BSOD Song

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"You have murdered me! You have murdered me! You have murdered me murdered me MURDERED ME!" —Judas, Jesus Christ Superstar

"Then...I was inspired...now...I'm sad, and tired...after all, I've tried for three years...seems like thirty...why then am I scared to finish what I started? What You started...I didn't start it..." —Jesus, from the same musical.

The number in a musical where a character undergoes a Blue Screen Of Death of some sort. Usually involves less singing and more speaking/shouting. Compare Sanity Slippage Song.

Do Not Confuse With BDSM Song.

Examples of BSOD Song include:

Musical Theatre

• "Coalhouse's Soliloquy" from Ragtime for Coalhouse. And the last verse of "Success" for Tateh. And "Your Daddy's Son" for Sarah. And "Til We Reach That Day" for Coalhouse. AND "Justice" for, yes, Coalhouse. Bring tissues, it's that kind of show.
• In Once On This Island, when Daniel reveals at the ball that he and Andrea are engaged, Ti Moune recaps a few lines from "Forever Yours", which goes right into "Promises".
• "Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street could fit into this. Also, towards the end of the play, Todd gets a BSOD moment after he realizes that the Beggar Woman he has just killed was his beloved wife who he had killed the Judge and the Beadle to avenge. The short reprise of 'The Barber and His Wife' could also count as a BSOD Song.
• Les Misérables:
  • "Javert's Suicide"
  • "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables," where Marius mourns the death of all of his friends, and of his dreams for revolution and change. The next song, "Every Day," is Cosette softly urging him back to believing in life and in love.
• "Judas' Death" from Jesus Christ Superstar (as quoted). Jesus also gets one with "Gethsemane".
• Frank N Furter gets "Going Home" toward the end of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The song illustrates just how off his rocker he is at that point. He even hallucinates an adoring, sympathetic audience is hanging on his every note.
• "Let the Monster Rise" from Repo! The Genetic Opera is the Villainous BSOD equivalent of this. Or anti-hero BSOD. Or Heroic BSOD. It's kinda hard to tell.
• "Betrayed" from The Producers.
• "Everything you Ever" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
  • "Neil's Turn" from Commentary! The Musical also counts as this, although with a more humorous take on BSOD.
    • Funnily enough, both songs take place at roughly the same moment.
  • There's also "Horribleturn" from the fan prequel Horrible Turn.
• Leonard Bernstein's Mass has "Things Get Broken," a nervous breakdown in 14 minutes.
• No Good Deed from Wicked, sung by The Wizard of Oz's 'Wicked Witch of the West' after she accidentally turns her love interest into the Scarecrow you know from the books and movie while trying to use her magic to save him from being tortured to death in the beginning of the song. Also counts as a Sanity Slippage Song.
• "Catch Me I'm Falling" from Next to Normal is a multiple-BSOD song.
• "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy is only partly an example, because of its confident conclusion. That said, many actresses have played up the nervous breakdown more than Ethel Merman did.
  • Chris Colfer's performance of "Rose's Turn" in Glee is definitely one of these for his character of Kurt.
• It's not in the modern version of the show, but the original Starlight Express had "No Comeback" as Electra's BSOD song.
• "Tsubasa wo Daite" from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is a less raging-scream-filled version of this, especially near the end. (The raging screams come after he's done singing.)
• Bat Boy, the off-Broadway musical based on the tabloid stories, has Apology to a Cow after Edgar makes some uncomfortable discoveries.

Edgar: "I'm not here to harm you/I only want to KILL."

• "All of My Life" from Do Re Mi.
• "Being Alive" from Company is a possible example.
  • Don't forget the end of "The Ladies Who Lunch", when Joanne realizes her whole life has been wasted making snarky comments about other people instead of actually doing something herself.
• "What Am I Doin'?" from Closer Than Ever, a vignette about a man who has one after being dumped.

"Then she suddenly said I can't see her, and the thought of it drove me insane. So I climbed up a tree, I am creeping, to the roof over where she is sleeping, and I sit there all night in the rain."

• "Everybody Dies" from The Toxic Avenger Musical fits this trope. After Toxie's breakup with Sarah, he becomes so depressed that he wants to kill everyone, even innocent people. Thankfully, some of those people aren't so innocent.
• "Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer" from Phantom of the Opera for the Phantom, after Christine rips off his mask onstage, exposing his disfigurement to the packed opera house.
• "The last moments of "The Phantom Confronts Christine" and the song "Mother, Did You Watch?" from Love Never Dies are BSOD songs for Madame Giry and Meg Giry, respectively
• Notre Dame de Paris:
  • Quasimodo's "Danse mon Esmeralda" (doubles as Grief Song), right after Esmeralda's death. He's witnessed the death of the woman he loves and killed his adoptive father. He's resolved to die holding Esmeralda's dead body, because "dying for you is not dying". Yeah, he's pretty broken.
  • Frollo has a BSOD in the middle of "Mon maitre, mon sauveur (My Master My Saviour)" just a couple songs before, complete with Insane Laugh.
• "Listen" by Deena in Dreamgirls. Well, it only appears in the film, but it essentially shows how sick she is of Curtis' crap.
  • Effie's is also her Crowning Moment of Awesome - "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going".
• "Into the Woods has "No More", sung by The Baker after his wife dies.
• Pippin's final song in Pippin, which is titled "Magic Shows and Miracles" when considered separate from the finale.
• A Very Potter Musical has "Missing You", in which Harry and Quirrel sing about their Heroic BSOD's over Dumbledore's death and Voldemort's betrayal, respectively.
• "Murder" from the movie musical Reefer Madness is another good example. Two of the four reefer fiends start hallucinating out of guilt, one goes completely crazy, and everybody is freaking out about the circumstances.
• Kathy's solo reprise of "An Organized Life" in Vanities: The Musical: "And if/That's how you organize your existence/You have an organized nervous breakdown/You get strung out and neurotic/Messed in the head."
• Moritz's duet with Ilse in [[Spring Awakening is a combination of this and Sanity Slippage Song. It's right before he kills himself.

Hey, I've done my time, looking back on it all-- Man, it blows my mind. I don't do sadness, so been there. Don't do sadness--just don't care...

• In Its Always Fair Weather, the song "Situation-Wise".

Opera

• Edgar's final aria in Lucia di Lammermoor. Ends with suicide.
• Peter Grimes's so-called "mad scene".
• ANY mad scene in any opera... best known example might be Lucia di Lammermoor. But Donizetti was in love with this trope.
• Baba's aria "Afraid, am I afraid?" from The Medium.
• A good amount of Boris Godunov's monologues.
• From the works of Richard Wagner:
  • "Die Frist ist um" from The Flying Dutchman.
  • Parts of Wotan's big Act II monologue from The Valkyrie.
  • Brünnhilde's Immolation from The Twilight of the Gods - well, you can't say riding into a funeral pyre in ecstasy after singing for 20 minutes is sane.
  • Tristan... like, the whole third act?
  • in Parsifal, Amfortas, who does this EVERY time he sings. He also wangsts.
• Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene.
• Parodied in The Magic Flute when Papageno wants to hang himself because he can't get a wife. Thankfully, he's talked out of it and then of course he gets his girl too. Pamina also needs to be stopped. These Magic Flute people really need a psychiatrist sometimes.
• King Philip's big monologue in Don Carlo, mostly about how lonely he is, and how better it would be in his grave.
• Fiesco's opening aria in Simon Boccanegra is also sort of this.
• Rigoletto's "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" aria.
• Vere's "I accept their verdict" aria in Billy Budd, just after the court-martial.
• Eboli's "O don fatale" in Don Carlo.
• Amneris, during the judgement scene in Aida.
• Otello's "Dio mi potevi". Also, his final monologue.
• Don Giovanni has a BSOD sextet. When the cast finds out Leporello was disguised as the Don, everyone gets like: WTF?, and they sing about it for long minutes before continuing to bully poor Leporello.
  • Although Don Giovanni manages to avoid any kind of realisation even when a statue breaks down his door.
• The duet "Son nata a lagrimar" between Cornelia and Sesto that ends Act 1 of Handel's Giulio Cesare, when Ptolemy orders to imprison Sesto and enslave Cornelia.
• "Otton, qual portentoso flumine" sung by Otto in Handel's Agrippina, when he is betrayed by just about everyone.
• Katerina's Act IV arioso "V lesu, v samoy chashche yest' ozero" ("In the forest there is a lake...") in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District.
• In Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Blitch's heart-wrenching monologue "Hear me, o Lord, I beseech Thee".
• Romeo in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi has this aria "Deh, tu, bell'anima" when he thinks Juliet is dead.
• In Tosca, Cavaradossi sings "E lucevan le stelle" when he's in prison, awaiting his execution, reminiscing about all the good times he spend with his lover while trying to write a farewell letter to her.
• Purcell's Dido and Aeneas has When I Am Laid in Earth. Aeneas has just left Dido, and, having been shot by Cupid's arrows, she cannot bear the thought of living without him. This song is her BSOD-ing to her handmaiden Belinda before she kills herself.
• Alcina's 'Mi restano le lagrime' in the eponymous opera by G.F.Haendel
• Vesti la giubba (Put on your motley) from Pagliacci, sung by Canio as he faces the prospect of having to peform as a character who's a fool and a cuckold... right after finding out his own wife has a lover. He swings from "Bah! Are you not a man?" to "Laugh, Pagliaccio! Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart!" over the course of the aria; most versions have him break down crying at the end.

Other

• Bon Iver's "Re:Stacks," which is about losing all your money gambling and ending up drunk and depressed.
• Green Day's American Idiot has the truly epic "Homecoming", which chronicles the main character's life after his girlfriend leaves him and his best friend—or possibly his alternate personality—commits suicide. His friends are gone, he's alone, so what does he do? He decides to go back home. This does not end well.
• "Ghost Love Score" and "The Poet and the Pendulum" by Nightwish are two totally BSOD songs. A lot of Nightwish songs are, these are just the most outstanding ones.
• "Still Alive" From Portal, possibly the most passive-aggressive song known to humanity.
  • Possibly a literal BSOD song too, considering the singer is an AI.
  • Also probably a Shout-Out to HAL 9000's BSOD Song in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where he monotonously chants "Daisy Bell" as he's being disconnected.
• "Psychotic Reaction" by The Count Five might...um...count. The verses are fairly sedate, but they go into manic instrumental breaks.
• "Down Came the Rain" by Mr. Murray is a comic example. The singer is crooning a romantic ballad, but in the choruses where he sings about how the rain ruined his courtship, he goes into a totally bizarre vocal delivery.
• Pink Floyd's The Wall is practically an entire album of BSOD, but "Another Brick in the Wall Part III" and maybe "Stop" fit the best.
• "Can't Stand Losing You" by The Police.
• Poor Jack
  • The Nostalgia Critic parody subverts this. After a whole episode of being depressed and not wanting to do his job anymore, the song marks his triumphant return to being the cynical bastard we know and love.
  • The original song also subverts this halfway though, with Jack deciding that, yes, he screwed up, but it was a MAGNIFICENT screw-up and he had fun doing it (though he still intend to set things right).
• "Art of Life" by X Japan: it is an autobiographical song of Yoshiki's early 1990s collapse from "neurocirculatory asthenia." "Drain" could also fall here as it is arguably the last song hide would write for X Japan and possibly somewhat reflective of his mental state at the time.
  • "Art of Life" is a somewhat more literal example, when X Japan used a Hologram to give the impression that beloved guitarist hide was still with them. Yoshiki has stated that it was seeing hide's hologram (seen here at about the 5:42 mark) that caused him to break down.
• Non-singing example: "You're Not Alone!" from Final Fantasy IX. Also Crowning Music of Awesome.
• Harry Chapin's 'Sniper'. 'I'll never forgive you of your blindness ... I HATE YOU!' One performance of the song had his voice noticeably rougher from that point until halfway into the next song.
• Arguable 'Scissors', the last track from Slipknot's self titled debut, which was written as a reaction to death threats against Corey Taylor. Notable because he sounds on the verge of a real-life BSOD towards the end.
• Yuki from Suzumiya Haruhi has a song called "SELECT". Here are a few lines of the song...

Yuki: "Memories that do remain are changed to code and stored away/I know what's how it should be but there is now a [DISK ERROR]/[DISK ERROR]/[DISK ERROR]/[DISK ERROR]/[DISK ERROR]/[YES]"

• "I'm Alive" by Disturbed has elements of this, though it's much more of a "I'll hold my own beliefs and nobody can convince me otherwise" sort of song.
• The "See Me/Feel Me" reprise at the end of "We're Not Gonna Take It" in Tommy.
• About half of the songs in CosMo's series The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku. Some literally, much like the Haruhi example above.
• "Mind Over Matter" by Iron Savior is another fairly literal example, as the storyline's eponymous behemoth questions its own existence, realizing that despite having been artifically created, some power has brought it to consciousness.

I am what can't be - a mind in a digital brain

• "The Idol" from W.A.S.P.'s 1992 album The Crimson Idol marks main Rock Opera character Jonathan's Heroic BSOD that leads to his suicide, featuring the darkest lyrics up to that point and two incredibly depressing Pink Floyd-esque guitar solos.

If I were to stand and look in the mirror would I see One Fallen Hero with a face just like me? And if I scream, would anybody hear me? If I smash the silence, you'll see what fame has done to me!

• "Can't See (Useless)" by Oingo Boingo. At the time, the band was on its last legs, and lead singer Danny Elfman had just broken up with his girlfriend Caroline Thompson (who wrote Edward Scissorhands) and gotten into a fight with his friend Tim Burton.
• "Hurt", both the original Nine Inch Nails version and the cover by Johnny Cash - the former given that Trent Reznor was going through a personal BSOD when he wrote it, and the latter when you consider that Cash recorded it at the age of 71, in the grip of serious health problems, months before he died.
• "Everything In Its Right Place", from the Radiohead album Kid A, was written about a breakdown Thom Yorke had during the OK Computer tour, during which he was Dumb Struck. "How to Disappear Completely" sounds a hell of a lot like a BSOD Song, but is actually a description of a Survival Mantra.
• Van der Graaf Generator are quite fond of these. "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" is probably the best example.
• "Komm Süsser Tod", the dreaded song that plays during The End of the World as We Know It in The End of Evangelion. Uplifting jazz plays while the singer narrates about how she has lost everything, and how the time has come for her to "end it all, and leave forever."
• The dark reprise of "Turnabout Love/Does She Know, Does She Care?" in My Little Town
• Savatage's Streets: A Rock Opera has the song "Agony and Ecstasy", which is also part Villain Song. The BSOD portion represents the part of DT that's willing to give into despair and return to drugs for comfort.
  • Also, "Epiphany" from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Night Castle album. It's Tran-Do's Villainous BSOD after Cozier dies of infection while Tran-Do was too busy waffling over whether his side were Well-Intentioned Extremists or Complete Monsters. The end of the song has him standing at the edge of a cliff contemplating suicide because he believes for a moment that it's the only way he can be redeemed.
• "I want my own dream/So bad I'm gonna SCREAM!
• Demons and Wizards has "Winter of Souls", about Mordred on the eve of the final battle with his father King Arthur. He realizes that he's in the wrong and has used his legitimate grievances against Arthur as an excuse for his cruel ambitions, but it's too late to turn back and the fates of him and Arthur are sealed.
• Three Days Grace's "World So Cold" and "Someone Who Cares".
• I Will Go Sailing No More from Toy Story has Buzz gripping with the realization that he's a toy.
• Muse's "Micro Cuts" is a particularly psychotic example.