abstract
| - Mainly a product of The Musical. This trope most often occurs when a composer wrote a really keen song. Or if there is a big star in the movie who must have a solo. Or the director has a favorite song that he wants to put in the movie. Unfortunately, there is really no way to inject the song into the story in the traditional "burst into song" way. So, the writer often gives us the immortal line "That reminds me of a song," or something similar and the character sits down at a piano or hops up on the stage to sing a little ditty that has....no plot significance whatsoever. ("Let's rehearse the ___ number" or "Let's film our music video" or "Let's dance to ___" and then doing exactly that are also popular.) At its most basic, this is a song sung just to kill time, with a fairly thin excuse. The song doesn't tell us anything about the characters or the setting, it doesn't advance the plot, it doesn't serve any obvious purpose at all besides filling out the running time. If the song does have Subtext, exposition, or plot-related action, and thus plot significance, it's Suspiciously Apropos Music. In Indian film, an upbeat song that has no relation to the plot is called an Item Number. Frequent justifications include having some or all of the characters be actors or actresses, or setting one of the scenes at a nightclub or similar. A small-scale variation on the Show Within a Show. It still shows up here and there, often as the Breakout Pop Hit, but is mostly a Discredited Trope. Modern musicals are specifically not supposed to do this anymore, except as a parody. For a more advanced version of this trope, one that is so out-of-nowhere that it borders on a Mind Screw, yet is never treated as anything the least bit weird by the characters and never mentioned again, see Big Lipped Alligator Moment. See also Silly Song, where the characters don't even try to justify the singing. Examples of That Reminds Me of a Song include:
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