Follow TV Tropes

Following

Quotes / Soundtrack Dissonance

Go To

"[insert unpleasant scene here] WHILE HIDEAKI ANNO PLAYS UNFITTING MUSIC"

Live-Action TV

"I just want to point out that we had 9/11 fucking on a bed. I'm not even sure what that means, but boy, you can put porn music to ANYTHING."

Buck Rogers: I put the jukebox on random, because that's how life is!
Vinyl

Hey, wait a minute, you can't use 'Amazing Grace' in a Devil movie.

I wanna see the movie this composer thought he was scoring.

Music

"Well, like, the deal is when you get a game over in most games the music's, like, sad, and almost like 'Hey, sorry you lost, better luck next time!' But the Mega Man 3 game over music is all happy. Like, like the game is just being a spiteful dick!"
Brentalfloss, intro to the CD version of Mega Man 3 Game Over With Lyrics

The score therefore contributes to the reality of the location but also provides an unsettling contrast to the vicious characters and actions taking place in the drab, decaying surroundings. "Background for Murder," for example, is interesting in that it is built on source music and acts as a weird counterpoint rather than a commentary on what takes place on the screen. It is a device that makes the murder even more chilling. It is an unusual device in film scoring and one that Mancini advices be used sparingly. But Touch of Evil is an unusual film. So is its music.
Tony Thomas, from the original liner notes for the Touch of Evil soundtrack album

See, when you come out of those up-tempo goddamn numbers, man, it’s impossible to make those transitions, and then you gotta go into somebody dying!... You know, they do this to me all the time, I don’t know what the hell they do it for, but goddammit, if we can’t come out of a slow record, I don’t understand. Is Don on the phone? OK. I want a goddamn concerted effort to come out of a record that isn’t a fuckin’ up-tempo record every time I do a goddamn death dedication... I want somebody to use his fuckin’ brain to not come out of a goddamn record that is, uh, that’s up-tempo, and I gotta talk about a fuckin’ dog dying!

Podcast

(While a bunch of men are discussing whether it's ethical to hunt tigers for sport.)
Bridget: The music thinks cartoon characters are building a barn.

"Lots of people are dying horribly, yet the music suggests that the Smurfs are going berry-picking."

Theatre

Officer Lockstock: Like I said, Little Sally. This isn't a happy musical.
Little Sally: But the music's so happy!
Officer Lockstock: Yes, Little Sally. Yes it is.
Urinetown, "I See A River"

Video Games

This next test is very dangerous. To help you remain tranquil in the face of almost certain death, smooth jazz will be deployed in three. Two. One. *smooth jazz*
The Announcer, Portal 2

Trevor Philips: (Gets into his truck to go pay the O'Neill Brothers a "visit" as he turns on the radio, only to hear "What A Fool Believes" playing) Uuuuuugh, this music's all fucking wrong! (Changes channel to a more aggressive heavy rock song) That's what I'm lookin' for!

Web Original

[N]othing says exploration and adventure like elevator rock. Later when they realized everyone hated it, they tried to fix it by speeding up the tempo. Like setting a Michael Bolton song to a Bossanova beat cranked out of a Casio, this made something bad even worse.

Chris: “Nails, get the riot guns from the guards! Bill, you flip over the mattresses and barricade the doors! Hammer, you find us a CD player so we can rock out to this week’s hottest Warner Bros. Records recording artists!”
David: I’m pretty sure I would have committed suicide ten years ago if I had to have my life scored by whoever chooses the songs for Smallville.
—Chris Sims and David Uzumeri, on Smallville ("Transference")

Basically the score sounds like an eighties disco, throughout which we are watching kids being hunted, old women going mad with carving knives, men being possessed — It's extremely disconcerting (and not in a good way) to watch potentially horrific acts underscored by an eighties disco beat. What’s worse, the more you listen to it, it becomes eminently hummable.

In the morning we have a physical fitness and truck driving montage to Kenny Loggins’ repugnant hit “Meet Me Halfway.” This song was obviously commissioned specifically for the film, as a repeated life lesson here is “Life doesn’t meet anyone halfway.” [We are meant not to reflect on the mixed message that life DOESN’T meet anyone halfway, whereas in the song you SHOULD meet Kenny Loggins halfway].

I suppose if Tarantino did it, people would laud the ironic juxtaposition, but this is Coleman Francis. Anything that appears to be a glimmer of brilliance is always pure happenstance.

Asuka: Shinji, you suck.
Shinji: Yeah? Well, let's see how you feel after I strangle you. Cue the light, happy jazz-pop!
Toastyfrog's End of Evangelion: Thumbnail Theatre

Web Video

When I think "Tough-as-nails cop driving home after he just murdered somebody", I'm not thinking Gloria Stefan and the Miami Sound Machine.
Good Bad Flicks on Cobra

A capella gospel with scenes of violence! It's brilliant!

Don't expect to hear the familiar dark, mischievous Danny Elfman theme, no. In the tradition of all LJN games, they give you something original.

(jaunty theme tune plays)

...What kinda horseshit is this.

"I've never seen a song so poorly matched up. You got monsters with weapons for hands, a young woman fleeing with fear, chasing into a creepy forest and a chicken who's a fucking AX! Are those really the images that come to your mind when you hear this song? If so, then you're fucked!"

"This is so romantic. Love to take my girlfriend on a gondola ride to this."
YouTube comment, on a video for Nile - Cast Down The Heretic

"[Z]e accompaniment tonight has been chosen by popular survey... und I hope you're as excited as I am! Ze song tonight is most appropriate for... ironic reasons. Ze best reasons. But first, a toast... to the answer of an age-old question." *glass falls to ground and shatters, and the carnage begins*
The Major, Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, having chosen Edwin Starr's "War" to play while Millennium annihilates London

Now before we look at any Madacy stuff, sans commentary, I absolutely have to note their 1993 opening logo. Never in my life have I ever seen such a schizophrenic logo. They just can't seem to figure out if they wanna present themselves as serious and stately or if they're trying to amp you up for a hair metal concert.

"Judging by the music of this theme song, it seems this show's a Slice of Life schoolgirl romance. And according to the animation, that's the furthest thing from it."
The Mysterious Mr. Enter on the "Freckles" theme, Top 20 Worst Cartoon Themes

Something that's just registered in my mind - the entirely inappropriate music. Right, I'm not gonna play this properly; I'm just gonna have a go at the music, I think. Let's have a... is this what I think it is? [sings (incorrect) lyrics to "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"] It is! Wh-why is that featuring in the background for an action game? What's it got to do with Counter-Strike? You can put any music you want in, lads. You don't worry about things like licensing, do ya?

Nothing says "genocide" like a funky R&B riff.
Diva on The Ten Commandments: The Musical, Musical Hell

This is probably what Claude Debussy was thinking while writing Clair de Lune.

Ooh, easy listening. That's the kind of music you hear when having 'Nam flashbacks!
Bobsheaux on the opening of Miracle in Toyland

This isn't a "game over" song! This is a song that plays when Mr. Silly goes over to the Silly Shop in order to get himself a new silly hat, but on his way there, he slips on a silly looking banana and then hurts his silly little bottom, and everyone there around him's just like, "Oh, better luck next time, Mr. Silly, you silly, silly sausage!"

"I think that one thing they did very tastefully is how they...like, the visuals, the imagery is so dark and foreboding, like 'ooh, something's gonna happen', but the music's so calm."
twosetviolin on the classical music used in Squid Game note 

"Honestly, I don't even know what to say about the music anymore. Was the guy who did the soundtrack for this thing trying to get fired or something? Who the hell sees dinosaurs fighting in an exploding volcano and thinks 'romantic ballad'?"

Western Animation

Opera music makes violence classy.
Peter Griffin, Family Guy


Try to avoid the landmines on the way back to the main trope as "Yakety Sax" plays in the background.

Top