Fan Music

It's not always this literal.

While Fan Art and Fanfiction are what first come to mind when discussing Fan Works, those are far from the only media that fans create. Fan music is the audio equivalent, being a piece of music created by fans of a work. This can take the form of fitting original lyrics onto an existing melody or creating a song and tune whole-cloth relating to a work of fiction.

Fan music is a common subject of Fanvids and remixes, as their lyrics already relate to the subject in question and are often heavily evocative of specific scenes fro the work.

Super-trope to:

• Filk Song: Fan songs of the science-fiction fandom that are heavily influenced by folk music, and which were the first type of fan song to gain an audience outside of their creator's immediate social circles.
• Heavy Mithril: Fan songs of the Heavy Metal genre that are focused on fantasy.
• Nerdcore: Hip-hop fan songs, which often emphasize the social aspects of fandom as well as the topics of the fandom itself.

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Examples (sorted by parent work):

Anime & Manga

Banana Fish

• "Asrun Dream" by GACKT is a rare example of a fan song by a major mainstream artist, told from the viewpoint of Ash.

Death Note

• Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv) featured several Death Note-themed songs. "It's a Dead World After All," "Call Me Mogi", and and this one set to "Pure Imagination."
• Machinae Supremacy's song "Shinigami" is about Ryuk and Light.
• Rachel Macwhirter's Watch Out, You're Being Watched is about someone who sees the people being killed by the Death Note and knows that they'll soon be next.
• virtualzelly and Marcinda's have done several:
  • The song "Dead Matt Chorus" is a humorous song intended to take the edge off the events of Episode 35/the beginning of Volume 12, to the tune of the Bad Horse Chorus.
  • "The Omega Kawaii L Song", based on The Omega Kawaii Cloud Song. Contains spoilers for the whole series.
• Zangya's "I Killed A Guy and I Liked It" is a Death Note-themed parody of the Kate Perry song "I Kiss A Girl and I Liked It".
• Divide Music's Light, which is written from the point of view of the titular character and plays on the literal meaning of his name as he paints himself as the savior of a benighted world.

Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

• Vic Mignogna, the English voice of Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist, did a song named "Nothing I Won't Give" about the 2003 anime that is in Edward's POV.

Gundam

• Rapper Richie Branson released a Mobile Suit Gundam Wing-themed EP, The Wing Zero.

K-On!

• Raccoon Factory's "Kimi ga Kureta Yume", an original song written as a tribute to the Takotsuboya K-ON Trilogy. It covers the first two volumes of the trilogy, with a later released song, "Day alternates with night", covering the last part.

Naruto

• Eddie Rath has many Naruto raps and songs, such as "Gaara the Sand Assassin", "Tsunade", "Prince of the Crows" (Itachi), and "The King of Sharingan" (Sasuke).

Comic Books

DC Comics

• Coheed and Cambria's ong "Deranged" is about The Joker.
• Five For Fighting's song "Superman (It's Not Easy)" is about how, despite all his incredible powers, Superman has flaws and private grief over the loss of his home.
• XTC has several songs about DC Comics characters. "You're Really Super, Supergirl", "Braniac's Daughter" and "Sergeant Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" are three.
• Filker Batya the Toon has a rap song, "Creatures of Dream", about The Sandman (1989).

Marvel Comics

• Mark Foster's song "Spiderman" is a Badass Boast about, well, Spider-Man.
• Megadeth's title track on their debut album "Killing is My Business... and Business is Good" is influenced by The Punisher, and the second half of "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due" from Rust in Peace is about Frank Castle himself.
• The Merkins's "Snap My Fingers" is Thanos rapping about his Badass Fingersnap to the tune of "Snap Yo Fingers".
• Odyssey's "Metal Man" is about Iron Man, the titular 'Metal Man' being him in his armor flying through the sky to save the day.
• Paul McCartney's "Magneto & Titanium Man" is about the singer finding out from Magneto, Titanium Man, and the Crimson Dynamo that the woman he loves is a banknrobber. Stan Lee, who created all three characters, said that he loved the song.
• Joe D. Toaster's "Spiderboy" is about Spider-Man (specially the period where he was wearing the black symbiote costume).
• Brazilian musician Jorge Vercilo's "Homem-Aranha" is about, well, Spider-Man who saves his love interest from a bad guy, and later, after he retires, has to deal with daily chores, like monthly debts, adjusting the TV antenna, and staying up all night to rock his child.

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck

• Tuomas Holopainen composed a concept album based on The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck released in April 2014. Don Rosa himself did the album art.

Spawn

• Iced Earth's album The Dark Saga is a concept album that tells the story of Spawn.

Film — Live-Action

2001: A Space Odyssey

• Star One's "Starchild" is about humanity reaching its next stage of evolution (the 'starchild' that Dave became at the end of the movie) due to the monolith.

Alien

• Star One's "Perfect Survivor" is a retelling of the plot of the first movie, with the titular 'perfect survivor' being the xenomorph itself.

Austin Powers

• Ludacris has "Number One Spot," which is mostly about the Austin Powers movies. It even samples the theme song.

Braveheart

• Iron Maiden's song "The Clansman" is based on the film.

The Bride Wore Black

• Kate Bush's song "The Wedding List" is about the bride's quest for vengeance for the death of her husband.

Children of the Damned

• Iron Maiden's song "Children of the Damned" is about the Creepy Children featured in the film, with the song treating them with a mixture of fear and pity.

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

• Dire Peril's "Heart of the Furyan" is a metal song about Riddick returning to Furya and getting vengeance on Lord Marshal.

Conan the Barbarian

• Manilla Road's song "Queen of the Black Coast" is a tribute to the Conan short story of the same name.

Dark City

• Iced Earth's song "Dark City" is about the movie Dark City and the main character's fight to survive in a dystopian world.

Die Hard

• Guyz Nite wrote a song about Die Hard, that was even included in the fourth movie DVD.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

• Neil Diamond's "Heartlight" was heavily inspired by ET, so much so that he allegedly had to pay $25,000 to Universal.

Falling Down

• Iron Maiden's song "Man On The Edge" is about the main character's Sanity Slippage.

Forbidden Planet

• Iron Maiden's song "Out of the Silent Planet" is about the monsters who destroyed the planet's civilization (which came from the id of the original inhabitants) leaving the planet to destroy everything they see instead of waiting there for the astronauts to find.

Forrest Gump

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Gump" is a parody of The Presidents of the United States of America's "Lump", making it about Forrest Gump and partly retelling the plot of the movie.

Friday the 13th

• The Merkins had many songs performed by slasher villains. Jason Voorhees sung "Every Life I Take" ("Every Breath You Take"), "Momma Said Chop You Now" ("Momma Said Knock You Down"), "Chop Up the Camp" ("Pump Up the Jam"), and "At the Camp Tonight" ("In the Air Tonight"). There was also duet with Freddy Kruger, "More Than Burns".

Godzilla

• Blue Öyster Cult's "Godzilla", all about the Big G going on a rampage.
• MF DOOM (under the pseudonym "King Geedorah") wrote the concept album Take Me to Your Leader about Godzilla's Arch-Enemy King Ghidorah.

Halloween

• The Merkins featured Michael Myers singing "Careless Sister", a Halloween-based parody of "Careless Whisper" and "Slice Slice Baby" after "Ice Ice Baby".

Hellraiser

• The Merkins had Pinhead singing a version of Alice in Chains' "Man in the Box", which didn't even need to change the title!

Highlander

• Mac Carson's Brother Michael's Song, about an immortal monk who vows to stay on Holy Ground for eternity to prevent the Game from ever being won. Hear it performed by Leslie Fish here.
• There Can Be Only One by Clerics of Ohm is written from Connor's point of view.

Interstellar

• The Secret Chord's "We Used To Look Up in the Sky", the first track of their Homeworld Evacuation Concept Album Fermi Paradox, directly quotes film protagonist Joseph Cooper in its refrain.

James Bond

• Motiv 8 & Kym Mazelle's song Searching For The Golden Eye is based on a certain Bond film, and even uses the 007 theme's chord progression during the verse.

Jurassic Park

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Jurassic Park" is a parody of Richard Harris's "MacArthur Park", with the original's melodrama of a cake melting in the rain instead being about the dinosaurs running wild in the park during a storm.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

• Iron Maiden's song "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" is based on the film and is about the determination of the protagonist.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

• Megadeth's song "Chosen Ones" is about Tim The Enchanter's warning of The Killer Rabbit.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

• The Merkins had a rapping Freddy Krueger in songs like "Dreamers Paradise" and "D.R.E.A.M.". He also had a song alongside Jason Vorhees, Pennywise and others as Killas With Attitude.

Outland

• Star One's song "High Moon" from the album Space Metal (all of the songs of which are based on sci-fi movies) is a retelling of the plot of the movie.

Predator

• Dire Peril's "Yautja (Hunter Culture)" is an extended Badass Boast from one of the Predators to their prey.
• Iron Maiden has the song the Mercenary, which more or less describes the events of the first movie, even going so far to paraphrase a line from it

Quest for Fire

• Iron Maiden's song "Quest For Fire" is a retelling of the plot of the movie, cavemen searching for fire to bring back to their tribe.

Scream

• The Merkins had Ghostface doing phone-themed songs, such as "I Just Called to Say I'll Kill You", "Hotline Scream" and "Hello, Sidney".

Soylent Green

• Wumpscut's Soylent Green is based on the film of the same name, and uses samples from the film's German dub.

Spider-Man

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Ode To a Superhero" is a retelling of the plot of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, set to the tune of Billy Joel's "Piano Man".

Stargate

• StarOne's "The Eye Of Ra" is about Ra building the Stargate to rule over Earth, and his battle with the main cast.

Star Wars

• Dropout turned Jay-Z / Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind" into "Galactic Empire State of Mind".
• Nerdist turned Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" into "All About That Base", told by the point of view of Darth Vader.
• StarOne's "Master Of Darkness" is about Anakin's fall to the Dark Side and his later confrontation with Luke when he tries to convince him to join him.
• Teddie Films parodied Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" into "The Star Wars that I Used to Know", sung by Anakin and George Lucas about the prequels and the special edition changes (which the comments point out as Hilarious in Hindsight, as four months after the video came out Disney got the rights to the franchise, and most of what they issued the following decade was just as disillusioning for fans).
• Voltaire the song "Cantina" on Ookie Spooky. (Warning: This is a filthy song. You'll never see Star Wars the same way again.)
• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Saga Begins" is an outline of the plot of Star Wars Episode I and set to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie", and "Yoda" outlines part of the plot of Star Wars Episode V and is the tune of The Kinks's "Lola".

The Room (2003)

• Jobby the Hong, of all people, made "Red Dress", as a form of tribute for the movie itself. He has used the instrumental version of this song at every end of his review videos.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

• Finishing off The Merkins, true to being from the Deep South Leatherface only sings country songs, like turning "Achy Breaky Heart" into "Sawin' You Apart". He's also part of the "Slasherstreet Boys" that specifically parody that boy band alongside Freddy, Jason, and Ghostface ("Slashing Bodies","I'll Kill You That Way", "Die By My Knife" and ""Keep Slayin' Teens in the Dark".

The Thing (1982)

• Dire Peril's "Blood In the Ice" is a metal song about the Thing hunting down the humans at Outpost #31 one by one and their attempts to fight back.

V for Vendetta

• Iced Earth's song "V" is about the titular V and his fight to free society from the oppressive regime that dominated it.

Wet Hot American Summer

• Roger Ebert wrote his one-star review of Wet Hot American Summer as a parody of "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" by Allan Sherman ("I stole from him, and he from Ponchielli").

When Worlds Collide

• Iron Maiden's song "When Two Worlds Collide" the angst of the few who manage to escape Earth's destruction in the movie but lose everything.

Literature

Alice in Wonderland

• Jefferson Airplane's song "White Rabbit" is a re-imagining of Alice's adventures as a drug trip.

Brave New World

• Iron Maiden's song "Brave New World" is inspired by the book, with "a brave new world" being the chorus and the song being from the perspective of John.

A Clockwork Orange

• Argentine punk band Los Violadores had a song, "Uno, dos, ultraviolento" (One, two, ultraviolent), told by Alex's point of view.
• Rob Zombie's "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)" - albeit the Nadsat glossary in the book has the word for blood spelled 'Krovvy' instead - which even has a video homaging the movie.
• Sepultura wrote a Concept Album retelling the story, A-Lex. Former frontman Max Cavalera, who would write a song based on it himself for Cavalera Conspiracy, "Ultra-Violent", said he didn't understand their choice of inspiration, claiming they didn't like the movie.

The Cornelius Chronicles

• Hawkwind also did the song "Needle Gun" about Jerry Cornelius.

Crash

• The Normal's "T.V.O.D.", and its more famous B-Side, "Warm Leatherette", were both inspired by the JG Ballard novel Crash.

Cthulhu Mythos

• Eben Brooks's "Hey There Cthulhu" is a parody of Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah", with the lyrics now about a cultist praising Cthulhu.
• Terence Chua specializes in Cthulhu filk.
• Many of the songs by the group The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets are about H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos stories.
• The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society have done:
  • A Very Scary Solstice and An Even Scarier Solstice, two albums of reworked Christmas carols. This includes such classics as "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Fishmen" and "Carol of the Old Ones".
  • The stage musical A Shoggoth on the Roof, based on and using the music from Fiddler on the Roof.
• Michael Kelly (among others) has turned Dolly Parton's song "Jolene" into a despairing lament about a Lovecraftian Humanoid Abomination.
• Metallica have a few songs on Lovecraftian horrors. "The Thing That Should Not Be" and "Dream No More" (plus the instrumental "Call of Ktulu") are about Cthulhu himself, while "All Nightmare Long" tells about the Hounds of Tindalos.
• Nox Arcana's instrumental album Necronomicon is inspired by the stories of Lovecraft, with the song titles often referencing specific ones.
• An internet-denizen going by the name "Captain Video" realized that Lovecraft's poem Nemesis could be sung to the tune of Billy Joel's song "Piano Man", and singer Julian Velard went and recorded it.

The Divine Comedy

• Sepultura's Dante XXI (noticed the name?) is a Concept Album retelling of The Divine Comedy.

Dune

• Iron Maiden's song "To Tame a Land" is a Badass Boast about Muad'Dib and his journey to becoming a messiah to the Fremen.
• Star One's "Sandrider" is from the perspective of Paul, using his visions of the future to lead the Fremen and avenge his father's death.

The Elric Saga

• Blue Öyster Cult did the song "Black Blade" about Elric of Melnibone.
• Hawkwind did an entire album about Elric, The Chronicle of the Black Sword. Notably, writer Michael Moorcock was directly involved with both Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult, even occasionally performing with Hawkwind.

The Grapes of Wrath

• Woody Guthrie's "Tom Joad, Part 1 & 2" from Dust Bowl Ballads basically tell the plot of The Grapes of Wrath.

Ghost Roads

• Seanan McGuire has written filk songs about her own works, most notably Ghost Roads, for which she's written no fewer than eight songs. She's also written at least three filk songs for the related InCryptid series, which is in the same universe.

Harry Potter

• Wizard Rock is an entire subgenre of fan music specifically about Harry Potter. Your Wizard Rock Resource and Wizrocklopedia are good places to start.
• Hank Green has made quite a few Filk songs such as This Isn't Hogwarts and Accio Deathly Hallows.
• Not Literally, a female duo did several Harry Potter filks, including "Sorted This Way" (a parody of "Born This Way" by Lady Gaga).

Robert A. Heinlein's works

• Spider Robinson, as part of a Robert A. Heinlein tribute essay called "Rah, Rah, R.A.H.", wrote his own filk song, "Ol' Man Heinlein" (to the tune of "Ol' Man River" by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein). It can be found in Robinson's anthology Time Travelers Strictly Cash.

Honor Harrington

• Echo's Children was a filk band from Portland, Oregon. They were perhaps best known for their Honor Harrington filk songs No Quarter, Riding a Tiger, and Fair Was the Blossom, which were featured on CDs that accompanied the sale of Honor Harrington hardcover books in the 1990s and 2000s.

The Hunger Games

• Not Literally's "Honor District Twelve" is a Hunger Games-themed parody of "Honor to Us All" from Mulan.

Johnny Got His Gun

• Metallica's song "One" is about Joe as he begs to be put out of his misery, which he is unable to communicate to anyone.

The Little Match Girl

• The Cruxshadows' "Matchstick Girl" is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl.

The Lord of the Rings

• Adele McAllister has a wonderful album of Tolkien poems set to music. Also this song.
• Frequent with Blind Guardian, including the indicatively named "Lord of the Rings". Midnight at Middle-Earth is downright The Silmarillion as a Concept Album.
• The choral group Clamavi de Profundis got their start putting J. R. R. Tolkien's poetry to music, going viral for their rendition of "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" from The Hobbit.
• Tom Holt wrote the filk song "Numenorian", a The Lord of the Rings Patter Song.
• Lay of Leithian is a rock opera adaptation of of the tale of Beren and Lúthien.
• Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" is an example of original filk (though it wasn't written by Nimoy himself; he just sang it — don't ask why).
• Rush has several songs based on Tolkien ("Rivendell" and "The Necromancer").
• Donald Swann (of Flanders and Swann) solo published The Road Goes Ever On: A Song Cycle, composing original music for several of the poems in The Lord of the Rings.

Mike Hammer

• John Zorn's Concept Album Spillane is built around the novels of Mickey Spillane, in paticular Mike Hammer.

Moby-Dick

• Ahab are a German funeral doom metal band who write about and sometimes directly take lyrics from Moby-Dick.
• Mastodon's most popular and arguably best album, Leviathan, is based entirely upon Moby-Dick.

The Moomins

• Information Society's "The Mymble's Daughter" is an ode to the character of the same name from the Moomin book series.

The Phantom of the Opera

• Iron Maiden's song "Phantom of the Opera" is from the perspective of someone both fascinated and frightened by the Phantom.

Perfume

• Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice" is about Jean, the main character, as Perfume was Kurt Cobain's favorite book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

• Pagan Altar's song "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" is about the evil contained by the titular portrait, and what might happen if it were released.

Edgar Allan Poe's works

• The Alan Parsons Project's Tales of Mystery and Imagination is a concept album about Edgar Allan Poe's stories.

Alexander Pushkin's works

• In Strict Confidence's "Morpheus" is based on the poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, and even has Russian lyrics for its chorus, despite the band being German.

Red Shirts

• Jonathan Coulton wrote Red Shirts based on the novel. The song is about an episode of the Show Within a Show that has background characters killed for dramatic effect while leaving the ship's bridge crew (mostly) alone.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

• Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" summarizes Coleridge's poem as a 14-minute song.

The Sentinel

• "Space Odyssey" by The Byrds, which takes the plot of Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel" and sets it to a sea shanty-type tune, with a futuristic Moog synthesizer as the main instrument. (Despite the title, it came out before 2001: A Space Odyssey).

A Series of Unfortunate Events

• The Gothic Archies have a whole album, almost, on the subject of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It helps that Daniel Handler is a friend of Stephin Merritt and sometime member of The Magnetic Fields.

A Song of Ice and Fire

• The Sword has "To Take the Black", referring to the act of joining the Night's Watch.

Ulysses

• Kate Bush's song "Out Of the Sensual World" is about Molly Bloom, and almost directly (Bush wasn't able to get permission from the Joyce estate to use the original text) quotes her ending monologue about the joy and pleasure of life.
• Jefferson Airplane's song "Rejoyce" is mostly about Leopold, but touches on several other aspects of the book (Molly's affair and Joyce's Author Avatar Stephen Dedalus).

William's Doll

• "William's Doll" from the 1972 children's album Free to Be, You and Me is based on a book of the same name by Charlotte Zolotow.

Wuthering Heights

• Kate Bush's song "Wuthering Heights" is from the perspective of Cathy asking for Heathcliff to let her into his house (with several hints that it's after she dies), and directly quotes the book at several points.

Live-Action TV

24

• 24: The Musical is an Affectionate Parody fan-made musical adapting season 2 of 24, with the songs mocking the more ridicous plot points.

The Andy Griffith Show

• Country act Rascal Flatts does an ode to The Andy Griffith Show called "Mayberry".

Babylon 5

• Tom Smith's parody of the Barenaked Ladies's song "One Week" about Babylon 5, "Five Years".

Blake's 7

• Space One's song "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" is about Blake assembling his crew and their determination to fight back against the Federation, despite the hardships.

Boardwalk Empire

• Erik Weiner (aka Agent Sebso)'s song "Boardwalk Empire State of Mind" samples from the show's theme song and the chorus takes off Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind".

The Brady Bunch

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "The Brady Bunch" is the lyrics to the theme song of the show of the same name set to the tune of "The Safety Dance".

Coronation Street

• Dan La Rocque and Parksville Rancher did a country song called The Ballad of Les Battersby.

Dallas

• The Barron Knights' "We Know Who Done It (Part 1)" narrates the plot of the Dallas episode "Who Shot J.R.?" to the tune of Gary Numan's "Cars".

Dexter

• David Draiman, lyricist of Disturbed has confirmed that the Asylum b-side "Old Friend" is about Dexter.

Doctor Who

• John Barrowman, who's a singer as well as an actor, sometimes closes his concerts with a version of Wicked's "The Wizard And I": "The Doctor And I", sung from Captain Jack's POV.
• The British "Time Lord Rock" band Chameleon Circuit focuses on "Doctor Who"-themed music, but performs gigs outside of the usual filk venues.
• Early works by The KLF include the novelty song "Doctorin' The TARDIS" under the pseudonym The Timelords.
• The Ken Spivey Band: "A Celtic Gallifreyan Band." The band performs Doctor Who inspired music, mostly at cons. Spivey also organizes Time Lord Con and is a Joss Whedon fan.
• No guesses for what Pagan Altar's song "The Time Lord" is about.

Firefly

• Eben Brooks's "It's the End of the 'Verse as We Know It" is a parody of Music/REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It", with the lyrics now about the plot of the show.
• Vixy and Tony are best known for the Firefly filk "Mal's Song", which puts lyrics to the show's main theme.

Fringe

• The Fringemunks, a parody of Alvin and the Chipmunks by Seattle-area musician David Wu. They are known for recapping all 100 episodes of sci-fi series Fringe with song parodies. Several of these parodies are punny, such as Epis. 1.06: The Cure, which parodies "Friday I'm In Love").

Game of Thrones

• Beige Lunatics made a tribute album An Album of Songs about Game of Thrones.
• Nathan Cox's "Black and Yellow: Baratheon Edition" is an homage to the Baratheon brothers.
• melosheep made a series of songs remixing lines from the series and setting them music in order to create songs that summarize the first 4 seasons. "The Dragon's Daughter" is season 1 (Jon joining the Night's Watch, Dany beginning her campaign against slavery, the start of the War of the Five Kings), "Save Our Sons" is season 2 (Jon meeting Ygritte beyond the Wall, Theon takes Winterfell, and the Battle of the Blackwater), "The Son of Fire" is season 3 (Stannis is told of Melisandre's prophecy, Joffery revels in being king, Robb pursues vengance for his father), and "Show Them to Freedom" is season 4 (Dany campaigns against slavery and solidifies herself as queen in exile, the Night's Watch defends Castle Black).
• Not Literally's "A Character I Used to Know" is a parody of "Somebody I Used To Know" about the sheer amount of characters who got killed off in the first season of Game of Thrones.
• "Bells" and "Blood and Snow" by [1] are both inspired by Game of Thrones.
• "Only Us" by Miracle of Sound is about the Lannister twins.
• Unsurprisingly, the lyrics of the power metal band Seven Kingdoms are mostly about the events of A Song of Ice and Fire.

Lost

• The Fringemunks turned "Karma Chameleon" into "Dharma Initiative."

MacGyver (1985)

• Kiko Machine released a self-titled album where a handful of its songs are homages to several classic shows that aired on Philippine TV in The '80s and The '90s. On it, "McGyver" (deliberately misspelled on the CD label) is a tribute to MacGyver (1985).

The Mandalorian

• The Merkins's "Green Child O'Mine" had The Mandalorian serenading Grogu with some Guns N' Roses.

Perry Mason

• Ozzy Osbourne's "Perry Mason", which according to producer Michael Beinhorn, was the result of Ozzy seeking something to write about before settling on "his favorite syndicated show to fall asleep watching in the middle of the day."

The Prisoner

• Iron Maiden did two songs based on the show, "The Prisoner" (which downright samples the opening spiel) and "Back to the Village".

Sex Education

• Pale Waves' "So Sick (Of Missing You)" is, according to the band's lead singer Heather Baron-Gracie, about the relationship between the show's main characters Maeve and Otis.

Star Trek

• Eric Bogle's song called "Beam Me Up, Scotty!"
• The Firm's "Star Trekkin" is an Affectionate Parody of the Star Trek: The Original Series, and is the originator of the phrase "It's life, but not as we know it" (which has subsequently been mistaken by many as a line from the actual show).
• Leslie Fish's "Banned From Argo," an original song (and the old Trope Namer for what is now Persona Non Grata; see the lyrics here) describing what happened when the the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise went on shore leave on the planet of Argo, and the swath of destruction they left in their wake.
• Actor Robert Picardo has written a fair number of songs about Star Trek: Voyager — which makes sense given that he was part of the main cast.
• Most of the production of the now-defunct band S.P.O.C.K., if not all of it. Songs include Never Trust a Klingon, Neutral Zone, and Beam Me Up. In fact, it seems to have been the main point of the band.
  • Other Star Trek-themed bands include Warp Eleven, whose lyrics tend to be irreverent and raunchy, and Five Year Mission, who have written a song for almost every episode of the original series and provided music for the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind.
• Space One's song "Songs of the Ocean" is about Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, with the 'songs of the ocean' being the whale songs that the probe is seeking.
• Voltaire has the entire album Banned on Vulcan, which has four tracks: "Worf's Revenge (Klingon Rap)" (a Gangsta Rap-esque song about Worf),"The U.S.S. Make Shit Up" (mocks the series's use of technobabble), "The Sexy Data Tango" (a song about Data being... 'fully functional and anatomically correct'), and "Screw the Ocampa! (I Wanna Go Home)" (about the crew of Voyager being sick of the Delta Quadrant).

Takeshi's Castle

• Kiko Machine released a self-titled album where a handful of its songs are homages to several classic shows that aired on Philippine TV in The '80s and The '90s. On it, "Takeshi" is a tribute to Takeshi's Castle.

The Twilight Zone (1959)

• The Manhattan Transfer's "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone".

Twin Peaks

• Bastille's "Laura Palmer" is about the death of the small-town prom queen that kicks off the events of the show.

Xena: Warrior Princess

• Kevin Wald's filk song "I am the very model of a heroine barbarian!" is a Badass Boast by Xena to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan's "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General".

Mythology & Religion

Arthurian Legend

• Heather Dale is a Canadian musician who is well-known in the Canadian Society for Creative Anachronism and Renaissance Fair community. She is especially known for her songs based in Arthurian legend, with Mordred's Lullaby in particular becoming very famous. In 2015 a musical based on these works, Queens of Avalon, was funded and created via Indiegogo.

Norse Mythology

• Der Ring Des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) by Richard Wagner, which is a series of four interconnected operas drawing on Norse Myth to tell an interconnected story. It's considered to be one of the most thematically and musically complex operas existing.
• Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok by Sassafrass is a concept album based on the Norse myths concerning the creation and destruction of the world.

Tabletop Games

BattleTech

• "Bred for War" by Dismember is about BattleTech.

Paranoia

• "The Computer is Your Friend" by Captain Ambivalent.

Toys

Tamagotchi

• Daze's "Together Forever (The Cyber Pet Song)", in which the singer assumes the role of a Tamagotchi virtual pet.

Transformers

• Radio Free Cybertron has aired several of Túrin's Transformers Song Parodies.

Theatre

Lady in the Dark

• The obscure Cole Porter song, "Make A Date With A Great Psychoanalyst," summarizes the plot of Lady in the Dark in its verse.

Madame Butterfly

• "Madame Butterfly" by Malcolm McLaren is, needless to say, based on the Puccini opera of the same name.
• Weezer's Pinkerton is a Concept Album about Madame Butterfly.

Video Games

Blaseball

• the garages have many songs about Blaseball.

Dark Souls

• Atmospheric black metal/noise act The Real Housewives of Gomorrah bring us "Gwyn, How Your Sunlight Has Turned to Cinder", based on the final boss of Dark Souls.

Detroit: Become Human

• Wormhole's song "rA9/myth" is based off of Detroit: Become Human.

Gears of War

• Body Count's Gears of War is about the series of games of the same name.

God of War

• "Even Gods Cry" by The Turtlenecks, written from Kratos' point of view. It seems rather out of place on an album mostly populated with grunge-metal tributes, although it's clear from the lyrics that it's at least somewhat parodic.

The Great Giana Sisters

• mind.in.a.box's "8 Bits" is a song about Giana, sung with a computerized voice, and how she "wants a life beyond emulation".

Hollow Knight

• The Russian duo Lazy Moonkin perform Hollow Knight filk music, including a fleshed-out version of Myla the miner's Musical Chores song.

Jet Set Willy

• Intermittent Explosive Disorder's "How To Play With Your Willy", is, Double Entendre aside, is all about the game.

The Legend of Zelda

• Joe Pleiman's "Legend of Zelda" is a tribute to the first few games (the Master Sword doesn't shoot beams in most post-Ocarina of Time games).

Mega Man

• The Megas's songs are almost all adaptations of instrumental songs from the Mega Man games, with lyrics added to explore the thoughts and feelings of the characters and to expand on the (sometimes thin) narrative of the first few games.
• The Protomen, a heavy metal-industrial-country band from Nashville, whose song catalog is based around a Rock Opera adaptation of Mega Man (Classic).

Metroid

• "SR388" by the American Metal band Klaymore is a tribute to Metroid II: Return of Samus.
• Wormhole bases much of their lyrical content off of the Metroid series.

The Outer Worlds

• The Stupendium's song "The Fine Print" is about how much it sucks to live under the hyper-capitalist society The Outer Worlds takes place in.

Team Fortress 2

• Hannah M.'s "Human Shield", written from Heavy's point of view, is about his affection for Medic, in a way that could be interpreted as either Heterosexual Life-Partners, or an outright declaration of love.

Touhou Project

• IOSYS:
  • Their interpretations of Alice Margatroid's various stage and boss themes, which explore her feelings for Marisa Kirisame.
  • "Kire Kire Mayoi" (a parody of "Hare Hare Yukai" from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya).
  • "Laser Mari Fantasy" (a parody of "Pegasus Fantasy" from Saint Seiya).
  • "Love-Colored Damage Report" (a parody of "Sketch Switch" from Hidamari Sketch).
  • "New Attack Resurrection" (a parody of "only my railgun" from A Certain Scientific Railgun).
• Silver Forest has a song called "Kaze no Uta", which is a blatant parody to Tori no Uta, especially at the beginning and ending of the song, and even includes a part where the original song being parodied is sung.
• There are a couple of fanbands which do metal arrangements of Touhou Project music; one of the more well-known ones is Unlucky Morpheus.

World of Warcraft

• Oxhorn Brand Movies is a WOW Machinima maker that does a lot of original music and whose album Oxhorn's Christmas for Geeks, is a compilation of his WOW fan songs and skits.
• Stone Falcon's The Ballad of the Noob, with acompanying Machinima, about a Level 1 noob in World of Warcraft that takes on a Level 60 character.

Zero Wing

• Big Zig & The Cats set the famous "All Your Base are Belong To Us" intro text to the tune of Edward Elgar's "Pomp & Circumstance No. 1".

Web Animation

RWBY

• The Gypsy Caravan's "Answer To Me", a song for the resident good dad Taiyang Xiao Long. It's a Badass Boast in hard rock form where he sings about how protective of his kids he is and what he'll do to those who harm them.

Webcomics

Achewood

• "Here Comes a Special Boy" by Freezepop is all about Philippe.

Narbonic

• Seanan McGuire's songs "Oh Helen" and "Time Travel Girl" are about Dave and Helen's relationship.

Homestuck

• Broadwaystuck is album by a group of fans by the same name which covered various pop songs with lyrics rewritten to related to Homestuck characters. The most well-known of these is "Karkalicious", based off of "Fergalicious" by Fergie.
• Kylee Henke's "You Can't Fight the Homestuck" is based on "We Didn't Start the Fire" and does an impressive job of listing off the many, many bizarre and often incomprehensible-out-of-context plot threads in the comic.
• Unofficial MSPA Fans are a group of fans who have released numerous full albums of fan music based on Homestuck. These range from the Land of Fans and Music albums (which are mostly remixes or original instrumental compositions that heavily sample official songs) to SBURB OST (a soundtrack for the in-story videogame SBURB).

Western Animation

The Flintstones

• "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Bedrock Anthem" is a style parody of Red Hot Chili Peppers about his desire to live like The Flintstones family does and playfully mocks the ridiculousness of the cartoon as he hypes up how great it is to live in Bedrock.

Hazbin Hotel

• "ADDICT" is an electropop song by Silva Hound and sung by Michael Kovach, the voice of Angel Dust, and Kelly "Chi-Chi" Boyer, the singing voice of Cherri Bomb. It is a duet between Angel and Cherri and how they cope with the cruel world around them with drugs, sex, and mayhem.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

• "Alternate Realities" is an original song and music video about what Equestria would be like if the other members of the Mane 6 were princesses.
• SlyphStorm:
  • "Pegasus Device" is one of these for the sequel to AuroraDawn's Rainbow Factory fanfic, itself based on the WoodenToaster song of the same name, making it a Recursive Adaptation of sorts.
  • "Castle of Shadows" is a filk of the MLP: FiM episode Castle Mane-ia using the tune of "Bloody Tears" from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.
• BeatleBrony, as their name implies, recorded ponified versions of Beatles songs.

Steven Universe

• Jakeneutron's Fan Music ''Only One Way'' takes place in Steven's Nightmare, an AU where Steven shatters White Diamond and becomes a Fallen Hero. The song itself is an antithesis to Change, a song about Spinel can change for the better. "One Way Out" is Steven's Motive Rant justifying his downward spiral leading him to change for the worse, and shatter the Diamonds before going on a rampage which destroys Homeworld. When Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl find Steven and hoping to bring him him and help him, Steven decides he'll destroy the Crystal Gems if they oppose him too.

When the Wind Blows

• Iron Maiden's "When the Wild Wind Blows" is a retelling of this animation's story, albeit with a different ending as there is no nuclear war.

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