Anyone with a basic knowledge of physics knows
how sound waves work
. Anyone who's been up close to the stage of a rock concert can tell how well they work when it gets loud.
This, though, is that feeling taken
beyond what's possible in real lifenote but if the fictional setting allows for it than Beyond The Impossible doesn't apply. A sound or series of sounds, if sufficiently loud, will push someone or something around as would the wind of a hurricane or tornado, well beyond what would happen in the
Real Life. This trope is almost always
played for laughs.
Note, however, that this doesn't cover sounds that are genuinely that loud, like a rocket launch, nor does it cover giant monsters like
Godzilla or
King Kong roaring in someone's face, where their breath would come into play.
Contrast this to
Brown Note and
Loud of War, where the sound has a purely psychological effect on the target, as opposed to the physical effect of
Gale Force Sound. See also
Glass Shattering Sound, where the effect is limited to glass.
Make Me Wanna Shout has a similar effect, but only caused by a person's voice.
Examples:
Advertising
Film
- Near the beginning of the first Back to the Future, Marty hooks up an electric guitar to a ludicrously huge speaker. He plays a single chord and is physically hurled backwards by the sound (the speaker is destroyed in the process).
- This gets referenced in the Michael Jackson video for "Black or White", where a child played by Macaulay Culkin destroys his father's sound system in the Cold Open.
- Kung Fu Hustle features the Harpists, two villains who fight their opponents by playing a guqin (Chinese zither) that makes sounds loud enough to knock people down. This is easily topped by the Landlady's "Lion's Roar" technique, which shakes buildings and cracks stone columns. When this fails to affect the Beast, the Big Bad of the story, her husband helps her rip the top off a funeral bell and holds it up for her to use as a megaphone. The result is a sonic tornado that reduces the room to splinters, with the Beast becoming a rapidfire participant in Oh Crap and Blown Across the Room. This does hurt the Beast, and when she moves in to give him a second dose, he promptly surrenders. NOT.
- Near the end of the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Mike and Don send Shredder flying by turning the speaker he's standing in front of at maximum and hitting a chord.
- In Cheech And Chongs Next Movie, Cheech has a devil of a time getting inside his own home when Chong's playing a solo. Chong's playing also blows playing cards away, causes dogs to cover their ears, and makes neighbors take cover.
Literature
- The Celestial breed of dragons in the Temeraire series have a ability called the "divine wind": a roar so powerful that it can sink ships. Described as "not so much sound as force" the first time it occurs onstage.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- In the Teen Titans mini-episode featuring Punk Rocket, Punk Rocket's guitar playing acts like this.
- From Transformers Animated, there's the rock battle between Optimus Prime and Soundwave, in "Human Error, Part 2".
- In Strawberry Shortcake, before Berrykin Bloom started taking lessons his bassoon-playing shook the ground, to the point of knocking people over.
- In the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic episode "Luna Eclipsed," Princess Luna, using the Royal Canterlot Voice, has this effect.
- The Whammer from WordGirl can crash his fists together to create shock waves that topple buildings.
- Family Guy parodied the Maxell ad mentioned above, here.
