Standard Snippet

Typically appearing in works that employ a score with non-original elements, these are brief segments of standard songs—such as old songs that don't involve paying royalties — as themes for various types of scenes or activities. Some of these have become standardized, and in some cases they are the only reason that many people know the songs at all.

Many of these have become verbal shorthand for particular nationalities or ethnicities, and thus may border on stereotypes.

Very common in Golden Age cartoons that employ Mickey Mousing, where they may be used as a Leitmotif. Less so in modern cartoons, unless they have the budget to score episodes individually. If there is danger of having to pay money to use a piece of music, the piece can be imitated in style (The Jimmy Hart Version) or parodied. In Renaissance Age Warner Bros cartoons, this often happened with movie scores. A few other unreasonable substitutes are very recognizable, though.

Many songs owe their entries on the list below to the work of Carl Stalling, the musical director for the vast majority of the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons. He had a well-known tendency toward musical quotation and punning; Chuck Jones was known to complain that Stalling would always use certain pieces of music in certain situations and would go out of his way to find preexisting pieces whose titles corresponded to the action he was scoring.

Expect a fair amount of Exactly What It Says on the Tin with classical pieces; the composers typically wrote these pieces for the precise contexts that their titles indicate (likewise with some pop songs). Many of these are Undead Horse Tropes, but may reach a stage where they are only used ironically.

Compare with Stock Footage, Regional Riff, and Public Domain Soundtrack.

Lohengrin and Mendelssohn is a subtrope specifically for weddings, and Standard Pre-Ass-Kicking Snippet is a subtrope for badass scenes.

If you're trying to find the name of a famous tune, "100 Very Well-Known Instrumentals" or "Another 100 Well-Known Instrumentals" may help.

This list is by no means complete, but let's give it a shot, eh?

Setting The Setting

 * See also Regional Riff.

Recent Works

 * See also Recycled Trailer Music.