The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.
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openOpening song warning the audience of upcoming tragedy Music
So here's a weird one I feel like in some musical tragedies there will be interludes by all-knowing singing narrators explaining the state the protagonist is in, and at the beginning of the work they will sort of foreshadow (or outright warn) that while things seem okay now, it will quickly unravel. Unfortunately the only thing I can think of as an example is when it's parodied in a Hannah Montana two-parter episode. I've been trying to think of how to refer to this trope or where else it has appeared because I've also wanted to invoke it to describe the opening track of Ethel Cain's "Preacher's Daughter". What am I missing?
openSudden Tempo Change Music
A point in a song when the tempo abruptly and suddenly changes. Unlike most where it either gradually slows down (ritard) or speeds up into the tempo. Song examples include Anne Bonny and Turned Off by Death Grips. Haven't seen it anywhere, so I was wondering if we had it.
openCan someone link me a trope like this Music
THANK YOU TO WHOEVER TOLD ME TO USE TROPE FINDER INSTEAD OF ASK THE TROPERS!😭😭🥹 i cant find anything in the music tropes index thing i forgot the name but like a fan of music who is a connoisseur of it and genuinely spends all their time listening to music. appreciates the beauty of lyrics and chords. huge music fan basically (repost)
openThe Angry Pundit Sample Music
When a politically charged act samples a news report criticising them.
The only examples I've been able to find of this are in "BLOOD." (https://youtu.be/hcnNvy_svTE)
& "DNA." (https://youtu.be/Fb3j_yuFh1s)
by Kendrick Lamar, as well as "Fine Art" by KNEECAP (https://youtu.be/-b9GQ_nm9pc)
openSongs about not fitting into society and being proud of it(?) Music
For example, this one
, which basically goes "I don't fit into norms, I'm cool just like that". This particular band has quite a lot of songs like that, and so I've been wondering if there's a specific trope for these songs. It just doesn't feel like Self-Empowerment Anthem or "I Am Great!" Song to me.
openA "paradise" being described by somebody who's only experienced the dregs Music
I've most often heard it in songs so I put it under music, but it may be elsewhere.
I'm talking things like "Big Rock Candy Mountain"; where the (presumably bum's) fantasy about a perfect land still has cops, bulldogs, and jail; but they'rd handicapped by wooden legs, rubber teeth, and one-second sentences respectively. Or the Salt Lake City song from Book of Mormon, where a poor Ugandan girl describes paradise as "The Warlords there are friendly, they help you cross the street/And there's a Red Cross on every corner with all the flower you can eat" and "the roofs are thatched with gold". The character can't comprehend a world with no warlords or thatched roofs, so she imagines nicer versions It's a darkly hilarious trope but I don't know if we have it here.
openAlbum’s contents don’t coincide with how they’re (seemingly) promoted Music
What would be a good trope to fit this below instance of a music album’s contents not really coinciding with how they’d appear based on their tie-in material alone?
When The Loud House Mega Music Countdown came out, Nickelodeon released a digital-exclusive soundtrack album containing all of the songs that made it onto the top 12 list… or so it seems. The only notable difference is that the TV special ranked a song called “Stand Together” as #12, but the album doesn’t include it; it instead includes a different song, called “Save the Music”. (In the source material, The Loud House, both of these songs were included in the episode "Deep Cuts", which premiered about a year before the TV special; in the episode, "Stand Together" essentially serves as a reprise to "Save the Music", despite them both having highly distinct lyrics.)
Edited by BlankBlanknessopenSinister strings Music
Not "Psycho" Strings. String instruments roll like drums to create a suspenseful or menacing mood. Sounds somewhat like buzzing of a bee swarm. Listen to this track
for better understanding.
openMusic Inspired by Video Games Music
Not exactly Heavy Mithril, but when music is inspired by video games.
openColor-Coded Songs Music
Zedd assigned most of the songs from his album True Colors their own colors, which is reflected in their single artworks. (Refer to this playlist
)
Does this count as an example of Color-Coded for Your Convenience? Or is it another trope?
openSome fans only like a specific part of a song Music
Is there an existing YMMV or Audience Reaction where only specific parts of a song (as in those with a Song Style Shift, or with distinct "heavy parts" or "soft parts") are liked by the listener or fan? In platforms like YouTube where people can post comments, you'd often see someone putting a timestamp to highlight the "best part". Sometimes, uploaders may only take a portion of the song instead of its entirety. Others may do it for fun or memes.
Examples:
- "Shall Never Surrender" from Devil May Cry 4: "Devil May Cry - Shall Never Surrender (Soft Part)"
- "Bury the Light" from Devil May Cry 5: "Bury the light but it's the perfect last chorus."
- "Chop Suey!" by System of a Down: "Chop Suey! But it’s only the good part"
and "Chop Suey (When Angels Deserve To Die) but it's only the softer parts"
- Linkin Park:
- "In the End": "Linkin Park - In the End (Only Chester)"
- "Somewhere I Belong": "Somewhere I Belong but Mike Shinoda has nothing to say"
- "In the End": "Linkin Park - In the End (Only Chester)"
openCacophonous Reprise Music
A reprise of a melody in a musical, but in a way that adds to the cacophony of the scene. Thinking like "Cakewalk" in Theater/Parade, or "Chaos" from Theater/Follies
openSweets and Sexuality Music
So it's around Halloween, and to make a long story short, half of the Halloween Spotify playlists have Aaron Carter's version of "I Want Candy" on it, and I guess I never listened to it too closely when I was a kid in the late 90's, but... it's fairly naughty, if I'm being honest, despite me remembering it in at least a dozen commercials around this time of year when I was younger. So, that made me wonder: do we have a trope that covers the interplay between sweet foods and sensuality/sexuality? I imagine it would mainly be a music trope, but there's surely things in other media; a quarter of the jokes in The Simpsons are about Homer's eating habits, so surely he's fantasized about eating a cookie Marge or something.
openStarting with the title in mind Music
What's the trope for when the title to a song is decided before the lyrics (often because it's a themesong for the work title)? It often leads to weird/forced lyrics, since some titles are pretty hard to build a song around.
Edited by BootlebatopenTHis is so satisfying to hear Music
When a song ends a line or a verse with a word and start the next line or verse with the same word. For example (capitalized for emphasis since idk how to bold):
"I have been chasing you but all this time you have slipped from my grasp There's only one option LEFT.
"LEFT to your own vices You could cause such havoc Humans are destructive And I won't deal with THAT
"THAT puny twig and your tutus and bows are no match for my wits and my anger overFLOWS
"FLOWS from my heart where my people reside Their hopes and dreams I carry with pride"
Or, or a line by line example,
"I hate my metal BONES "My BONES and gear creak in my CHEST
"My CHEST forever COLD "A COLD and maddening DECENT"
"DECENDING down so FAR" "Fall FARTHER till there's nothing LEFT"
"I'm LEFT here in the dark, the dark..." "I dance to forget"
open"We're Both X, But We're Not The Same" Music
So, I was just listening to a song by Italian musician Ivan Graziani, "Navi"; from what I've interpreted as, it's about two people who are the same in some aspects, but the opposite in others, and only seem to harm each other if they stay together, and I wanted to know, do we have a trope for this kinds of interactions?
For context, here is a rough translation of the chorus:
And here
the whole song.
Is it just Not So Similar?
Edited by TMH-Sir-Iron-VomitopenRapid Random Bullshit Go Music
I mean not exactly just one, but two examples of this trope. First one is when (often in the 3rd act of the song), the singer just sings very much random stuff that rhymes.
1. Weird Al (obviously) in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFI6cV9slfI
2. And extented version of Phineas & Ferb theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qZYWo3txPk
The other example is when two different characters just also name out some things, also usually in 3rd act. This can be when they have different opinion on things and just argue as in
1. Life Is Fun by The Odd1s Out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAb_bCtKuXg
Or when they are in some agreement
2. Best Zelda Rap Ever with Boat (Red Lions)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keAE9GXYB0w
openLast Stanza Tone Switch Music
A singer spends most of a song espousing one opinion, but something happens in the bridge/last stanza that makes them switch to the opposite of said opinion. Examples:
- In J Pee's "I'm Not Gay", the singer spends most of the song insisting that he is not gay even though he keeps grabbing other guys' butts and balls, but when he talks about how hot his crush is, he decides that he is gay after all.
- In the Vocaloid song "You're a Useless Child", the mother spends the entire song berating her son for being stupid and useless. When he kills himself, she regrets her actions and switches from "you're a useless child" to "I'm a useless child".
- In "I'll Try" from Peter Pan 2: Return to Neverland, Jane/the singer is feeling hopeless and does not believe in the things that used to make her happy ("I'll try, but it's so hard to believe / I'll try, but I can't see where you see"). After a revelation, she does believe ("So I'll try 'cause I finally believe / I'll try 'cause I can see where you see").

A song that starts slow and seems like it will be slow, then becomes a lot more upbeat.