Line #93 Main/SkeletalMusician


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14	[[quoteright:350:[[Manga/OnePiece https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/skeletal_musician.jpg]]]]
15	[[caption-width-right:350:"Yo-Ho-Ho-Hoooo, Yoo-Ho-Hoo-Hoooo...."]]
16
17	->''"Look, it can ''talk!'' It's a talking, '''singing''', afro ghost skeleton!!''"
18	-->'''Monkey D. Luffy meeting Brook''', ''Manga/OnePiece''
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20	DemBones are a varied bunch - some are mindless necromantic {{Mooks}}, some are powerful [[OurLichesAreDifferent liches]], some are snarky talking skulls, some [[TheDeadCanDance can dance]], and some are Skeletal Musicians. The skeletal musician may sing (despite the FridgeLogic involved in singing without lungs or vocal cords) or play an instrument - xylophones improvised from their own or another skeleton's [[EverythingIsAnInstrument rib cages]] are a popular choice. A group of them may serve as the backing band for TheDeadCanDance. See also EtherealChoir and GhostSong, which can both accompany this.
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22	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 musicians are normally free-willed undead and are more likely to be comedic than scary. Expect a joke about trombones at some point.
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24	Skeletal Musicians don't have to be true undead - skeletal versions of the GrimReaper count; as do symbolic figures such as the denizens of the medieval Dance of Death and Jose Guadalupe Posada's satirical cartoons. If they're [[DemBones bony]] and making music, they qualify.
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26	Please note that while skeletons are a common feature of RealLife musicians, characters whose bones are covered in layers of meat and skin do not qualify for the trope.
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28	Not to be confused with underfed {{Starving Artist}}s, or with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlClwUtAm_A "Bones Trombone."]] Tends to overlap with XylophonesForWalkingBones, although that trope doesn't require the music to be played by - or on - a skeleton. Many examples also tend to be [[FriendlySkeleton Friendly Skeletons]].
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30	----
31	!!Examples:
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33	[[foldercontrol]]
34
35	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
36	* 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 [[{{Pun}} 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 cords.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Comic Books]]
40	* In ''ComicBook/{{Seconds}}'', as time is altered, and the restaurant becomes situated in an infernal landscape some skeletons provide musical atmosphere.
41	-->'''Katie:''' How is a skeleton playing a woodwind?
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
45	* Manolo still plays guitar after he dies and becomes a skeleton in ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife''
46	* 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]].
47	* ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride:''
48	** The backstory on Emily the Corpse Bride is given to us by a singing skeleton equipped with one eyeball and one very snazzy bowler hat, accompanied by skeletal instrumentalists.
49	** Bonejangle's pianist in ''Corpse Bride'' is a dead-ringer [[{{Pun}} (cough)]] for Music/RayCharles. The choreography also has a couple of {{Shout Out}}s to ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance''.
50	* Little Tibia and the Fibias, the skeleton rock band from ''WesternAnimation/MadMonsterParty''.
51	* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGoblinKing'': The band in the monster bar that Scooby and Shaggy stumble into while searching for the Goblin King's castle are skeletons.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
55	* The horde of undead animated by the Necronomicon in ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' includes some skeletal bagpipers and drummers.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Literature]]
59	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/SoulMusic'', [[TheGrimReaper Death]], who takes the form of a tall skeleton dressed in a cowl, plays a rockin' guitar solo with a pick made from ''[[Awesome/SoulMusic the blade of his scythe]]''. Subverted because while Death plays the guitar, he does not play music as such ([[CreativeSterility he can't]]).
60	* ''Literature/WaywardChildren'': In the MagicalLand of Mariposa, {{Calacas}} spend the nights in great festivals of song and [[TheDeadCanDance dance]]. It's said that their songs both [[AbstractEater nourish the skeletons]] and sustain the land itself.
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
64	* ''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.
65	* ''[[Series/{{Telefrancais}} Téléfrançais]]'' features a musical duet of skeletons called Les Squelettes (The Skeletons) as recurring characters.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Music]]
69	* Music/AvengedSevenfold also has some skeletal musicians in their video to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VurhzANQ_B0 A little piece of heaven]].
70	* Some of the supplementary art for ''Music/TheBlackParade'' features skeletons with musical instruments alongside the more famous skeleton drum major.
71	* The music video for Domino's Sweet Potato Pie features a singing skeleton and his girlfriend.
72	* In the music video for "Touch of Grey," The Music/{{Grateful Dead}} appears now and again as skeletons playing their instruments.
73	* 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.
74	* 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.
75	* Music/OingoBoingo. The cover art for the album ''Dead Man's Party'' has a mariachi band providing music for the party of the title.
76	* An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uerDXMMGrS0 1985 video version]]of Camille Saint-Saëns' ''Carnival of the Animals'' suite, narrated by Gary Burghoff, features skeletal dinosaur musicians during the "Fossils" movement (which begins at 18:59).
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
80	* 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.
81	* 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.
82	* Miniature manufacturer Ral Partha had a set called "The Grateful Undead" consisting of three 25 mm skeleton rock musicians modeled after Music/TheGratefulDead psychedelic rock band.
83	* 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).
84	* Musicians in skeleton units in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''. These can range from the logical (gongs, bells, and drums) to the absurd (enormous war horns, being played by creatures with no lungs).
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Theme Parks]]
88	* The Old Mill ride at Kennywood Park is themed to skeletons in TheWildWest with a few skeletons playing musical instruments.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Video Games]]
92	* The demo ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0WhebWTnk Bones]]'' on the Platform/BBCMicro.
93	* ''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.
94	* The Sanbone Trio from ''VideoGame/GitarooMan'', a trio of robotic skeletons who play themselves like xylophones. They're considered ThatOneLevel by most players.
95	* ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' has this as BookEnds: The opening titles play over a still shot of figurines of a skeletal mariachi band, then the final scene has an actual skeleton mariachi band playing in the background.
96	* 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."
97	* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' includes a sequence where Guybrush dreams his parents turn into skeletons and give him a message via a song and dance number.
98	* The Saturn game ''VideoGame/MrBones'' is about a skeleton who plays guitar to make an army of evil skeletons HeelFaceTurn.
99	* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'' has a minor scene in which a skeleton plays a pipe organ in the mansion's [[CreepyCathedral creepy chapel.]]
100	* ''VideoGame/{{Skylanders}}'' has Fiesta, whose 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.
101	* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has Sans the Skeleton, who is revealed to be a trombonist during the player's "date" with Papyrus.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder: Visual Arts]]
105	* Skeletons playing instruments are very common in Dia De Los Muertos artwork.
106	* 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).
107	* Mexican cartoonist Jose Guadalupe Posada depicted DemBones engaged in many mundane human activities (for satirical purposes), including [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/confetta/3573755691/ playing the guitar]].
108	* OlderThanSteam: The skeletal bagpiper from [[http://i.imgur.com/g9bizw4.jpg this]] 15th century ''[[TheDeadCanDance Totentanz]]''.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Web Animation]]
112	* Lewis of ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'' is a suit-wearing ghost skeleton with a purple pompadour who sings and plays the violin.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Web Comics]]
116	* Discussed in ''Webcomic/UnwindersTallComics''. Unwinder discovers that his favorite character from the ''After Dark'' book series is not a saxophone-playing skeleton as he previously thought, but instead a shapeshifter who takes the form of a skeleton. He's so disappointed with this twist that he quits reading the series.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Web Original]]
120	* [[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:
121	** a punk on drums
122	** a greaser on bass
123	** an 80s hair metal guitarist on lead guitar
124	** A 70s lounge/disco man on keyboards
125	** A blues man on rhythm guitar, who can play anything
126	** a hippy on acoustic.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Western Animation]]
130	* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', Marceline animates skeletons to serve as accompaniment for a performance.
131	* This occurs three times in the ''WesternAnimation/CartoonNetworkGroovies'' short "El Kabong Rides Again".
132	** A skeleton plays a guitar at the beginning.
133	** During the "La Fiesta" sequence two skeletons blow on horns.
134	** At the very end, one skeleton is playing a guitar and one is blowing on a horn.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' episode "Battle of the Bands" reveals that Grim is an ''[[AwesomenessIsVolatile extremely]]'' skilled guitar player.
136	* The Skeletunes from ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom''.
137	* The Bare Boned Band from ''WesternAnimation/SabrinaAndTheGroovieGoolies'' are a trio of skeletons who play bone-themed instruments.
138	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance'', a skeleton plays a xylophone made of bones.
139	* The Creator/ColumbiaCartoons short ''Skeleton Frolic'' (a remake of ''WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance'') features rib-cage xylophones, among other skeletal shenanigans.
140	* Sartana of the Dead in ''WesternAnimation/ElTigre''. She has a cartoonishly skeletal appearance and a guitar she can strum to create undead minions.
141	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / SkeletalMusician