeat, roaring songs, each written in the style of the time period each man lived in... and they're about the details of how each of those men killed one of the Presidents of the United States.
The treacly ballad "Unworthy of Your Love", in which a man and a woman sing about their undying love for someone special. The problem? The man's special someone is "Jodie", and the woman's "Charlie" — that is, Jodie Foster and Charles Manson. The singers are John Hinckley, Jr. and Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who attempted to murder Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, respectively, in twisted attempts to win the love of Foster and Manson. Sondheim himself commented on his frustration with people covering the song as an unironic love ballad, pointing out that Hinckley and Fromme were very insane people who shouldn't be emulated in any respect.
"Everybody's Got the Right" is a fantastic example. The lyrics read almost like something that might be read in an elementary school classroom, that everyone has the right to find happiness — except the song is about madmen defending their right to kill the president.
"It Sucks to Be Me" has a rousing tune... but it's about characters arguing over whose life sucks the most, with problems ranging from being unemployed to being broke.
"Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" is a perky song... claiming that everybody is bigoted.
"Schadenfreude" has a very uplifting melody, but it's about taking pleasure in other people's suffering.
Blood Brothers has "Take A Letter, Miss Jones", a bright, upbeat, happy song sung by Mr. Lyons the factory manager as he dictates letters to his secretary, each of which fires another employee. Then he fires her.
"Hasa Diga Eebowai", which seems to be a rip-off of "Hakuna Matata", even with a similar upbeat melody. Until we are told that the phrase is Ugandan for "Fuck You, God".
"Turn It Off", where the Elders sing very upbeat verses about suppressing bad memories — like witnessing domestic abuse, missing your sister's death, and suppressing your sexuality because you think it's evil.
"Joseph Smith: American Moses" has the dysentery chant, which makes drinking contaminated water and shitting blood sound awesome.
"Auto-da-fé" from Leonard Bernstein's adaptation of Candide is a jolly song about watching a public execution, with lengthy middle sections about STDs.
Most of the soundtrack from Chicago is in this vein; nearly every song is a Villain Song but only a few sound like it. For example, "Razzle Dazzle" is a Breakaway Pop Hit with a gentle crooning vaudeville sound, all about how to succeed in showbiz. Even out of context, however, the lyrics are extremely cynical, as they promote big-budget production and bombast to cover up a lack of actual quality. Within the context of the story, it's even worse: the line about getting away with murder is Not Hyperbole.
In Company, the song "Getting Married Today" has an operatic section that sounds absolutely beautiful... and then you stop and listen to the words and find out it's about the bride having a total meltdown.
Dear Evan Hansen has "Waving Through A Window", a fairly up-tempo, major chord song that, to someone who isn't paying attention, is easy to mistake for triumphant, despite the fact that it's about the character's depression and anxiety.
Fade Out Fade In has the song "You Mustn't Feel Discouraged", which sounds congenially cheerful, especially when it accompanies a playful tap-dance routine, but here's how the lyrics go:
When you think you've hit the bottom And you're feeling mighty low You mustn't feel discouraged There's always one step further down you can go
"It Depends on What You Pay" from The Fantasticks is an upbeat, Disneyesque number about rape (as in abduction). Unsurprisingly, it isn't normally included in productions of the show. The song that usually replaces it, “Abductions”, is also an example, having a similar tempo and sound, but the same topic, just a less offensive word.
"Relax, Enjoy Yourself" from Randy Newman's Faust has several sections: 1. Nice upbeat song about how no one ever succeeds; 2. Less upbeat interlude with a little girl singing about evil; 3. Nice upbeat song about how the man who shot her will go to heaven because he went to confession; 4. Hymn about how God works in mysterious ways, and that she should be happy for the man who shot her; 5. Nice upbeat song about how Satan will take over the world and it'll be a good thing.
A David Yazbek trademark. "Big-Ass Rock" from The Full Monty is a striking example: The song is played after Dave saves Malcolm from asphyxiating himself, has an appropriately slow melody, and the lyrics boil down to "Don't kill yourself when you have friends who can kill you for you" (though it is meant to, and does, cheer Malcolm up).
"Doomed, Doomed, Doomed" from The Golden Apple is an upbeat ragtime polka about the inevitability of human extinction.
Multiple songs from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals have a very up-beat tune with off-putting lyrics. In one song, Paul's boss waxes poetic about how much he wants his wife to choke him. In another, a funky beat accompanies commentary on police brutality and the corrupt nature of law enforcement. It's a weird show.
The song "Three-Five-Zero-Zero" from the musical Hair has a verse that's an example of this. These words are sung to a cheery tune best described as "Dixieland". The meaning of the title? There were 3500 men in the first platoon of soldiers sent to Vietnam. Two out of every three were black.
Pris'ners in Niggertown, it's a dirty little war Three-five-zero-zero Take weapons up and begin to kill Watch the long long armies drifting home
As the protagonist works himself up to suicide in the Act I finale of H.M.S. Pinafore, all sorts of cheery and patriotic tunes get thrown in, even while Ralph sings, "The maiden treats my suit with scorn / Rejects my humble gift, my lady / She says I am ignobly born / And cuts my hopes adrift, my lady". Of course, it eventually turns appropriately sombre, just in time for Josephine to rush in and admit that she loves him after all.
Iolanthe: "In vain to us you plead", which is a flirty little song about how much the women hate the men they're singing it to. Part of the joke is that they're in love with the men, but have to do their duty in telling them to buzz off. Lelia's line before the song is: "But we can't stop him now. [aside to Celia] Aren't they lovely! [aloud] Oh, why did you go and defy us, you great geese!"
The opening song "Goodbye Jasper" is a cheerful song wishing Jasper goodbye... being sung by spirits as he enters the afterlife due to him having a Near-Death Experience.
"The Killing" is an energetic, catchy song about how almost all humans are either perpetually unhappy with their lives, or just wasting their lives doing nothing.
"I Dreamed a Dream" is a song about crushed hopes and dreams set to the most beautiful, uplifting, triumphant music imaginable. Made even more dissonant by the fact that Susan Boyle sang it to make her own dream come true.
"Lovely Ladies" is a peppy and upbeat little number about the dehumanizing nature of working as a dockside prostitute. For added effect, Fantine sells not only sex, but her last possessions, her hair and, depending on the production, possibly a tooth, in order to provide for her daughter. It is exactly as jarring as it sounds.
There's this one song that has a beautiful, soaring melody and heavenly-sounding accompaniment. The song is "Stars" and Javert sings it. The lyrics are... Knight Templar-y, for lack of a better word, and about Javert's determination to see Jean Valjean arrested no matter what. Some of the lyrics:
"Now (It's Just The Gas)" counts on some level, regardless of how it's played: some productions play it grim and scary, while others play it cheerfully. Either way, it's a song about being gassed to death with lyrics like "Though I giggle and I chortle/Bear in mind I'm not immortal".
In The Mario Opera, the "Freakout!" song is about Mario lamenting what he's become and how easy killing feels. It's set to a happy, upbeat tune that segues into the Video Game Super Mario Bros 1 theme.
The Mikado. Beheadings, descriptions of grisly executions, lists of people to kill off — all fodder for a cheery little operetta. The first song in the second half, "Brightly dawns our wedding day / Joyous hour we give thee greeting" ends with everyone in tears over how Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum will only be married for a month before he's due to be executed.
In Mother Courage and Her Children, there is a lullaby that Mother Courage sings over her daughter Kattrin's dead body, with lyrics of an obviously materialistic nature. This sort of thing is key to the verfremdungseffekt of the Epic Theatre.
My Fair Lady has "Ascot Gavotte", in which lines of motionless, expressionless aristocracy sing about how "thrilling, absolutely chilling" the race they're watching is (the music fits the restrained visuals rather than the words).
The opening number of Next to Normal is an upbeat song called "Just Another Day", which is about the apparent stress of each member of the Goodman family, and each of them treating that stress as just a part of their everyday lives, and being determined to bottle it.
"Get Happy" from The Nine-Fifteen Revue, popularized by Judy Garland in the film Summer Stock, is a peppy, rousing song about Judgment Day.
"Un Matin Tu Dansais" from the French rock opera of Notre-Dame de Paris is a duet that starts off with a beautiful, longing melody as Frollo describes to Esmeralda how he first fell in love with her, and then she sings of how Phoebus will save her (she's currently in a cage, condemned to die). Then the song strays toward much darker territory as he makes her an offer: love him and he'll save her. Yet as it goes from devotion to blackmail to attempted rape, the tune stays that same light, lovely melody, with only the desperation and fear in the actor's voices to reveal that they're really singing things like "choose the grave or my bed" and "I'll bite you like a dog".
"Shy" features the heroine describing how demure and bashful she is... while belting practically the entire song at the top of her lungs.
"Sensitivity" is a rather ironic song by the queen, who is anything but sensitive — but the off-kilter and jerky five-beat pattern is not very sensitive either.
"Another Terrible Day", a jaunty song sung by Dionysus about how much he hates his life.
"The Campfire Song" has the tune of a typical happy campfire song. It's about several half-bloods lamenting how awful it is to have a god for a parent.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera includes an example of this in the perfectly happy-sounding tune of "Masquerade". Once you realise what it's actually talking about, you can get rather depressed:
Masquerade! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you!
"When Anger Spreads Its Wing" from Princess Ida is about going off to war but sounds kind of like it should be about Bertie Wooster and his smashing adventures.
The musical opens with everyone leaving a musical and then singing a joyful, sensational song about how god awful it was.
Depending on which version you watch, you get a different kind of campy tune... sung byHitler.
RENT has the upbeat, catchy song "Today 4 U", in which Angel describes how she got the money for Christmas... namely, by killing a dog for a rich woman. You'll be bopping your head all the way through that song before you realize "Wait, did she really drive a dog to commit suicide?"
Rigoletto: "La dona e mobile" has one of the most upbeat tunes in opera and as such gets used in a number of advertisements. The title means "The women are fickle", and the song is sung by the opera's Big Bad; it's about how all women want him, but change their minds when he's ready for them, so his taking them by force is completely fine!
The song "Rose Tint My World" from The Rocky Horror Show is an upbeat song sung by Columbia, Rocky, Brad, and Janet about how they've all become corrupted by Frank N. Furter, while Brad begs for his mom to come and save him. The song even lampshades this with "Rose tint my world! Keep me safe from my trouble and pain!".
Richard has the number "I Shipped, D'ye See", a triumphant number about the time he fled from a French frigate.
"You Understand". It's one of the bounciest songs in the show, a duet between two men plotting to crash a wedding, break up the happy couple, and reveal to everyone that the groom is really the local Bad Baronet.
"Happily coupled are we" has a cheery melody befitting a song by a sailor about his forthcoming marital bliss. It keeps this melody when Rose comes in with her verse, about him sailing off and having affairs with women in every port, while she's left behind to wait for him.
The cheery, rapid-fire patter song "My eyes are fully open" is about upcoming death.
But I have to die tomorrow So it really doesn't matter
A very darkly hilarious example comes from "When I Find My Baby" from the Sister Act musical, where Shanke is singing of "finding" his girl (who just saw him commit a murder). It starts off like a jazzy love song, until he gets to the part about killing her in multiple violent ways. As horrible as it is, it's actually one of the most hilarious songs in the musical, especially when he starts adding the dance moves, and his henchmen begin singing in the background. When he keeps repeating the line "When I find my baby, I ain't letting her go," it only gets worse as the song moves on. It must be heard/seen to be believed. One verse in particular:
Yeah, yeah Oh yes I know that girl And man I need that girl I gotta have that girl So I can snuff that girl If I know my baby She's already running That's how my baby Is gonna be done in
I'm gonna drown that girl Or disembowel that girl Or give her skull a big dent With a blunt instrument I tell ya, soon that girl Is looking at a world of woe
The song "Oh joyous boon / Oh mad delight" is appropriately upbeat, and continues upbeat through lyrics like "Alas! that lovers thus should meet:/ Oh, pity, pity me!"
At least half of Spring Awakening. For example, "My Junk" is a really cute upbeat song about masturbation and about comparing teenage crushes to drug addiction, which is arguably even more lyrically dissonant.
"A Little Priest" is a fun, showstopping, and, especially in the original stage musical, humorous number... about cannibalism.
The reprise of "Johanna" is a rather upbeat number in major key about how the Villain Protagonist is too busy killing people to think about his own daughter.
"Hey Big Spender" from Sweet Charity sounds like an erotic come-on ("Good lookin', so refined/So wouldn't you like to know what's goin' on in my mind?"), but is sung by a group of bored taxi dance girls who can barely summon up the energy to go through the motions of their job.
Wouldn't you like to have Fun. Fun. Fun. How's about a few Laughs. Laughs. Laughs.
Several songs from The Threepenny Opera have lyrical dissonances. There is one song where the frequent refrain of "Yay! Hooray!" is performed in as deadpan and monotone a manner possible.
Trial by Jury is about a trial, so when the plaintiff arrives at the tune of "Comes the broken flower / Comes the cheated maid", it's made catchy, upbeat and fun, to make it thoroughly clear that despite said lyrics, this is all part of a grand scam.
Urinetown is all over this trope. They even hang a lampshade on it:
Little Sally: What kind of musical is this? The good guys finally take over, and then everything starts falling apart? Officer Lockstock: Like I said, Little Sally, this isn't a happy musical. Little Sally: But the music's so happy!
"First You're Born" is about how a character's life is one big joke played on him by the universe. It's done as a comic number.
"A tenor, all singers above" is a classic tenor ballad — about how the tenor can't sing, complete with intentionally flubbed high notes.
"It's understood, I think all round" and "In every mental lore" are both cheery songs with lines about grisly deaths by duelling and being blown up by dynamite, respectively.
In one interesting example, Elphaba sings triumphantly in "The Wizard and I" about a vision she has about a "celebration throughout Oz, that's all to do with me!" Anyone familiar with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz will realize she's seeing the celebration of her death.
"What Is This Feeling?" is a cheery-sounding song with such lyrics as "my pulse is rushing, my head is reeling, my face is flushing; what is this feeling?" At this point, one might guess that the feeling is love, but the girls are actually singing about their "unadulterated loathing" for everything about one another.
"Thank Goodness" — a song about how happy Glinda is, while she sounds like she's about to cry.
But I couldn't be happier Simply couldn't be happier Well, not "simply"
'Cause getting your dreams It's strange, but it seems A little, well, complicated
"How say you, maiden, will you wed/A man about to lose his head?" is one of the most upbeat, fun, cheery numbers.
"Oh, a private buffoon is a light-hearted loon" is about how the jester's being torn apart and has to remain cheerful throughout it all.
"When a wooer goes a-wooing"'s most heartbreaking line is "Oh the happy days of wooing" — sung in emotionless monotone by the person that the plot has set out to break, taking everything from him. Oh, and it ends on a grand, energetic chorus while that person dies.
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