History Music / Sparks

* LongTitle:

* OneWomanSong: "Suzie Safety", "That's Not Nastassia", "Nicotina", "Music/{{Madonna}}", "[[Film/GoneWithTheWind Frankly Scarlett, I Don't Give a Damn]]", "What Would Creator/KatharineHepburn Say?", "[[Literature/ArabianNights Scheherazade]]", "Brenda is Always In The Way", "Music/EdithPiaf Said It Better Than Me".

* GenreBusting: From the beginning the band was hard to pin down due to the constant mixing and cycling of musical styles. UpToEleven with ''Music/LilBeethoven'' and beyond.

** ''Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins'' took the Electronic Dance UpToEleven after a several-year hiatus, with a big 90's Eurodance influence.

** Several songs are shout outs to films, including two for ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''[[note]]The ''Indiscreet'' outtake "Gone With the Wind" (later a ''Big Beat'' bonus track), and "Frankly Scarlett, I Don't Give a Damn" from ''Gratuitous Sax''[[/note]] and one for ''Film/CitizenKane''.[[note]]"Rosebud" from ''Music You Can Dance To'', while Orson Welles gets a mention in the outro to "Occupation" from ''Introducing Sparks''[[/note]] Filmmaker Tsui Hark receives a simultaneous ShoutOut and TheCameo in "Tsui Hark" from ''Gratuitous Sax''.

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: During the fade-out in "Occupation", Russell continues to list off various trades. Among these are "ladykillers", "undertakers", and "X-rated actors."[[note]]The full (unofficial) list is in alphabetical order as follows: actors, bombers, Cut Rate druggists, doughnut makers, elephant trainers, Greyhound drivers, hotelkeepers, hitmen, knights, Dukes of Earl, ladykillers, maids and nuns, Orson Welles' promo men, quiz show host and Royal family, saviours, trollops, undertakers, werewolves, witches, x-rated actors, yes men, Zorro.[[/note]]

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: During the fade-out in "Occupation", Russell continues to list off various trades. Among these are "baby killers", "undertakers", and "X-rated actors."

** Several songs are shout outs to films, including two for ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''[[note]]The ''Indiscreet'' outtake "Gone With the Wind" (later a ''Big Beat'' bonus track), and "Frankly Scarlett, I Don't Give a Damn" from ''Gratuitous Sax''[[/note]] and one for ''Film/CitizenKane''.[[note]]"Rosebud" from ''Music You Can Dance To''[[/note]] Filmmaker Tsui Hark receives a simultaneous ShoutOut and TheCameo in "Tsui Hark" from ''Gratuitous Sax''.

+ Music/TheBeatles, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/TheWho, Music/IrvingBerlin, Music/LudwigVanBeethoven, Music/TheKinks, Creator/CharlieChaplin, Creator/GilbertAndSullivan, Music/GiorgioMoroder

Sparks are an American band who formed in 1970 in UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and are still active today. The band officially consists of only brothers Ron (keyboards, songwriting, questionable mustache) and Russell Mael (vocals), but over the years they have accumulated a large amount of ex-members and session musicians. The duo's style is characterized by their whimsically over-the-top songwriting, their funny, witty lyrics, Russell's falsetto, and a quirky stage presence which plays with the contrast between Russell's hyperactive FaceOfTheBand attitude and Ron's [[TheStoic deliberately stiff and taciturn]] stage persona.

Tell me, are resistance and stupidity the same?\\

In 2021, they returned to the big screen as subjects of a biographical documentary directed by Creator/EdgarWright, ''The Sparks Brothers'', and the film ''Film/{{Annette}}'', directed by Leos Carax, with them writing the story, songs and music.

* BoundAndGagged: The cover art for ''Propaganda''.

!!These tropes ain't big enough for the both of us:

* "Ladies" is this to several historical and contemporary (of the 70s) female figures.

In 2014 they formed FFS with their PostPunk {{Big Name Fan}}s Music/FranzFerdinand and released a self-titled album in 2015, followed by a tour. They released ''Hippopotamus'' in 2017, returning their sound to clever, literate (and often [[BlackComedy darkly humorous]]) pop.

!!This band provides examples of:

* HolyPipeOrgan: In "When I Sit to Play the Organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral" (from ''Hello Young Lovers''), the organ player resents that the congregation is too focused on worship to [[ItsAllAboutMe properly appreciate his performance]], referring several times to how he's been "upstaged" by God.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The title of their collaborative project, FFS, which stands for "Franz Ferdinand Sparks". "FFS" is also a popular text-speak acronym meaning "For Fuck's Sake", and the band were well aware of this when they chose the name.

* SurrealMusicVideo: "The Existential Threat", animated by - off all people - [[WebAnimation/Cyriak Cyriak Harris]].

* SurrealMusicVideo: "The Existential Threat", animated by - off all people - Creator/CyriakHarris.