History Main / NoMusicAllowed

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'': When Ariel was very young, her mother died while trying to retrieve the music box Triton had given her. This caused Triton to blame music for the death of his wife and ban it for 10 years. This doesn't sit well with his RebelliousPrincess daughter Ariel, who joins a secret music club behind his back. After the club gets discovered, Ariel decides to run away, only to find her mother's music box. Seeing the music box again reminds Triton of the good times his family had before his wife's death and lifts the ban to reconcile with his daughters.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]", Anthony -- whose mental powers force his neighborhood to live in fear -- does not like singing, so no one ever tries to sing for fear that he'll get angry and kill them.

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[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{BASEketball}}'': Lampshaded. The opening narration discusses how sports used to be honorable and celebrated "the human potential to achieve excellence" before they became monetized and commercialized. In their search for greener pastures and greater profits, entire teams would change cities. Salt Lake City is referenced as one of those cities, and one that bans music.

* The book ''Literature/ItsAGoodLife'' (yes, the very same one ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' adapted into an episode; see below for that example) As with ''The Twilight Zone'', the boy bans all music and singing. However, the book explains that he's only 3 years old and just hates loud noises.
* ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters:'' Heaven is described as a place where all is either music or blessed silence. So both music and silence are forbidden in Hell: [[HellIsThatNoise everything is noise and cacophony]].

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E73ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]", Anthony - whose mental powers force his neighborhood to live in fear - does not like singing, so no one ever tries to sing for fear that he'll get angry and kill them.

-> We are living day-to-day
-> Forced to bear the lion's share
-> People just don't have the time for music anymore
-> But no one seems to care

-->'''Fraulein Schmitt:''' Ever since the Captain lost his poor wife he runs this house as if he was on one of his ships again.
-->'''Fraulein Helga:''' Whistles, orders.
-->'''Fraulein Franz:''' No more music, no more laughing. Nothing that reminds him of her.

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* ''Website/{{Vine}}'': PlayedForLaughs in WebVideo/ThomasSanders's series "Bad Musical Ideas". In one short, Theatre/TheDiaryOfAnneFrank gets turned into a musical, with Emily Garcia playing Anne. She starts to sing, but she's immediately silenced by Thomas and Michael Tremaine as fellow Jews. This is because there is a Nazi downstairs.
-->'''Emily''': ''I wish I-''
-->'''Thomas and Michael''': SHHHH!
-->'''Michael''': (hushed) Idiot! Why would you be singing right now?!
-->'''Thomas''': (also hushed and pointing his finger down) The Nazi's down-!
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[[folder:Web Video]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E011SonicsSong Sonic's Song]]", Catty Carlisle writes a song about Sonic, which all of Mobius starts singing. [[ActuallyQuiteCatchy Even Scratch and Grounder can't help singing and dancing along to the song]] even though they know it's a song about their archenemy. When Dr. Robotnik finds out, he is not happy about this and invents the Music Destroyer robot to rid all of Mobius of music, save for the VillainSong that he writes about himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheCatPiano'': After numerous cat singers are mysteriously kidnapped, including Le Chat Blanc, the city bans all music and musical instruments to protect everyone. The ban is lifted after the singers are rescued from the mad human keeping them in his cat piano.

Usually, the absence of a loved one who enjoyed music will cause the bereaved to forbid music from playing in their home again. However, there can be other motives for banning music, such as TheNewRockAndRoll or something as simple as being embarrassed that the person can't dance. There are also religious reasons and the fear that music and dancing will lead people astray. In any case, the people who are affected by this ban will become miserable and life will become dull and humdrum. Often with this trope, someone will rebel against the idea and find some way to bring music back into the lives of their friends and family.

** While making this rule is usually part of Robotnik's MO whenever he takes over in the franchise as a whole, this series took it to a whole other level. Robotnik has made music illegal throughout his empire, and one of the primary ways the Freedom Fighters, and the Hedgehog triplets in particular, show defiance of his rule is to hold underground concerts. That and sabotage, lots and lots of sabotage.

-->--The '''Music Destroyer''', ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'', "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E011SonicsSong Sonic's Song]]"

* Generally, any society that bans or seriously restricts music does so for religious reasons: it encourages dancing, which is immodest, especially for women; the dominant governing party has an interpretation of their religion that says this is abhorrent in the sight of God and that it encourages base conduct and lewdness; or that the only permissible music is the singing of hymns and their accompaniment. Examples of societies that banned or seriously restricted music would include England under the Commonwealth, where UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell had to cede religious authority to the Puritans. There is also the case of modern Afghanistan under the Taliban, who do not like music ''at all'', arguing this is offensive to Allah.

* Generally, any society that bans or seriously restricts music does so for religious reasons: it encourages dancing, which is immodest, especially for women; the dominant governing party has an interpretation of their religion that says this is abhorrent in the sight of God and that it encourages base conduct and lewdness; or that the only permissible music is the singing of hymns and their accompaniment. Examples of societies that banned or seriously restricted music would include England under the Commonwealth, where UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell had to cede religious authority to the Puritans (the same people who got to New England on the Mayflower). There is also the case of modern Afghanistan under the Taliban, who do not like music ''at all'', arguing this is offensive to Allah.

* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': One of the many stand-alone comics takes place in Alternative Universe that is a straight Parody of Fahrenheit 451, except "firemen" burn anything related to music instead of books. Scrooge takes the role of FunHatingConfiscatingAdult whose CynicismCatalyst as a child was [[spoiler: having his voice-recognizing safe looted, after he made the mistake of humming the tune that unlocks it in public.]]
* ''Nightcat'': The initial conflict of the story comes from Jacqueline's father forbidding her from playing music after her mother, a failed musician, [[TheAlcoholic drank herself to death]]. Jacqueline rebels against this, secretly playing in a GarageBand with her friends during high-school and eventually becoming a world-famous popstar using a pseudonym.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaidIIIArielsBeginning'': When Ariel was very young, her mother had died while trying to retrieve the music box Triton had given her. This caused Triton to blame music for the death of his wife and ban it for 10 years. This doesn't sit well with his RebelliousPrincess daughter Ariel, who joins a secret music club behind his back. After the club gets discovered, Ariel decides to run away, only to find her mother's music box. Seeing the music box again reminds Triton of the good times his family had before his wife's death and lifts the ban to reconcile with his daughters.

* Music/{{Styx}}: ''Music/KilroyWasHere'' is a consept album about a world where Rock N Roll has been banned

* Played with in ''Theatre/TheGuyWhoDidntLikeMusicals''. Paul (TheHero and the titular man who doesn't likes musicals) is constantly unnerved by people breaking into song around him and tries to shut them up. The reason why this happens is a whole lot darker than usual, though: [[spoiler:the musical element of the play isn't a regular MusicalWorldHypotheses, but instead it's the manifestation of an alien HiveMind taking over the town.]]

* ''Theatre/WeWillRockYou'' has a variation: an ancient prophecy states that rock 'n roll will bring about the downfall of [[BigBad Killer Queen]], the CorruptCorporateExecutive who runs the [[MegaCorp Globalsoft Corporation]], so she's destroyed every musical instrument on the planet and forces everyone to listen to computer-generated songs, which creates a culture of conformity. Main characters Galileo hears rock music in his head despite never encountering it, and eventually joins up with fellow non-conformist Scaramouche and a group known as the Bohemians who believe in the prophecy; by working together, they bring music back to the world and defeat Killer Queen.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' episode, "[[Recap/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehogS01E011SonicsSong Sonic's Song]]", Catty Carlisle writes a song about Sonic, which all of Mobius starts singing. [[ActuallyQuiteCatchy Even Scratch and Grounder can't help singing and dancing along to the song]] even though they know it's a song about their archenemy. When Dr. Robotnik finds out, he is not happy about this, and invents the Music Destroyer robot to rid all of Mobius of music, save for the VillainSong that he writes about himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/OscarsOrchestra'' is set in the city of "New Vienna" in the year [[EleventyZillion 735 squillion]], 22 million, 381 thousand, six hundred and four, where the world is ruled by mad dictator [[PsychopathicManchild Thadius Vent]]. As a boy, he neglected his piano lessons, and was publicly humiliated during a concert when the audience realized that his [[AnimateInanimateObject sentient piano]], Oscar, was actually playing himself. This left him with a lifelong hatred for music, and [[ItsPersonal Oscar]] in particular; as world ruler, he has now outlawed all music and is determined to eliminate it altogether. Oscar and his fellow instruments are equally determined to thwart Thadius' plans and restore music to the world.

** In the episodes "When in Rome" and "Six Is a Crowd", The Oracle of Delphius sends the main trio into [[AlternateUniverse parallel worlds]] (the Ancient Rome like world where Sleetus (Sleet of this world) overthrew a true emperor and MirrorUniverse where Robotnik is a good guy and main trio are evil, respectively). The ban of music is a mandatory in both worlds (until the main trio visited them).

* Generally, any society that bans or seriously restricts music does so for religious reasons: it encourages dancing, which is immodest, especially for women; the dominant governing party has an interpretation of their religion which says this is abhorrent in the sight of God and that it encourages base conduct and lewdness; or that the only permissible music is the singing of hymns and their accompaniment. Examples of societies that banned or seriously restricted music would include England under the Commonwealth, where UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell had to cede religious authority to the Puritans (the same people who got to New England on the Mayflower). There is also the case of modern Afghanistan under the Taliban, who do not like music ''at all'', arguing this is offensive to Allah.
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* ''DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': One of the many stand-alone comics takes place in Alternative Universe that is a straight Parody of Fahrenheit 451, except "firemen" burn anything related to music instead of books. Scrooge takes the role of FunHatingConfiscatingAdult whose CynicismCatalyst as a child was [[spoiler: having his voice-recognizing safe looted, after he made the mistake of humming the tune that unlocks it in public.]]

* ''Oscar's Orchestra'' is set in the city of "New Vienna" in the year [[EleventyZillion 735 squillion]], 22 million, 381 thousand, six hundred and four, where the world is ruled by mad dictator [[PsychopathicManchild Thadius Vent]]. As a boy, he neglected his piano lessons, and was publicly humiliated during a concert when the audience realized that his [[AnimateInanimateObject sentient piano]], Oscar, was actually playing himself. This left him with a lifelong hatred for music, and [[ItsPersonal Oscar]] in particular; as world ruler, he has now outlawed all music and is determined to eliminate it altogether. Oscar and his fellow instruments are equally determined to thwart Thadius' plans and restore music to the world.