History Main / SkeletalMusician

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* The demo ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0WhebWTnk Bones]]'' on the UsefulNotes/BBCMicro.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho, Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho...."]]

* Brook of ''Manga/OnePiece'' (pictured) is a nearly nine-foot-tall skeleton with an afro and a multi-instrumentalist (who favors the violin and guitar) who can use his music to create supernatural effects. It helps that he was part of an entire pirate crew that loved music in life and later had fifty years of free time to practice after his resurrection thanks to the Revive-Revive Fruit. He also makes [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame puns]] about his skeletal state, he could say something took all the air out of his lungs, and then immediately reminds everyone he doesn't have any lungs to begin with. The guy also has a great singing voice even without his vocal chords.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Seconds}}'', as time is altered and the restaurant becomes situated in an infernal landscape some skeletons provide musical atmosphere.

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[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* Manolo still plays guitar after he dies and becomes a skeleton in ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife''
* Every musician from the Land of the Dead in ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'', most notably Ernesto de La Cruz. Miguel the music-loving protagonist [[spoiler: almost]] became one as well, as his spending time there [[FisherKingdom slowly turns him into a skeleton]].

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' has the Skeleton Crew beginning in Season 11, who plays the show's theme song and bumper music and serve as Kinga Forrester's all-purpose minions.

* Music/OingoBoingo. The cover art for the album ''Dead Man's Party'' has a mariachi band providing music for the party of the title.

* The music video for Domino's Sweet Potato Pie features a singing skeleton and his girlfriend.
* Music/DieKammer's music video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ytfrfJ4bs Sinister Sister]] features skeletal versions of the band and some additional skeletal musicians.
* Music/AvengedSevenfold also has some skeletal musicians in their video to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VurhzANQ_B0 A little piece of heaven]]
* Two of Music/GraveDigger's covers feature bagpipe-playing skeletons, namely ''Tunes of War'' and ''The clans are still marching''. Also, the reaper on ''Symphony of Death'' plays the violin.

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' NPC [[http://d20npcs.wikia.com/wiki/%22Fiddlebone%22,_skeleton_musician Fiddlebone]] plays with this trope. The skeleton was intended by its creator to be a musician, but since most skeletons in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' are mindless, the creature is an unimpressive performer.
* In ''TabletopGame/RuneWarsTheMiniaturesGame'', a musician is one of the possible upgrades for each army. Since one of the armies, Waiqar the Undying, is an undead faction, this is obvious (the skeleton musician is a drummer).
* The ''Songs and Silence'' sourcebook for 3rd Edition ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' (focused on bards and rogues) notes that undead have limitations when it comes to this; skeletons don't have lungs, lips, or tongues, so most woodwinds and brass are out, for example. Drums and string instruments are still possibilities, though, for those undead with bard levels.

* The Sanbone Trio from ''VideoGame/GitarooMan'', a trio of robotic skeletons who play themselves like xylophones. They're considered ThatOneLevel by most players.
* One random event in ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' involves a man with a troupe of skeletal musicians offering to play a concert on your tula. If there's a Humakti[[note]]holy warrior of Humakt, sworn to hunt down and destroy all undead[[/note]] on your clan ring, they will not be pleased; if you allow the concert, your Humakti will tell you "Don't talk to me unless you're here to tell me I can kill them all."

* The demo ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0WhebWTnk Bones]]'' on the UsefulNotes/BBCMicro.

* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' has the Squiffy Ghast, a GhostPirate enemy that only appears in Champion-level expeditions into the Cove. While unable to cause physical harm, its music is so unnerving that it causes large amounts of [[SanityMeter Stress damage]] to your party.
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has Sans the Skeleton, who is revealed to be a trombonist during the player's "date" with Papyrus.

* Arnold Bocklin's [[http://www.victorianweb.org/decadence/painting/bocklin/5.html Self Portrait with Death, the Fiddler]] is an example from a non-Mexican artistic tradition (Bocklin was Swiss).

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance'', a skeleton plays a xylophone made of bones.
* The Creator/ColumbiaCartoons short ''Skeleton Frolic'' (a remake of ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance'') features rib-cage xylophones, among other skeletal shenanigans.
* Sartana of the Dead in ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre''. She has a cartoonishly skeletal appearance and a guitar she can strum to create undead minions.
* This occurs three times in the WesternAnimation/CartoonNetworkGroovies short "El Kabong Rides Again".

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Marceline animates skeletons to serve as accompaniment for a performance.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGoblinKing'': The band in the monster bar that Scooby and Shaggy stumble into while searching for the Goblin King's castle are skeletons.
* The Skeletunes from ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom''.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' episode "Battle of the Bands" reveals that Grim is an ''[[AwesomenessIsVolatile extremely]]'' skilled guitar player.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Yo-Ho-Ho-Ho-Yo-Yo-Yo"]]

* Brook of ''Manga/OnePiece'' (pictured) is a nearly nine-foot-tall skeleton with an afro and a multi-instrumentalist (who favors the violin and guitar) who can use his music to create supernatural effects. It helps that he was part of an entire pirate crew that loved music in life and later had fifty years of free time to practice after his resurrection thanks to the Revive-Revive Fruit. He also makes [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame puns]] about his skeletal state, he could say something took all the air out of his lungs, and then immediately reminds averyone he doesnt have any lungs to begin with. The guy also has a great singing voice even withouth his vocal chords.

* ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}'' has Fiesta, who's somewhat similar to the ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' examples, since his primary inspiration is the Day of the Dead. He's a calavera-themed skeleton who leads a mariachi band while also being a trumpeteer, and also works as a MusicalAssassin with his trumpet while in combat. He can also summon "Amigos", small skeletons that fight alongside him while playing instruments like tambourines, guitars, and bugles.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[http://ravensblight.com/papertoys.html Ravensblight]] sometimes has a band playing in the area, composed of musicians who tired of laying around in their graves not making music. They have a unique sound, given that they are composed of:
** a punk on drums
** a greaser on bass
** an 80s hair metal guitarist on lead guitar
** A 70s lounge/disco man on keyboards
** A blues man on rhythm guitar, who can play anything
** a hippy on acoustic.
[[/folder]]

* Sans of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale'' fame is a trombonist, as revealed during the player's "date" with Papyrus.

This is an old trope - dating back at least as far as the Dance of Death depictions of the late Middle Ages - and still in use in the 21st century. {{Skeletal Musician}}s are normally free-willed undead and are more likely to be comedic than scary. Expect a joke about trombones at some point.

* The Bare Boned Band from ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaAndTheGroovieGoolies'' are a trio of {{Skeletal Musician}}s who play bone-themed instruments.

[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/OnePiece https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skeletal_musician.jpg]]]]

* The Old Mill ride is themed to skeletons in TheWildWest with a few skeletons playing musical instruments.