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People in Real Life usually don't have music following them everywhere they go. But often people do find they've got some underscoring happening in their life — be it from their car radio as they're driving, a band at a bar, or a street musician outside.
Source Music, also known as diegetic music, is Truth in Television in this regard: it's music that the characters can hear, and that would be playing even if the scene were happening in real life. Of course, the music usually serves a dramatic purpose as well: either it helps establish setting and character, or it comments on the action happening in the foreground.
See also Suspiciously Apropos Music and Left the Background Music On. If Source Music becomes Background Music, that's a Diegetic Switch.
Examples
Anime
- An instrumental version of "Let's Stay Together" plays in one episode of Monster, when Roberto and Eva are dancing. In Another Monster, Eva says that this is one of Tenma's favorite songs.
- Given the realistic nature of the show, all the music in BECK is either played live, on a music player, or played in an Imagine Spot.
- The music in one scene of the Cowboy Bebop episode "Black Dog Serenade" seems to be diegetic, in that the music stops suddenly when the view cuts to Fad turning off a monitor before going to confront the episode's bad guy.
- Macross has diegetic music almost everywhere courtesy of there being at least one character who is an Idol Singer. In general, if the song has lyrics, it's probably diegetic, but the score is generally extra-diegetic.
- Macross Seven was unique in that it had no score, just a guy who really, really, really likes to sing and play the guitar and quite often broadcast it over the entire battlefield. Incidentally, this made all the music of Macross Seven diegetic. Any other instances of music was clearly being played from a radio, such as Sharon Apple's music from Mylene's car radio.
- Macross Frontier toyed with the line several times, such as during the first episode in which Sheryl is giving a concert at the same time as a battle with the Vajra takes place outside the fleet, cutting between the two locations but never stopping the song, but no one seems to be aware of the other. There's no indication the soldiers could hear Sheryl's song, or that anyone at the concert was aware of the battle taking place. Except the Vajra, who we learn much later in the show attacked because they could hear Sheryl's song through fold waves.
- Frontier also gives one of the few cases (possibly the only case in all of Macross) of music with lyrics being used as extra-diegetic: the epilogue of the series has the two lead females talking while the background music is both of them singing the series' main theme song.
Comic Books
- Lampshaded and played straight in WITCH. The recently arrived at Earth, Orube, comments how funny the TV seems to be here, and the one thing that catches her attention most is that people inside the movies always seem to be accompanied by music in some scenes. At the end of the comic she decides to go out and in that same moment her neighbor is playing the piano, she approves of his playing skills and decides that tune to be her personal soundtrack.
Film
- The China Syndrome is notable for having only diegetic music. The soundtrack for the movie was disliked and scrapped. In fact, when 1000 copies of Michael Small's original score was released in 2009, it sold out within 24 hours.
- Laura features multiple scenes at parties and restaurants where live music is playing; all of these are variations on the film's main theme.
- Matt Monro's "From Russia with Love" is heard over the radio in the film with the same name.
- The 2001 short film My Chorus
 ' revolved around this trope: the main character, Ed, is followed around by a barbershop quartet which provides the diagetic music for his life.
- Used twice for comic effect in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. The first time is when John Slade leaves his apartment and is immediately followed down the street by a jazz band waiting outside, playing an instrumental version of the Shaft theme. When he meets up with Jack Spade, who asks who these men are, John remarks that they're "his theme music. Every hero should have some."
- At the end of the film, a pair of rappers and a DJ with a portable turntable arrived to meet Jack after he becomes the big hero. John Slade asks who they are and Jack repeats the line about theme music. They then perform the music that is used for the ending credits.
- Almost all music in The Big Lebowski is revealed to be diegetic at some point. The only exception is the stranger's theme song and the music during the on of the dream sequences. The music in the first is shown to be from the Dude's Walkman.
- Occurs in The Crow when T-Bird pulls up in his car and turns it off, stopping the music as if it had been coming from his car radio.
- The music in 3-Iron often starts up upon the main characters putting a CD in a sound system and hitting the play button. On one occasion the sound system doesn't start so the lead male decides to fix it.
- In Oldboy the main character's phone rings with a digitised version of the song "Cries and Whispers" which plays occasionally in a non-diegetic fashion during the film.
- Almost all the music in Casablanca is played on a piano by the character Sam.
- Quentin Tarantino is a fan of this trope:
- Reservoir Dogs: K-Billy's Super Sounds of the Seventies, specifically when Mr. Blonde tortures the cop while dancing to the radio
- Kill Bill: when Elle Driver is walking through the hospital she whistles a tune; there is a Diegetic Switch.
- Also, with The 5, 6, 7, 8s in the House of Blue Leaves scene.
- In Part 2, when Budd is in his trailer listening to a record.
- Death Proof: Jungle Julia calls a radio station to request a song.
- Any point in Jackie Brown when someone is in their car, a song is likely to be playing on the radio.
- All of the music in Rear Window is ambient sound heard in the courtyard set, and is a major part of a pivotal moment.
- The first and second Spider-Man movies both have scenes where street musicians play the theme song from the old Spider-Man television series. The third features the (insufficiently strong) singing voice of Mary Jane Watson.
- A lot of the music in Rio Bravo is source music, from the playing of Deguello to wear down the besieged to Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson singing and whistling. This was a conscious choice by director Howard Hawks to the overpowering non-diegetic use of the theme tune and song in High Noon. Funnily enough, Dimitri Tiomkin composed the score for both films.
- Apocalypse Now has the infamous scene in which Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries is played during a helicopter raid as a means of "psychological warfare".
- In Iron Man 2, Queen's Another One Bites the Dust is played by a DJ at Tony's request when he and Rhodes fight.
- Then in The Avengers, he overrides the SHIELD jet's PA system to blare entrance music as he swoops in to take on Loki.
- In Three Kings, when one of the soldiers wants to listen to heavy metal music while going into battle. Another soldier criticizes his musical choice and suggest they go into battle with something soothing to calm their nerves and plays an easy-listening song which also provides a little Lyrical Dissonance..
- In American Psycho, Patrick plays Hip To Be Square by Huey Lewis and the News while he he murders Paul with an axe.
Literature
- Invoked by Harry Dresden of The Dresden Files - as he's about to confront a powerful necromancer, he comments that if his life were a movie, dramatic music would start playing, but his life must be really low budget, as all he got was a "radio jingle for some kind of submarine sandwich".
Live-Action TV
- The Bill does this all the time, but it's more pop music than anything plot-specific.
- LOST has employed various strategies to incorporate source music into island scenes. In the first season, it could only be played on Hurley's CD player, until his batteries ran out. In season two, the Losties found a Dharma station full of vinyl records. As a Musical Gag, the source music was often recorded by artists who died in plane crashes, such as Patsy Cline, Glenn Miller, Otis Redding, and Buddy Holly.
- Source music on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was often in the form of bands playing at The Bronze.
- Battlestar Galactica had this in the season finale for season 3, where "All Along The Watchtower" is playing through the Galactica. Turns out that only the four Cylons still on board can hear it, and in the series finale, the song is the key to getting to Earth.
- In the season 1 finale of Supernatural, Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" plays in the Impala while the car is totaled by a semi as Sam is driving Dean and John to the hospital.The music continues to play afterwards, as we get a view of the bloody and unconscious Winchesters, and the demonic driver of the semi. If you listen to the lyrics, they're very ominous.
- The Wire, as a rule, only uses music that the characters are listening to and no other music, with the exception of one musical montage allowed per season.
- In the first season finale for Monty Python's Flying Circus, snippets of Percy Faith's "Theme from A Summer Place" was used during the Intermission title cards.
- Parodied in one episode of Community, which includes diegetic Chirping Crickets during an awkward silence. (Inside the school, during the day.)
VideoGames
Western Animation
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