A character listens to a piece of music, and it sparks in them a profound reaction or emotional response, often one that is exaggerated or wholly unnatural.
In most cases, this involves the listener hearing music so beautiful, so perfect, that it actually moves that person to tears, be it a Single Tear, Manly Tears, Tears of Awe, or just flat-out uncontrollable sobbing. Other times, a moving musical piece may send the listener into a kind of deep, tranquil state of serenity and extreme calmness, as if the world around them suddenly ceased to exist and all that remained was their song and their sheer devotion to it.
May very well be the result of hearing a Beautiful Singing Voice.
Compare or Contrast Brown Note.
In-Universe Examples Only
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Played for laughs in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War where Hayasaka is brought to tears over how average Shirogane's rapping is (much to Kaguya's confusion). Given just how bad it was the last time she heard it...
Hayasaka: What an amazingly mediocre rap. I can't imagine how much practice it took to become this average. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry.
Fujiwara: I understand completely. - Ouran High School Host Club: In a flashback, when 13-year-old Tamaki visits Kyoya's house for the first time, he plays a song on the piano for his family. Not only does Tamaki's playing move Kyoya's normally-stoic brothers to tears, but also Kyoya himself, who has been nothing but annoyed with Tamaki the entire time they've known each other.
Comic Books
- The Sandman (1989): In "The Sandman Special", Orpheus journeys to the underworld to retrieve his bride Eurydice. His singing is so wonderful that the entire Underworld stops to listen. The Shades and Furies are brought to tears, and the hearts of Hades and Persephone are moved.
Persephone: Thou hast made the furies weep, Orpheus. They will never forgive you for that.
Films — Animated
- Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown: Snoopy, in his persona as a World War I flying ace visits a French tavern, where he plays a series of tunes on an old jukebox that have him laughing, dancing, and even crying unabashedly into his mug of root beer.
Films — Live-Action
- In Equilibrium, John Preston uncovers a secret stash of emotionally-stimulating contraband (literature, art, music, etc) and he takes the time to listen to an old record of Ludwig van Beethoven. Having spent most of his life under an emotion-suppressing drug enforced by the state, it moves him to tears.
- The Shawshank Redemption: Andy locks a guard in the restroom and begins playing "Duettino Sull'Aria" from The Marriage of Figaro over the loudspeaker. Red says he doesn't know what the song was about, but he'd like to believe it was something too beautiful to put into words. The prisoners at Shawshank all seem captivated by it.
- Played for Laughs in Tommy Boy. Tommy and Richard switch between stations till they end up on one playing The Carpenters' "Superstar". They start out awkwardly snarking about the song, but then, we cut to them passionately singing along with tears streaming down their faces. And then, their car hood suddenly flies open.
Live-Action TV
- Babylon 5: In "There All The Honor Lies", one of Kosh's enigmatic lessons to Sheridan was to bring him to a room in the worst part of Downbelow to find "beauty in the dark". There, he encountered a group of hooded figures who perform a Gregorian chant, which makes a definite impression on Sheridan.
- Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.: In one episode, Sgt. Carter, Gomer, and some of his fellow Marines are in a bar when Gomer is talked into performing a song. The one he performs is a tribute to his father. Normally hard-laced Carter is not only surprised at Gomer's excellent singing ability but also so moved by the song, which makes him think of his own father, that he bursts into tears.
- How I Met Your Mother: In "Unpause," the night before Barney and Robin's wedding, Barney reaches a stage of drunkenness that Robin and Ted haven't seen before: Truth Serum Drunk. To test it, Ted asks Barney if he really had something in his eye when a Bryan Adams song came on the radio.
Barney: No. I was just moved because everything he did, he did for her.Ted: Checks out!
- Saturday Night Live: In "Driver's License" some tough guys at a pool hall start out snarking about Olivia Rodrigo's breakup ballad "driver's license" when one of them puts it on. However, they wind up complimenting the song's emotionality and debating its musical influences. The lyrics drive one of them to tears as it reminds him of his own breakup, and the group ends up belting the bridge together.
- Seinfeld: Elaine dates a guy who stares off into space as he becomes lost in emotion every time he hears the song "Desperado". He later ends up dying in the ER because his surgeon has the same reaction to the song "Witchy Woman"
- Played for drama in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Sarek". The famous ambassador/father-of-Spock shows up on the Enterprise to conduct the final negotiation of his long and distinguished career. Unfortunately, a seeming contagion begins to affect the crew's emotions. When Sarek and his current wife are invited to attend a ship-board concerto, Counselor Troi senses something is wrong partway through an emotionally-moving violin piece. From the television audience's POV, it shows that Sarek is subtly shedding a single tear, crying being something that a Vulcan usually represses.
- Supernatural: In "Fan Fiction", Sam and Dean, after being appalled and bemused by the all-girl high school musical adaptation of the in-universe Supernatural books (aka, their lives) for most of the episode, are visibly moved by their soulful rendition of "Carry On, My Wayward Son" note , sung by the actors representing their late parents, Bobby, and themselves.
Music
- David Bowie: Discussed in the Title Track of Young Americans. During the song's breakdown, the narrator lists off all the things he can no longer find in the midst of America's declining society, culminating in the anguished plea "ain't there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?"
- Tears for Fears: "Famous Last Words" tells the story of a couple getting caught in a nuclear apocalypse and deciding to spend their last moments in each other's company. During the song's bridge, the narrator states that "hand in hand, we'll do and die, listening to the band that made us cry."
- Wildo: Invoked in "Untitled", where in the chorus, the narrator tells his muse that "I hope you cry to the songs I write."
Mythology & Religion
- Greek Mythology: This is how Orpheus convinced Hades and Persephone to let Eurydice leave the Underworld. His music was so beautiful and sad that it also gave several souls in Tartarus a brief relief from their torments.
Video Games
- Pink Panther's Passport to Peril: In India, Pink (and thus the player) is treated to a song about the history of the Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan, the emperor who built it for his wife who died from complications of childbirth. With lyrics like "And this emperor couldn't stop his tears / the news confirmed his darkest fears" and "three hundred years have passed somehow / two lovers lie together now", it's hard not to tear up. Pink himself is on the verge of tears when the song ends.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: While searching for Dandelion in Novigrad, Geralt and Zoltan look for Dandelion's new lover Priscilla, first listening to her song "The Wolven Storm", a song about Geralt's lover for Yennefer. Several of the audience members are moved to tears, The King of Beggars (one of the city's crime bosses) stops to listen, and even the emotionally stunted Geralt becomes introspective as the song comes to its end.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In the episode "Battle of the Bands", Captain Grime enters the music competition and performs on his harp a piece "dedicated to the serenity of nature". A few hours go by, and by the performance's end, everybody is seen weeping with awe and mesmerization. It's enough to name Grime the winner of the night.
- In Chuck Jones' animated adaptation of The Cricket in Times Square, Harry the cat is so moved by hearing "Indian Love Call" ("When I'm calling you...") on the radio that he starts to sing along (rather nicely, in fact). His friends Tucker the mouse and Chester the cricket are a little stunned.
- In Final Space, Gary, Little Cato, Mooncake, and Kevin are going to confront The Lord Commander shortly after he kills Avocato. Gary asks HUE to play "The Good Stuff", expecting majestic music and war trumpets. Instead, he got Shelby Merry's "When Darkness Comes", which reminds him of everyone he has loved who has died (such as Avocato). This causes him to break down in tears and he goes to the back of the spacecraft to cry his heart out as Little Cato takes over in the pilot's seat.
- Justice League Unlimited: In the episode "This Little Piggy" after the goddess Circe transforms Wonder Woman into a pig, Batman and Zatanna track the goddess down to try to force her to undo her spell. Unable to take her down, Batman proposes an exchange, which Circe agrees to on the grounds that he gives up something incredibly and deeply personal to him in return for undoing the spell she cast. Bats opts to sing a rendition of "Am I Blue?" by Harry Akatosh and Grant Clarke, which moves both Zatanna and Circe to tears. Both on account of Batman having a surprisingly incredible singing voice (thanks in no small part to his VA Kevin Conroy), and it's Bats almost admitting to his loneliness and feelings for Diana/Wonder Woman.
- Merrie Melodies: Near the end of the cartoon "The CooCoo Nut Grove", the caricature of Helen Morgan sings a torch song, which causes everyone to cry so much that they flood the nightclub with their tears.
- The Simpsons:
- A minor Running Gag in Seasons 3 & 4 involves a member of the Simpson family calling a hotline about a problem they have, only for the operator to put them on hold and play a pop song that ironically relates to their problem. Cue the waterworks.
- This was played with in "Homer Loves Flanders", where, instead of crying, Homer doesn't notice the irony and starts happily singing along.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- In "Texas", a depressed Sandy croons a country ballad about her homesickness for Texas, which makes everyone within earshot start bawling.
Patrick: (suddenly perks up) Do you think she knows the Muffin Man song?- In "Chimps Ahoy", SpongeBob and Patrick find out Sandy might have to leave Bikini Bottom due to being unable to invent something to impress her bosses. After attempting to build something for her to help, SpongeBob almost gives up only to hear Sandy sing a song of grief over having to leave Bikini Bottom, motivating him to keep working.
