History Main / ProgressiveInstrumentation

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'':

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* The rendition of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnzVq2t7bi4 Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel]]" from the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics", which layers in more and more vocal parts from various characters as it goes. Subverted near the end, where Kyle's dad tries to add his own part, but is stopped by Kyle's mom, since his lyrics are totally irrelevant and are just about finding Creator/CourtneyCox attractive.

* The rendition of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnzVq2t7bi4 Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel]]" from the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics", which layers in more and more vocal parts from various characters as it goes.
[[/folder]]

** The start menu's theme adds more instruments for each leg of progress towards a Pacifist Run. The game's official soundtrack features two of these variations as tracks: the minimalist version that plays when first starting the game, and the full version with all the instruments.

* During the final leg of the trip to meet the DiscOneFinalBoss, ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'''s titular track begins with acoustic guitar, which is slowly joined by a gentle electronic beat, piano, strings, flute, and drums as characters onscreen explain the events that kicked off the plot. Each of these, in turn, fade out at the end of the song.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' [[Music/{{Homestuck}} tie-in album]] ''The Felt'' features [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/omelette-sandwich-2 "Omelette Sandwich"]], a song about Eggs, who repeatedly travels back in time to amass an army of himself whenever he needs to fight. True to form, the song itself periodically "rewinds", layering in new instruments and speeding up each time to reflect how the character grows more frenzied as he brings in more copies of himself. At the very end, the instruments cut out in the reverse order as the song slows back down.

* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' [[Music/{{Homestuck}} tie-in album]] ''The Felt'' features [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/omelette-sandwich-2 "Omelette Sandwich"]], a song about a character who repeatedly travels back in time to amass an army of himself whenever he needs to fight. True to form, the song itself periodically "rewinds", layering in new instruments and speeding up each time to reflect how the character grows more frenzied as he brings in more copies of himself. At the very end, the instruments cut out in the reverse order as the song slows back down.

* ''Music/{{Homestuck}}'' tie-in album [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/the-felt "The Felt"]] features [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/omelette-sandwich "Omelette Sandwich"]], a song about a character who repeatedly travels back in time to amass an army of himself whenever he needs to fight. True to form, the song itself periodically "rewinds", layering in new instruments and speeding up each time to reflect how the character grows more frenzied as he brings in more copies of himself. At the very end, the instruments cut out in the reverse order as the song slows back down.

[[AC:WebComics]]
* ''WebComic/{{Homestuck}}'' tie-in album [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/album/the-felt "The Felt"]] features [[https://homestuck.bandcamp.com/track/omelette-sandwich "Omelette Sandwich"]], a song about a character who repeatedly travels back in time to amass an army of himself whenever he needs to fight. True to form, the song itself periodically "rewinds", layering in new instruments and speeding up each time to reflect how the character grows more frenzied as he brings in more copies of himself. At the very end, the instruments cut out in the reverse order as the song slows back down.

* In ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', the final version of "The Weight of the World" ending theme, which plays over Ending E, starts off with a simple ChipTune leitmotif, before adding more instruments, then the vocals, and finally a choral as certain plot events unfold.

* VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles:

Compare VariableMix, where the music in a game gradually evolves based on what's happening in the game. Also compare BigRockEnding, where every instrument ends the song in a big note, disappearing one at a time. Not to be confused with ExplosiveInstrumentation, which is a ''very different trope''. Also not to be confused with ProgressiveRock, which is a genre and carries much different connotations, though this trope can be included with it every now and then.

* Music/TheCure' "Just Like Heaven" starts with the bass, then drums come in, then the guitar, keyboards and finally the vocals by Robert Smith.

* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8rNs7v8Nrk The Finale]]" on Oldfield's ''Music/TubularBells'' has various instruments being added over the first minutes, each one being announced by Creator/JohnCleese as the Master of Ceremonies, ending, of course, with [[TitleDrop tubular bells]]. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQpu_Ciyug The Bell]]" on ''Music/TubularBellsII'' does the same thing with Creator/AlanRickman as MC (on the album; John Gordon Sinclair in the live performance in the link).

* The first four minutes of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQpu_Ciyug The Bell]]" on Oldfield's ''Music/TubularBellsII'' consists of more instruments being added to the tune, each one announced by "a Strolling Player" (Creator/AlanRickman on the album, John Gordon-Sinclair in the live performance in the link) as it joins in, ending, of course, with [[TitleDrop tubular bells]].

Compare VariableMix, where the music in a game gradually evolves based on what's happening in the game. Also compare BigRockEnding, where every instrument ends the song in a big note, disappearing one at a time. Not to be confused with ExplosiveInstrumentation, which is a ''very different trope''.

* ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'''s "Kiss the Girl", where the various animals jump in one at a time.
* "Trashin the Camp / Doo Bad Shi Doo" from Disney's ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}'', in which some playful gorillas and an elephant find a human camp and use the random objects they find there to play a (very destructive) impromptu song.

%% Zero-Context Examples and dubious examples are commented.
%% Edit them if you can expand on them, or delete them.

%% * Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q16yI2d9sNE Hardware Store]]". It starts with several tool sounds before the band starts playing the song. '''<- DUBIOUS EXAMPLE, should it be kept?'''

%% ** "Tubular Bells" (from ''Film/TheExorcist'') does this... slowly.

* "Fie, Nay, Prithee John", an old drinking song, as performed by Music/ThePoxyBoggards in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YtIw9r6udU&t=2m57s this video]].

%% * Music/DavidFord does this all by himself with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVky7hwuebU "Go to Hell".]]

%% * Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival starts "Down on the Corner" like this.
%% * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulyoxdhHrIs This live performance]] of {{Music/KT Tunstall}}'s "Black Horse and Cherry Tree".

%% [[AC:ProgressiveRock]]
%% * Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer's "Abaddon's Bolero" is an instrumental example.

%% [[AC:[[RAndB R&B]]]]
%% * The majority of the lyrics of "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell and the Drells are composed of this.

* Music/AlterBridge's "Metalingus" (also known as the Wrestling/{{Edge}} song) starts with bass, drum and guitar doing an intro then the voice joins. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJoCi2_MnUc In live performances]], this intro starts with the drums, then the bass joins, then the guitars, and once the song exploded, the voice joins.

* Music/TheWho's "Baba O'Riley" ([[RefrainFromAssuming Teenage Wasteland]]). It starts with a synth, then a guitar piece, then the drums, then the bass, and finally Roger and later Pete.

%% * There are several entire songs like this on the ''Film/{{Amelie}}'' soundtrack-- for example, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qziW3PaRj8M Soir de fete]]."

* Happens twice in ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'':
** The Bomb Run music, heard while Conker is taking a large CartoonBomb from the Rock Solid clubhouse to the heart of the Uga Buga volcano, gradually adds notes from different instruments as the character approaches the required destination (bagpipes at first, piano, drums). It culminates with the addition of a tense, fast-paced AfricanChant.
** After Conker defeats the Experiment (and the Little Girl controlling him), he has to escape from the Tediz island before it explodes. The Countdown music will start playing and, the closer Conker gets to the coast, the more intense it gets and more instruments are added (marching drums at first, cymbals, synthetized trumpet sounds). Once Conker reaches the coast, it's replaced altogether by military reprise of the game's standard boss music.
* During the final leg of the trip to meet the DiscOneFinalBoss, ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'''s titular track begins with acoustic guitar, which is slowly joined by a gentle electronic beat, piano, strings, flute, and drums as characters onscreen explain the events that kicked off the plot. Each of these, in turn, fade out at the end of the song.

%% ** Strong Bad does this in a non-contiguous fashion in [[http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail45.html the sbemail "Techno."]]

%% * ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants:'' Spongebob and Gary manage to get rid of a swarm of music-loving jellyfish this way.

%% [[AC:FolkMusic]]
%% * "Fie, Nay, Prithee John", an old drinking song, as performed by Music/ThePoxyBoggards in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YtIw9r6udU&t=2m57s this video]].

%% * "Stairway to Heaven" by Music/LedZeppelin.
* Music/TheWho's "Baba O'Riley" ([[RefrainFromAssuming Teenage Wasteland]]) qualifies. It starts with a synth, then a guitar piece, then the drums, then the bass, and finally Roger and later Pete.

* Creator/NeilCicierega' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpj0v0U4R0o "The Starting Line"]] is (almost) entirely built from samples of various songs' [[{{Pun}} opening lines]]. At the beginning, the samples are introduced one by one, gradually building up the sound collage the forms the main part of the song.