Technology that heavily involves music, usually either activating things, or somehow being a power source.
This cannot be music for puzzle solving, or things like that. It has to be technology using music.
Name is a pun on the term "discotheque".
Magic Music is the magic counterpart to this trope.
Compare
The Power of Rock,
Band Land.
If the music is used as a weapon, you're looking for
Musical Assassin.
Examples:
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Anime And Manga
Comics
- In the comic "Grimjack" in issue #76 he travels to a dimension where sound can be used as a weapon. He, an old friend, and a number of new allies fight to protect "The Heart of Rock" from the evil forces of corporate music. The weapons used are musical instruments. And most of the characters are based on rock musicians.
Film
- Major Domo in Captain EO.
- Duran Duran's "Orgasmic Organ" in Barbarella.
- Willy Wonka has a door with a musical lock, opened by a piece by Rachmaninoff.
- Masters of the Universe has the Cosmic Key, a device that is capable to open portals the destination of which depends on the notes that are played on it.
- Prometheus has alien holographic displays which are somehow controlled through the playing of a flute.
Literature
Live Action Television
- The Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Paradise Syndrome" features a potentally world-destroying asteroid held at bay by a repulsive field that is controlled through the use of music
Music
Video Games
- In Chrono Trigger, the cathedral of the Middle Ages features doors that can be opened by playing a nearby organ.
- In Mother 3, you can perform combo attacks by pressing the A button to the beat of the battle music. This feature is described in-game as a "sound battle".
- Final Fantasy XII: Vegnagun's controls are a massive keyboard.
- King's Quest IV: Rosella plays a certain tune on the haunted house's pipe organ to get the key to the burial vault.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- The lost city of Tinnabula from the two-part Tale Spin episode "For Whom the Bell Klangs".
- A Disney Silly Symphonies short "Music Land" involved a war between anthropomorphic violins and horns, playing their music as weapons.
- There's an episode of Batman The Animated Series which involves playing the beginning of "Ode To Joy" to unlock the secret room.
- The girl's voice in Rock and Rule was significant to help Mok with his summoning spell.
- Popular Fanon has Vinyl Scratch build and use a "bass cannon", a huge set of speakers that fire a Wave Motion Gun-like beam of pure dubstep. It's apparently quite effective, as it was able to defeat Discord with one blast in "Epic Wub Time"
, a non-canon fan animation.
Real Life
- While not strictly musical, the principle behind acoustic refrigeration relies on resonating sound. The effect is something close to a real-life version of Maxwell's theoretical demon.
- The Zeusaphone is essentially a Tesla coil that shoots lightning, tuned in such a way as to produce musical notes.
