History Literature / SoulMusic

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** This scene:
--->'''Asphalt:''' 'N elphant sat on me.\\
'''Glod:''' ''[blowing his nose at Asphalt's smell]'' Only sat?
** Also the wizards' blue suede shoes: "Modo says they're crêpe."

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: During one concert a woman can be seen flashing, her breasts clearly on display.

* DeafComposer: Averted, as being deaf doesn't make them unable to hear the music, just the distractions.

* BleakBorderBase: [[AC: DEATH]] goes to one of these when signing up for the Klatchian Foreign Legion.

* LamarckWasRight: Susan has several of [[AC:Death]]'s abilities, such as the ability to become invisible; despite the fact that she is only [[AC:Death]]'s granddaughter by adoption, and some of those abilities shouldn't be inheritable anyway. [[AC:Death]] points out that this is probably the result of MorphicResonance rather than heredity.

** Speaking of the Dean's clothing, there's an incredibly subtle but allegedly deliberate ShoutOut when Death asks to borrow his coat. Or, to put it another way, it's "[[Music/DonMcLean A coat he borrowed from [the] Dean]]". And he 'borrows' it by striding in and informing him [[AC: "[[Film/TheTerminator I need your clothes.]]"]] And the coat itself reads [[Music/BruceSpringsteen Born to Rune]].

** Susan shows an assassin his hourglass and tells him "[[AC: This is your life.]]", which is the title of a biographical TV documentary series.

** Death's declaration [[AC:"I remember everything ... As if it only happened yesterday."]] are the opening lines of Music/JimSteinman's spoken track "Love and Death and an American Guitar" from his album ''Bad For Good'' (which was later repurposed on Music/MeatLoaf's ''Bat Out of Hell II'' as "Wasted Youth").

** The flashback to the Sto Lit couple's death's shows Susan there as well, arriving a few minutes too late to save her parents, only to watch them burn.4

* WeAreNotGoingThroughThatAgain: After she rewatches her parents' death, Susan vows to save Buddy because he's too young to die, and she has the power to save him. [[spoiler:She fails, but death manages to step in]].

* EarWorm: The Music With Rocks In isn't just addictive, it's ''contagious''.[[invoked]]

The 16th ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel, and third in the Death theme: much more a sequel to the first Death book, ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', than the second, ''Discworld/ReaperMan''.

Was made (along with ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'') into an AnimatedAdaptation. The L-space entry is [[http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/soul-music.html here]], and explains the numerous sly references to famous bands and songs. A fan-created expanded version is [[http://wiki.lspace.org/wiki/Book:Soul_Music/Annotations here]] and picks up the slack since the official annotated Pratchett file has not been updated for six years.

Preceded by ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', followed by ''Discworld/InterestingTimes''. Preceded in the Death series by ''Discworld/ReaperMan'', followed by ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}''.

* BusCrash: The death of Mort and Ysabell, the lead characters of ''Discworld/{{Mort}}''. Rather than being a casual way to dispose of a couple of characters, it provides the major emotional underpinning of the story, which is about ''Death actually experiencing bereavement first-hand''. It also shows the amazing amount of character development Death has undergone since we first met him in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''. Some of the interplay between him and Susan as they both work their way through their grief is downright heart wrenching.

** One of the assassins sent to kill Imp and co. says that a troll can be killed by a strike to 'a little spot at the back of the neck'. This is how Rincewind (accidentally) killed a troll in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''. Note that the Assassins' Guild members had no idea how to defeat Detritus when he confronted them in ''Discworld/MenAtArms'', so presumably they'd held a refresher course on troll-killing after that professionally-embarrassing incident.
** When talking about the times a pocket full of decent spells and a well-charged staff got him out of trouble, the Archchancellor mentions "that dragon, you remember" which may refer to the dragon in ''Discworld/GuardsGuards!'', although that would be a bit of a continuity error as Ridcully hadn't come back to Unseen University to be Archchancellor at that point, prior to which he spent the past 40 years in the countryside, and during that book the wizards don't have any part in actually solving the dragon problem.
* CallForward: Dibbler, regaling the Band about the prospects for future tours, mentions the Counterweight Continent as a possibility ("They're talking about discovering it again real soon"). It's a safe bet that Pterry was already planning ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'' when he wrote that line.

** When Susan goes back to Death's house as it was in ''Discworld/{{Mort}}'', she notes that the golden harvest fields around it vanish, as Death created those in ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' between the two books.

** When the Band With Rocks visits Sto Lat as part of their tour, [[spoiler:[[Discworld/{{Mort}} Queen Keli]]]] is briefly referenced.
** While pondering on the meaning of the phrase "kick some righteous ass", [[LiteralMinded Ridcully]] recalls [[Discworld/SmallGods The Most Holy St Bobby]], an Omnian donkey who was made a bishop for carrying a prophet through the desert.

** We see Ponder and Adrian working on the early prototype of what will become the MagicalComputer Hex in the next book, ''Discworld/InterestingTimes''. It uses a small version of the stone circle computers seen in ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' and also ants, as seen in later books ("it may work, if we can get all the bugs into it").
** Cliff and Glod make a brief mention of a Golem called [[Discworld/FeetOfClay Dorfl]]. With an early TitleDrop, too!
** Proposing places to send The Band on future tours, Dibbler lists the Counterweight Continent, saying that "they're talking about discovering it again real soon now". The next book, ''Discworld/InterestingTimes'', is set there.

* MedievalStasis: This is the last book to really use the plot that an alien element threatens to break the Disc's stasis but is then subject to ResetButton. Notably the Patrician mentions it in ''Discworld/TheTruth'' in a rare case of being WrongGenreSavvy.

* NoodleIncident: "The Unfortunate Incident At Dinner" that resulted in the Bursar of [=UU=] being provided wooden eating utensils instead of metal ones. [[spoiler:It's actually a CallBack to ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' when the Bursar witnessed the revived Windle Poons walk past. He was so terrified, ''he bit through his spoon.'' At least we ''assume'' that's it, a lot of strange things happen at Unseen University.]]

** As with ''Discworld/MovingPictures'', an enormous number, particularly band names We're Certainly Dwarfs for Music/TheyMightBeGiants, Insanity for Music/{{Madness}}, Surreptitious Fabric for the Music/VelvetUnderground, The Whom for Music/TheWho, Suck for Music/{{KISS}}, Lead Balloon for Music/LedZeppelin, &U for Music/{{U2}}, and so on. One band in particular goes through about a half dozen of these, and on one occasion a member buys for the group a [[Music/DefLeppard leopard with hearing problems]]... They also miss one of the greatest potential band names of all time, when a member mentions that [[Music/TheRollingStones "a rolling stone gathers no moss"]].

* AdapdationalNiceGuy: A slight, but still noticeable case with Susan. She has most of the same character beats and dialogue, and still has a deadpan, emotionally distant attitude -- but she comes across as a little friendlier and much less haughty and disdainful of others. Partly this has to do with how, in the adaptation, we don't actually get the scornful inner dialogue she provides so much of in the book, but it's partly also because the plot has been streamlined a little and a few of her more {{Jerkass}} moments and dialogue have been cut.

* NecessaryEvil: Mr. Clete is not, in as many words, an evil person. He's just the logical result of having organised guilds everywhere. Without him, the Musician's Guild would just be a bunch of broke musicians who never pay their fees.

[[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the genre of [[Main/{{Soul}} soul music]].

In the second, young Llamedosian musician [[MeaningfulName Imp y Celyn]] comes to Ankh-Morpork to make his fortune and winds up becoming a musical sensation when he inadvertently invents the Discworld's equivalent of Rock & Roll.

* BrawnHilda: The valkyrie.

* BusCrash: The death of Mort and Ysabell, the lead characters of ''Discworld/{{Mort}}''. Rather than being a casual way to dispose of a couple of characters, it provides the major emotional underpinning of the story, which is about ''Death actually experiencing bereavement first-hand''. It also shows the amazing amount of character development Death has undergone since we first met him in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic''. Some of the interplay between him and Susan as they both work their way through their grief is downright heartwrenching.

* DreadfulMusician / GarageBand: Crash, Noddy, Jimbo and Scum and their everchanging band names.

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Glod and Cliff can't see Susan when Buddy can. [[spoiler:They see her in the climax, minutes before they all realize that the band died in the cart crash.]]

** The first version of the studs/sequins on the Dean's leather jacket spell out the misspelt phrase "Live Fats Die Yognu". Written around properly, this becomes [[spoiler: "Live Fast Die Young" -- which is not only an actual trope associated with rock and roll stars, but also ''exactly'' what the Guitar intends to happen to Buddy in order to cement him as the greatest musician in the world]].

* MyLittlePhony: Susan gets a "My Little Binky" toy for her third birthday from her grandfather, modeled after his pale horse, Binky. His parents return it, fearing that it will make her a less "normal" child.

*** Another Blues Bros. Reference is mixed with an ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'' ShoutOut at the diner scene: Glod continually orders "four fried rats," and Cliff is insisting that he would like some coke (as in treated coal). Imp adds a slice of dwarf bread, and eventually throws in "a hard-boiled egg."

** And then there's the Dean's pants, which will not be named after the Archchancellor...

** Also punning on Kirsty [=MacColl=]'s 1981 UK hit single "There's A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Swears He's Elvis"
** Susan is mentioned to have gotted a [[MyLittlePony My Little Binky]] set on her third birthday.

** Scum, one of the members with Crash's band is assigned to get leopardskin trousers. He manages to buy a live leopard, which was cheap, because it has hearing problems.

* GoneHorriblyRight: The school Susan goes to was founding on the belief that gels not having anything to do until they got married could at least spend that time being educated. Turns out giving them fresh air, healthy exercise and a good knowledge of trigonometry makes them especially apt at getting over the very high walls.

** Because a book called ''Soul Music'' ought to have at least one genuine {{Soul}} Music reference, Susan -- as in Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World" -- don't know much about history.

*** Another Blues Bros. Reference is mixed with an ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera'' ShoutOut at the diner scene: Glod continually orders "four fried rats," and Cliff is insisting that he would like some Coke. Imp adds a slice of dwarf bread, and eventually throws in "a hard-boiled egg."

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Spoofed right at the very beginning. There's only one of them in 'ere. But thirty-three percent's not bad.

* EarWorm: The Music With Rock In isn't just addictive, it's ''contagious''.[[invoked]]

* AdaptationDistillation: In terms of handling Susan and Death's grief, the adaptation makes it more blatant that Susan is going through the FiveStagesOfGrief, while writing actual songs that invoke SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic for Buddy. While Susan grieved at the end of the book, in the adaptation she breaks down in the middle when [[spoiler:watching her parents die and death claiming he can't do a thing about it.]]

* NoodleIncident: "The Unfortunate Incident At Dinner" that resulted in the Bursar of [=UU=] being provided wooden eating utensils instead of metal ones. [[spoiler:It's actually a CallBack to ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' when the Bursar witnessed the revived Windle Poons walk past. He was so terrified, ''he bit through his spoon.'']]

%%* ThePowerOfRock: Of course.%%Zero-context example.