Because there's nothing quite like the moment when the villain gets to show off their villainy in STYLE, and unless you're the laconically menacing type like Shan Yu, the best way to do that is with a song! I'll start with my favorites! This one's a brand new favorite of mine and inspired the whole thread: and if the rest of Wander Over Yonder is this good I may actually try to watch it! It's like the most perkiest kawaii-est Tom Waits villain song ever. And speaking of Tom Waits villain songs: and the briar is strangling the rose back down! And then of course there are SO MANY good Disney villain songs - Poor Unfortunate Souls, Be Prepared, Friends On The Other Side... I could fill this post with them, but I'll limit myself to just this one for now. Share your favorites, talk about villains, be the bad guy!
Also, everyone knows "Where there's a whip there's a way," but the old animated Return of The King also has this great bit of orcsong also have a couple great songs from musicals i have not watched and do not know the rest of the soundtracks to (pfffff, go hunting specifically for villain songs? who does that??)
i don't know if you count sweeney todd and mrs.lovett as villains or not but i love the whole soundtrack for the demon barber of fleet street. best bad person songs. aside from that though:
Oh man, I was singing these in the shower just the other day! JoCo is one of my faves in general. <3 And if we're counting examples that aren't from specific media, TMBG have a few...
because i'm homestuck trash, the condescension song (a parody of the oogie boogie song from a nightmare before christmas, another great villain song) is also one of my favorite villain tunes:
i can't find a good version of this with the actual cartoon visuals on youtube, but here's gimme the wand (fairly oddparents, fairy idol) sung by norm the genie, my fave character ever:
and here's the pixie rap (fairly oddparents, schools out: the musical), sung by head pixie and sanderson:
I wish disney would make another classic movie so they could give Leslie Odom Jr. the villain song. The Room Where It Happens is so good.
Spoiler: for people who haven't watched the song + gender stuff i just watched it and i find it really fascinating how the Green Bad Guy character changes back and forth from a very sensuous, feminine presentation (those curves) to much more masculine one (that voice) during the song. like, it really took me by surprise.
I saw it!! i was already pretty excited for Moana and now i'm over the moon with movie anxiety. sadly i'll have to wait for it (hA!) to come out on dvd or something if i wanna hear the lyrics because theaters here will only have the dub and its notoriously difficult to translate songs into brazilian portuguese
@Dist want some fun music theory stuff about This Day Aria? (Real Cadance's half of the song ends on a true cadence, Chrysalis!Cadance's half of the song contains a deceptive cadence. Daniel Ingram has confirmed that it was deliberate.)
This fact never fails to make me incredibly happy. Just...little details like that, man. (...So who else here wants someone in SU to get a villain song? Or at least a kind-of-an-asshole song?)
oh i just thought of a great villain song! disney really knows how to do them good: i really hate this character, but i guess that's the point