Shoot the Shaggy Dog/Music

• Savatage's Dead Winter Dead is a Rock Opera about the Bosnian War. One of the characters is an old man who plays cello in a bombed out square, protesting the war with complete disregard for his safety. Unfortunately, he can only tempt fate so long before he's finally killed. His protest accomplishes virtually nothing, two other characters are saddened by his death and flee Sarajevo, but otherwise nobody notices or cares and the war rages on.
• More or less the plot of The Pretty Things' 1968 Rock Opera S.F. Sorrow. All of Sorrow's friends are killed in World War I, his fianceé dies in a dirigible accident in front of his eyes, and is forced into a trip by Baron Saturday to the moon where Sorrow learns that his life has been, and will continue to be, meaningless. By the end, Sorrow is emotionally shattered and isolates himself from society for the remainder of his life.