A computer wiz looks into the record that was being played while famous radio DJ John "The Hawk" Hawkins supposedly committed suicide in 1958 by shooting himself on-air, and finds footsteps playing in the background of the music, meaning someone else was in the booth when he died. The detectives then look further into his death and whether or not it was really suicide.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – History:
- Little Richard is featured in one of Hawk's rock-and-roll dances. However, Little Richard quit rock music in 1957 to become a gospel singer.
- Wolfman Jack is mentioned to be a popular DJ. However, he did not start his DJ career until 1960.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Zigzagged. While Dottie is arrested for killing Hawk, she already got what she wanted in keeping Jenny away from the music industry and her biological father. However, it ultimately didn't make her feel any better as she remained emotionally scarred by her past; Dottie is shown to be distraught after shooting Hawk and troubled when she confesses, suggesting she regretted her actions deep down.
- Bittersweet Ending: Jenny, who lost her chance at a music career and a relationship with her father due to Hawk's murder, and will now lose her mother too, is seen playing the piano with her father's ghost in the ending.
- Broken Record: The song Hawk put on repeating on the radio told listeners that something was wrong. Sure enough, when his co-workers investigated, they found him lying dead with his head on the equipment, making the record skip.
- The Cynic: Deconstructed with Dottie, who firmly believes that "passion is for fools" and dreams only lead to heartbreak since her father's suicide. This motivated her to kill Hawk when he decided to help Jenny pursue a singing career despite her protests.
- Daddy's Girl: Hawk wrote "Scarlet Rose" for his daughter Jenny when she was little. He left because Dottie told him that his dreams of music stardom would only hurt her. Upon reuniting with Jenny, a now successful Hawk plans to take her on the road with him and help her launch a singing career.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Dottie’s father was a musician trying to make it big instead of getting a steady job to provide for her, so she grew up in poverty. Then one day, Dottie found her father hanging from a noose in his motel room.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Dottie is willing to resort to murder to stop her ex-husband from giving their daughter a shot at a singing career, largely due to her own childhood trauma.
- Freudian Excuse: Dottie's father was a musician who refused to give up his dreams to keep his child out of poverty, and was Driven to Suicide when he finally gave up. This cemented Dottie’s belief that musicians and singers were bad parents and selfish people, which drives her to kill Hawk when he plans to take Jenny away from her and help her become a singer.
- High Hopes, Zero Talent: "Bones" has big hopes of becoming a huge rock star, with Hawk having to break it to him he's just not that good. In the present, Bones, now a successful music producer, is happy Hawk made him realize how bad he was and not wasting so many years on a futile quest for fame.
- Honorable Marriage Proposal: A teenage girl told her dad that Hawk got her pregnant, and the dad tried to threaten Hawk to take responsibility. When he’s interviewed again decades later, he reveals that Hawk wasn’t the father, but rather "her idiot boyfriend— now [his] idiot son-in-law".
- Loony Fan: Jenny at first appears to be this, as she is obsessed with Hawk and always trying to get close to him. Subverted as it turns out she’s Gene Hunting — Hawk is her estranged father.
- Moment Killer: Hawk was playing "Scarlet Rose", his daughter's original song, for the first time to the public on his radio station when he was shot, his head falling on the record and causing it to skip over and over until his body was found.
- Posthumous Character: Dottie's father who was a talented but unsuccessful musician. Everyone including Hawk liked him. So it was a shock to hear that he hanged himself in a hotel bathroom.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Hawk is heavily opposed to record companies paying him to play certain songs. Bones, however, accepted the bribes.
- Starving Artist: Dottie grew up poor and unhappy because her father could not make it big as a musician. And since he refused to pursue anything else, he could not make a decent living for his daughter.
