An index of various types of musical numbers found in... musicals. If you're wondering just what's up with all the singing anyway, see Musical World Hypotheses.
Tropes:
Genres- The Musical: A play, film, TV series, or other work which prominently features a lot of singing and dancing.
- Animated Musical: A cartoon movie or TV show filled with musical numbers, as popularized by Disney.
- Diegetic Musical: A music where all its songs are performed in-universe as a rehearsal or for a crowd.
- Jukebox Musical: A musical with a soundtrack consisting mostly of preexisting songs.
- Musical Episode: A non-musical show has an episode filled with singing and dancing.
- Opera: A dramatic play that's nearly entirely comprised of singing, with little or no dialogue that is plainly spoken.
- Rock Opera: A rock Concept Album that tells a story entirely from the main character's point of view.
Songs and singing
- Actually Quite Catchy: A character you'd expect to hate a particular song on principle just can't help getting caught up in the rhythm.
- Age-Progression Song: A song which shows someone growing older as the years pass by.
- All-Knowing Singing Narrator: A musical has a singing Narrator who knows everything in the story despite not having an In-Universe reason to.
- Angry Mob Song: A song sung by a group of angry people, usually having something to do with what they're angry about.
- Audience Participation Song: The show's viewing audience is invited to sing along.
- Award-Bait Song: That epic song in a musical that everyone loves.
- Bad Girl Song: A woman sings about how lustful she is.
- Big Finale Crowd Song: A Crowd Song sung near or at the end of the work.
- Bravado Song: A song about one's own bravery or lack of fear.
- Song of Courage: A song about facing up to a life-threatening situation.
- BSoD Song: Somebody in a really bad mood sings about how bad a mood they're in.
- Busby Berkeley Number: Busby Berkeley was a real person; this is a trope for musical numbers that are based on his work.
- Call-and-Response Song: One person sings a statement, and the others reply to them.
- Changing Chorus: When the chorus changes in lyrics.
- Christmas Songs: Songs sung at Christmastime or about Christmas itself in many ways.
- Anti-Christmas Song: When The Grinch feels like singing about why the Crappy Holidays suck.
- Colorful Song: A song which mentions lots of colors.
- Crowd Song: A whole lot of people singing in unison, perfectly.
- Cut Song: A song that was written but not used; this is a trivia article.
- Dark Reprise: A sadder version of a previously-sung happy song.
- Death Song: When a character's last words were a song.
- Descent into Darkness Song: A song starts off bright but becomes darker and sinister near the end.
- Disney Acid Sequence: A musical sequence (usually animated) set to abstract and often bizarre visuals not present in the rest of the work.
- The Diss Track: Insulting someone in song.
- Earth Song: Green Aesop Musical Numbers.
- Educational Song: A song which teaches some sort of information through catchy lyrics.
- Alphabet Song: A song that either teaches or features the alphabet through its lyrics.
- Counting Song: A song that teaches counting or has counting in its lyrics.
- The Eleven O'Clock Number: A musical ends with a song to wrap up the plot.
- Fanfare: Uplifting brass instruments to celebrate something.
- Fear Song: A song about one's fears, whether they be phobias, anxieties, or something else.
- Friendship Song: A song about the friendship between two or more characters.
- "Gaining Confidence" Song: A song in which the singer grows more confident over the course of the number.
- Ghost Song: A song sung by, or about the spirits of the dead.
- Gospel Revival Number: An upbeat, religious song.
- Grief Song: A song about how sad the singer/s is or are about a person's death or disappearance.
- Halloween Songs: Songs about Halloween.
- Hakuna Matata: A song about optimism.
- "The Hero Sucks" Song: A song bashing the hero.
- Homesickness Hymn: A homesick character sings about how much they miss home.
- Hey, Let's Put on a Show: The easiest way to make some money is to do a play.
- "I Am Becoming" Song: A character sings about how they're changing or have changed as a person.
- "I Am Great!" Song: Someone brags in song form.
- "I Am" Song: A character sings about who they are.
- "I Want" Song: The protagonist sings about something they want.
- Image Song: A song that describes a character.
- Interscene Diegetic: A character is singing or playing a song, then it cuts to another scene away from the character but the audience can still hear the song.
- Irrelevant Act Opener: The second act of a play opens with a song that's not relevant to the rest of the play.
- The Item Number: A sexual Bollywood song.
- Job Song: A character sings about what they or someone else does (or will do or wants to do) for a living.
- Working Class Anthem: A song about how much the job sucks and we ain't gonna take it no moe'!
- Let's Duet: Any example of a duet, i.e. a song between two people.
- Counterpoint Duet: One character sings, then another character sings different lyrics to the same tune, then both sing their own lyrics at the same time.
- Distant Duet: Two characters sing different parts of the same song, but they're nowhere near each other.
- Duet of Differences: Two characters sing about what makes them different from one another.
- Final Love Duet: The leads sing a duet about their love towards the end.
- Hero vs. Villain Duet: The hero and villain sing a song together, often while fighting.
- Solo Duet: The song's lyrics sound like a duet (for example, it sounds like a conversation) but in actual fact, it's just one person singing.
- List Song: A song with a list in it.
- Location Song: A song about a place.
- Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: A song about all the main characters' opinions towards something.
- Melancholy Musical Number: A song where the singer is sad about something, and sings why.
- Memory-Restoring Melody: A song that helps a character remember something crucial they previously forgot or mentally suppressed.
- Minor Character, Major Song: A minor character in a musical that sings a memorable song that's their only one.
- Misogyny Song: Hating the opposite gender in song form, usually women.
- Movie Bonus Song: A song featured specifically for the movie adaptation of a play written by at least one of the original songwriters.
- Musical Chores: Singing while doing chores.
- Musical Number Annoyance: A character is annoyed whenever a musical number happens.
- Musicalis Interruptus: A song is interrupted before it can become a proper song.
- The Music Meister: The character who makes the other characters sing.
- No Reprise, Please: A character starts a musical number and later, another character tries to sing the song again but is told something along the lines of, "Not now, we've already done that."
- Ode to Apathy: A song about not caring.
- Ode to Family: A musical number about familial love.
- Ode to Food: A song about food.
- Ode to Youth: A song about how great or sucky it is to be young.
- Obsession Song: A song about an obsessive crush the singer has on the person the song's dedicated to.
- Opening Chorus: The first scene centres around a song.
- Parental Love Song: Someone sings about how much they love their parent/son/daughter.
- Patter Song: A fast, wordy song.
- Pep-Talk Song: A song meant to inform or cheer up the listener.
- Pirate Song: Pirates singing shanties about piratey things.
- Protest Song: Singing about disaagreeing with or rebelling against some sort of institution.
- Anti-Police Song: A song which criticizes police corruption and misconduct.
- Hail to the Thief: A satrical song which mocks a particular political leader.
- Quarreling Song: Arguing in song.
- Reprise Medley: A big number, usually near the end, that reprises many different songs at once.
- Revenge Ballad: A song about getting revenge on your enemies.
- Rousing Lullaby: A boisterous (or energetic, or frightening) song about calming down and going to sleep.
- Sanity Slippage Song: A song about being insane.
- Self-Soothing Song: Relaxing and calming down in song form.
- Sensational Staircase Sequence: A musical number that utilizes or takes place on a staircase.
- Serenade Your Lover: A song you sing for the person you're dating or married to.
- Setting Introduction Song: A Location Song that is about introducing said location when it's the main one.
- "Setting Off" Song: A jaunty song about getting ready for an adventure.
- Show Stopper: Big, powerful number that brings down the house, perhaps literally stopping the show because the audience is so moved.
- Sidekick Song: The hero's sidekick sings about themselves.
- Silly Love Songs: Most songs you've ever heard of are likely about expressing romantic sentiments.
- Anti-Love Song: And then there's these songs about dysfunctional "love" or hatred.
- Singing Mountie: Royal Canadian Mounted Police as stock musical characters.
- The Singing Mute: Mutes don't talk, but they do wind up contributing to big and elaborate musical numbers.
- Singing Telegram: Using a song to deliver a message.
- The Something Song: A song called "The (X) Song".
- "Somewhere" Song: A song about a faraway utopia.
- The Song Before the Storm: A song just before the climax of the story.
- Song of Many Emotions: A song that mentions at least three emotions.
- Song of Prayer: A song in which the characters singing address deity or deities directly.
- Songs of Solace: A song about a character's loneliness.
- Softer and Slower Cover: A previously fast or upbeat song is sung slower and calmer.
- Spelling Song: Spelling something in-song.
- Spoofing in the Rain: A parody of the movie Singin' in the Rain.
- Sudden Musical Ending: The work or episode ends with a song despite it not being a musical.
- Summon Backup Dancers: When a musical number starts, background characters pop up out of nowhere and dance.
- Superfluous Solo: A YMMV article for a solo song that is the singer's only song and only exists to give that character their moment in the sun.
- Tenor Boy: All male leads are tenors.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: A song that's in there for no reason.
- "They've Come So Far" Song: A song that is meant to emphasize how much a character and/or plot has advanced.
- This Is a Song: A song that at least partially references itself.
- Tired After the Song: After singing, a character appears tired.
- Torch Song: A song about lost or unrequited love.
- Triumphant Reprise: A happier version of a previous sad song.
- Villain Song: A song that's sung by a villain.
- No Song for the Wicked: When the villain doesn't get to sing their own song, despite the work having a lot of singing in it.
- Villain Love Song: A song sung by a villain trying to seduce someone.
- Villain Recruitment Song: The villain sings, asking the hero to join them.
- Villainous Advice Song: A villain gives a hero bad advice in song.
- Villainous Lament: A villain sings about being sad.
- "The Villain Sucks" Song: A song which is all about insulting the villain.
- Wanderlust Song: A song about going away from home/wanting to be away from home.
- Warning Song: A song warning someone about something or someone known to be dangerous.
- Welcoming Song: People welcoming a character to a new place in song.
- Wrap-Up Song: A song that ends every episode.
