≡ Menu

Boomer Antherms: Fuzz Tone + Saxophone Moan = Bad to the Bone

Bad to the Bone – TV Tropes   You’re watching a movie and abruptly you hear a familiar song. From the cue you know that shit is going to go down and it is going to go down hard. This trope is humbly dedicated to any song that has been used in so many movies that playing it in a new movie tells the audience exactly what’s going to happen in the scene (and often draws groans of “Not that one again!”).

Similar in spirit to Ominous Latin Chanting, but using modern songs. Can overlap with Standard Snippet. Compare Suspiciously Apropos Music. May also sometimes involve Orchestral Bombing.

Not to be confused with Bad with the Bone.

The Trope Namer is George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”, a traditional badass blues-rock song commonly used to underscore a “cool” outlaw character. The best-known instance of this is as the Terminator emerges Hell-Bent for Leather in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • OneGuy December 3, 2022, 6:44 AM

    When I go to a movie or a concert I wear ear plugs. The volume is always too high and especially at certain points in the show.

    • Vanderleun December 3, 2022, 7:06 AM

      That’s correct. The current thinking is that if the music is bad make it lounder. If it is very bad shake the rafters.

  • Dirk December 3, 2022, 8:02 AM

    Come on, sound systems in movie houses have become very very outstanding, surround sound. Rarely go, when we do I want it to rattle my teeth, still have my original teeth. Just sayin.

  • Casey Klahn December 5, 2022, 8:15 AM

    I hope he gets a nickel for every time his anthem is used in a score.