Letting the Air Out of the Band: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Ostensibly, this trope shouldn't be played straight anymore because most (if not all) music players these days are digital, and when you pull the plug on a digital player, the music just stops abruptly rather than just fading. Yet it persists due to [[The Coconut Effect]].

 

See also [[Musicalis Interruptus]], for the instant version.

 

== Advertising ==

 

== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==

* At one point in ''[[Bleach]]'', Ichigo's [[Theme Music Power-Up]] starts up against Aizen, but then cuts out when his attack is blocked.

* ''[[Lucky Star]]'' often fades out the background music like this. For example, the cake buffet scene where it fades as the girls go from [[Food Porn|moaning in delight]] over all the cake they're eating to moaning in pain as they get full and still have a lot more to finish before their time is up to avoid getting charged for "an excessive amount of leftovers".

** Tsukasa's [[Expressive Shirt|Expressive Hairbow]] moment in episode 18 comes to mind.

* ''[[One Piece]]'' with Brook and the crew he's part of. They're all dying of a poison (or something of the like), and decide to go out playing 'Bink's Sake'. As the crew slowly succumbs to the poison, each instrument drops out until only Brook is remaining.

* ''Persona 4: The Animation'' has Ebihara Ai suddenly begin to pour out her love in front of Narukami Yu, to suitably stirring music...only to peter out when she clarifies that he isn't the one. [[The Stoic|"I see."]]

* Happens in ''[[Amagami]]'' at the end of Kaoru's arc.

** In the Season 2 finale {{spoiler|when, after seemingly dying in battle against the enemy, Seito is reunited with Louise, during a heartfelt reunion... the music continues... until Saito mentions he was saved by a fairy, after which the music peters out showing Louise's reaction to this}}

** In Season 3, Louise is dreaming of her and Saito, while the music plays a dreamy sequence... until an explosion from outside ruins the moment, immediately after which the music slows as we see Louise's irritated face.

== [[Film]] ==

* Used for dramatic effect in ''[[Apollo 13]]''. At the beginning of the mission, the music was full speed, everyone was happy, and all was right with the world. By the time the tape recorder was running out of battery power, the astronauts were in serious trouble.

* Happens in [[Not Another Teen Movie]] every time a dramatic moment [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|is made awkward]].

** {{spoiler|"No need to wear blindfolds when we're jerking each other off!" * music fizzles out* }}

* In ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'', the townsfolk have a band playing when the new sheriff arrives in town, which peters out suddenly when they see who it is.

* A similar moment happens in ''[[A Goofy Movie]]'' as Principal Mazur pulls the plug on Max's lip-synching performance as Powerline so he can impress the girl of his dreams... {{spoiler|but then ends up becoming one of the most popular kids in school, JUST BEFORE HE GRADUATES.}}

 

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' TOS episode "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" had this occur with an old-style jukebox, one with real records in it.

* ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'' does it when Richard Brown interrupts the standard roll call sequence.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* The use of this trope by [[Aaron Copland]] in the Hoe-Down from "Rodeo" is occasionally seen as brilliant, and occasionally seen as [[Narm]].

* Brian Eno did a brilliant version of this trope by having a band, in entirely separate rooms, playing "Nearer My God To Thee." Every single musician was counted in simultaneously, and thus they started in sync, but they were each left to keep their own time thereafter, with the result that they drifted eerily apart, until each one was given an individual dim. to fade. The idea was not to play it for comedic effect, but to recreate the sinking of the RMS ''Titanic'', if someone had managed to record the band as she went under. Hauntingly beautiful, and kinda eerie.

* Spacecorn's [[Speedy Techno Remake|trance remake]] of Gershon Kingsley's/Hot Butter's "Popcorn" (spelled "Popkorn") unexpectedly does this in midriff near the end, then speeds back up.

* "A Little Bit of Ecstasy" by Jocelyn Enriquez does this at the end of the slow section, before changing back to normal tempo.

* A minor subversion in Tchaikovsky's ''1812 Overture'', where an energetic fanfare (based on the [[Take That|French ''Marseillaise'']]) gradually becomes slower and deeper, but increasing in volume, switching from strings to brass, until the music is reduced to a heavy, pounding beat ... which suddenly explodes into a triumphant reprise of the opening theme, complete with church bells ringing. [[Crowning Music of Awesome]] ensues.

* Peter Schickele played with this in one of his concerts - the orchestra played an introductory chord when he walked onstage, and then played it again a few seconds later when he was about to stop talking, and then played it again after another few seconds, over and over again until he went over to a wall and unplugged a wire, at which point the chord they were in the middle of playing "deflated". Then he plugged it back in, and they "reinflated" and finished the chord.

* Done by [[Kiss]] at the end of "Black Diamond". They were slowing the tape down, so it gets MUCH deeper and slower.

** Preceded by [[Emerson Lake and Palmer]], who did the same trick at the end of "Knife Edge" on their first album.

* Done at the end of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, {{spoiler|[[Twist Ending|when it turns out that the guy she's singing to is homosexual.]]}}

* Done at the end of "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, to reflect the final words of the song: "You'll have me suicidal, *the background music trails off* suicidal, *the vocals follow suit* suici--"

== [[Theater]] ==

* One that most definitely comes to mind is in the musical ''[[The Drowsy Chaperone]]'' where they are at the penultimate crescendo of the score, and we are just about to hear the final glorious notes, when {{spoiler|Man in Chair's apartment blows a fuse and the super comes to fix the breakers (he had been calling him for a while, but Man in Chair never answered as he was still finishing the show). The entire cast is frozen in their tracks even as he shines the flashlight in their faces. The super eventually fixes the breaker just in time for a [[Theme Music Power-Up]], and we hear the musical's final notes. However, because of the power outage that happened, the moment is ruined.}}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' uses this a few times, most notably when you first try to fly on the black chocobo. Key word being 'try'.

** Possible third time: if you lose the race against Johnny, the music breaks down.

* ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'': Watch around 2:08 to 2:30 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KIObmo4rSM

** Also applies in multiplayer if all the players trap themselves in bubbles, whether by pressing "A" or respawning in one after losing a life, or the remaining players on screen put themselves in a bubble [[What an Idiot!|at the same time]] to avoid death.

* Happens when you fail a song in ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' and ''[[Guitar Hero]] II''.

** Inverted when the carousel breaks down due to a control failure. The music speeds up while the carousel spins rapidly, trapping the riders.

* Happens in the original ''[[Fable]]'', if you try to remove the sword in the stone outside the Temple of Avo when your character isn't strong enough.

* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons Shadow Over Mystara|Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara]]'', it happens after you beat the goblins' War Machine. When they try to ram you one last time but automatically miss, the contraption rolls right off a cliff. It pauses in the air long enough for the music to start wobbling to a halt, ''then'' it plummets along with all the goblins. You even get to hear it crash at the bottom.

* In ''[[Myst]] III: Exile'', this happens with part but not all the music when {{spoiler|you trap Saavedro between the shields}}.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

** Also happens in his ''Street Fighter 2010'' episode after deciding that [[Memetic Mutation|Guile's Theme does not go with the game.]]

* Happens several times in [[The Demented Cartoon Movie]].

* The use of this trope in the cartoon series ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'' was blatantly periodic and continual. Not only did it happen in every episode, but it also happened every five minutes.

* Disney's ''[[Mulan]]'' has an awful, jarring, highly effective twist at the end of [[Ear Worm]] "A Girl Worth Fighting For":

''[All catch sight of blood-red sky and village burned down to the ground. Music echoes then dies.]'' }}

** In "Tea at the Treedome" as [[SpongeBob]] unspectacularly returns to his seat after triumphantly convincing himself that he doesn't need water to live.

** A quicker variation occurs twice in a row in the first "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" episode, the first time being when MM and BB screw up putting their rings together, and the second time being when they succeed in the aforementioned action but MM briefly forgets to say the oath.

* In the [[Tex Avery]] short "Lucky Ducky", the characters run past a sign that reads "Technicolor ends here" and into a [[Deliberately Monochrome|black-and-white setting]], and as they stop running the music dies down to nothing. As the chase resumes, the background music fades in again.

** Avery did it in "Dixieland Droopy" as well, most noticeably as "John" runs through goopy cement and the flea band slows down, strains, then returns to normal when he extricates himself.

* In ''Cartoon Planet'', Space Ghost is asked by a fan letter how he became so funny. As he attempts to tell a joke to demonstrate his humor, [[Cannot Tell a Joke|it falls flatter as he goes on]], with the music slowing tempo to match.

* On ''[[Family Guy]]'', [["Well Done, Son" Guy|Peter]] has a band so they can play [[Full House Music]] during an appropriate moment with his father. They start when his dad says he loves his son only to stop when he adds that he doesn't like anything about him. Peter tells them to keep playing as that is the best he can probably get.

* The ''[[Megas XLR]]'' episode "All I Wanted Was A Slushie" brings us REGIS Mk. V, a [[Large Ham]] regenerating robot with his own [[Leitmotif]]. When Coop finally manages to defeat him by cutting off his power supply, his leitmotif slows at the same rate as he does.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ncgc78RIV0&feature=related This] segment of the [[Looney Tunes]] "Back Alley Oproar".

* In ''[[South Park]]'', in the season one episode "Tom's Rhinoplasty". When Mr. Garrison comes back to school, Wendy is relieved because she thinks that means the end of the class's substitute teacher Miss Ellen. Cue the happy fanfare music. Then Mr. Garrison announces he's quitting his job as a teacher. Cue fanfare music deflating like a tire.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Sound FX Tropes]]