Unclear description, possible split: BGM Override

I'm kind of confused by what BGM Override is about. I found it while looking for a trope about a show's SFX and dialogue stopping so the rest of the scene plays out with only music. From the last line in the description *

, that's apparently what this trope is about. However, the first part of the trope description doesn't convey that at all. It makes me think the trope's about music that plays for a longer time than normal when something epic happens. (It's also very bloated, what with the "people sliced monsters to this music" bit). Also, the description is too focused on video games, when the "SFX/dialogue are dropped and only music plays" thing is also incredibly common in TV and film.

The name is also kinda weird.

Here's my basic question: Is this trope about the effect where background music is the only sound in a scene, or is it about some other trope and the description is just unclear? Second, if it is the "music only" thing, would anyone mind if I chainsawed the description and rewrote it for clarity? Or should it be split?

Thanks for the all fish!

It's something else.

This is a trope where the music in a particular series of events is overriding the normal music that one would expect for those events. For example, Final Fantasy V has the battle on the Great Bridge, where Gilgamesh's theme music plays during the entire sequence of events, including normal battles, the boss battle, victory cheers, and out of combat exploration, even though all four of those normally have their own, differing themes. I'm not even sure how one would use this trope in something that's NOT a video game, since it depends on making the audience expect a particular track for a particular scene.

Okay. I don't play video games, so I had no idea. So then, rewrite the second paragraph for clarity and remove the part about film and TV, and split that into a new trope?

Thanks for the all fish!

What about someone's personal theme overriding the main theme? Like Lu Bu's theme in Dynasty Warriors its starts up the instant he is encountered and plays till he is defeated or leaves the battle and the normal BGM starts up again.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

That's what this trope is about.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

The description and examples seem to cover where the background music just stays on constantly and doesn't play the Battle Theme Music like Final Fantasy X's Zanarkand and such.

It seems a bit different than a personal theme overriding the BGM while on the field while he is there.

And the alternate description for movies and TV is where just the BGM plays overriding all sound effects and speech which is just barely touched on and those examples seem so small for how common of a thing that is.

Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!

Yeah, I think the film and TV show needs to be split into it's own trope, run through YKTTW and fleshed out. I think the video game thing you're talking about is a close enough variation to count because that sort of game doesn't tend to have stages as such so whenever he's there is about the same thing. And it does say personal themes count.

Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick

It's basically about the same thing, so i'd say it counts. There are some many ways to skew with how you use music in anything but pure musical performances (and even then), so in general it's the same idea of "playing with the music" by overriding the rules of which BGM plays when (the somewhat confusing "Trombe Override" example is a perfect example of the same type of trickery at work in a different form, but not widespread enough to require it's own trope).

Splitting away the TV/Movies section sounds like a good idea though.

Super Robot Wars probably has the clearest examples of this in action.

Edit: That entry was kinda bad, I rewrote it, it should be clearer now. Also now its not longer wrong, since OG 1 predates @2 anyway.

edited 22nd May '11 5:53:38 PM by SakurazakiSetsuna

Does anything else need to be done with this thread?

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I'm fine with killing it; the description was changed around a bit months ago, and the name's fine for what the trope is.

Thanks for the all fish!