Music Box Intervals

A song in whatever genre (rock and roll, heavy metal, pop, country, alternative rock, etc.) has intervals of music that sound like they came from a music box. These music box intervals may sound light-hearted, nostalgic, or calming compared to the rest of the song. Sometimes it can serve as a creepy contrast to the actual song, or it may actually go well with the general theme/sound of the song.

Compare Ominous Music Box Tune

Examples of Music Box Intervals include:

Anime and Manga

• Gravitation's "Sleepless Beauty".
• Naruto: Sadness And Sorrow, Grief And Sorrow, Man Of The World, Loneliness, etc.
• The SHUFFLE! anime has the song "Kabe no Mukou", which is quite creepy.
• Lilium, the opening song used in the Elfen Lied anime.
• Bleach: Soundscape To Ardor (Morning Remembrance)
• A music-box theme plays periodically in Cowboy Bebop, and the box itself is shown in one episode to belong to a certain character. It has a tune designed to invoke nostalgia.

Film

• Harry Potter: Hedwig's Theme.
• The song "I Am Listening" from I Am Legend.
• The theme song of the movie Requiem for a Dream.
• The theme song of the movie Forrest Gump, that plays in the opening.
• Titanic's "My Heart Will Go On".
• Anastasia's "Once Upon a December".

Music

• The British group Muse tends to have introductions like this.
• The song "Blue" by The Birthday Massacre.
• "Nemo" by Nightwish.
• "A little pain" by Olivia inspi' Reira (Trapnest).
• "Saeglopur" by Sigur Rós.
• "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order.
• "No Don't Shoot" by Foxy Shazam.
• Frank Mills - "Music Box Dancer."
• The Alan Parsons Project: "Eye In The Sky", "Don't Answer Me"
• Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "Bitches' Crystal".
• Coin Operated Boy
• A few Evanescence songs. Most notably, "My Immortal" and "Bring Me To Life".
• "Flyswatter" by Eels.
• "Golem II: The Bionic Vapour Boy" by Mr/Bungle (complete by winding up and down).
• "Kuso Breakin No Breakin Lilly" by Maximum the Hormone opens with this.
• Frosti by Bjork--actually much of Vespertine.
• The song "Music Box" by Thrice opens and closes with a music box playing.
• "Kid A" by Radiohead.
• "Every day", by Buddy Holly.
• The Protomen song "Father of Death" from Act II.
• The beginning of "Gz and Hustlas" by Snoop Dogg.

Video Games

• A lot of Kingdom Hearts songs: Kairi's theme, Namine's theme, Roxas's theme, Dearly Beloved, Hikari, etc.
• This song from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The ocarina songs in Majora's Mask (Song of healing, Stone Tower Temple theme, Elegy of Emptiness, etc. ) and The Ocarina of Time (Zelda's lullaby, Song of time, etc.); no doubt there's more songs in the Zelda video games that fit this trope.
  • "The Song of Storms" is technically played on a music box when you first hear it, but the device lacks the iconic tinny sound and more resembles a concertina.
• "Burning Heat! (3 Option Mix)", a remix of a song from Gradius 2 heard in DDRMAX 2: Dance Dance Revolution 7th Mix, drops back to NES-style bleeps for eight seconds.
• In NieR, there are several songs with music box arrangements, such as Dispossession and The Shadowlord's Theme.

Western Animation

• "Fixing WALL-E" by Thomas Newman.
• "Tears To Shed" from the movie Corpse Bride.
• A majority of the songs in the movie Coraline.
• Mrs. Potts singing Beauty and the Beast in the movie's ballroom scene.