- Most instrumental music (symphonies, concertos, suites) uses the term main theme in this way. This musical theme is the core of the whole movement or even the whole symphony. Played straight in programmatical music, like Symphonie Phantastique by Hector Berlioz, where the central theme is the idee fixe symbolizing the Lost Lenore. Dmitrij Shostakhovitch also played with this, as some of his symphonies were statements in their own right (The "Central Theme" of the Leningrad Symphony is a recurring melody symbolizing the German advance).
- Bad ∞ End ∞ Night:
- In the novel and the manga, Miku raises arguments for each resident about preserving someone's legacy as-is and changes to their work dishonoring them or allowing the legacy to evolve over time. This ends up applying to more than just Burlet's play, as the topic of preservation is discussed regarding arts, wine, and memories in general. In the novel, the theatre also had an internal argument in the past between trying to raise interest in old plays to compete with cinema or giving up on Burlet's plays and using more modern stories. Burlet himself says he's indifferent if his plays are forgotten or innovated; if his fans are going to be repeatedly fed a false history for profit, then it's an issue. In the ending, the theatre became famous for its "neoclassical revolution" of adapting Burlet's plays for the modern audience.
- The tragedy showcases the importance of letting the other party explain themselves. It's easy to overlook when someone is paranoid and has a different interpretation of what you are trying to say. Each time, the actors think that them putting on facades makes them trustworthy, while Miku assumes the actors will attempt to silence her and reacts disproportionally accordingly. In the novel's ending, Miku admits that she overreacted and being shy caused Luka to overreact in turn.
- The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds deals with frustrations and anxieties of young adulthood. Particularly in regards to romantic love.
- The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band deals with the many facets & experiences of British Daily Life. Its highs & lows, its joys & frustrations, and its nostalgic simplicities & occasional surreality.
- Beyoncé: Lemonade (2016) teems with infidelity in a marriage. How to deal with it, its consequences and how a couple can get over it.
- Billy Joel: The Nylon Curtain is an album about all the dangers of modern life including unemployment, war, guilt and pressure (in the first four songs alone) as well as songs about bad drugs trips and relationship battles. An Innocent Man balances this out by largely being about the exhilaration and joys of new relationships as filtered through 50s music styles.
- Bonnie Tyler: Many of her songs teem with love, the strengths it provides, the struggles of keeping it burning, and the consequences of not filling the void when it turns out to be unrequited.
- The Clash:
- The plight of the lower classes should not be ignored.
- Unity is needed to combat adversity.
- Eagles: Hotel California states that Celebrity is Overrated and Capitalism Is Bad.
- Radiohead:
- Ok Computer: Political corruption, isolation, depression, mass consumerism, social anxiety, alienation, and capitalism in a Dystopian future.
- Kid A: Social alienation, anxiety, paralysis, mental illness, the struggle with identity in a technologically driven, post-millennial world and a sense of impending societal collapse and environmental concerns, particularly climate change, as seen in the lyrical references and associated artwork for songs like "Idioteque".
- Franco De Vita: Several of his songs carry over an overarching theme of love and its fragility, as well as social topics like immigration, sex, prejudice, divorce, children and seniors in need of support, longing for a non-violent world, and yearning.
- Frank Sinatra: In the Wee Small Hours explores the pain and loneliness that follow a relationship breakup.
- Green Day
- Dookie: Youthful apathy, and the anxiety that results from it.
- Insomniac: The anger, pain, and self-destructive behavior that result when life and society seem against you.
- nimrod.: Learning from the past and exploring new avenues and ideas.
- Warning:: Consumerist society couldn't fulfill what they promised kids; they must find happiness and fulfillment on their own.
- American Idiot: Blindly rebelling against authority is equally as bad as blindly submitting to authority.
- 21st Century Breakdown: In difficult times, whether remaining steadfast in your beliefs or instigating revolutionary change is necessary to restore order.
- Revolution Radio: Facing middle age and staying true to your roots.
- Saviors: How the America's past problems are still around (and sometimes even worse) in The New '20s.
- Kesha:
- Rainbow: Empowerment, joy, and liberation, especially as part of finding one's bliss and peace after trauma.
- High Road: Maintaining confidence, comfort, and a positive attitude in one's life, regardless of having to face its downers.
- Gag Order: Letting oneself not be okay, feel rage and bitterness and debilitating insecurity under the weight of cruel and unjust circumstances and treatment, and grieve the fact that while you can work on moving on from trauma, you can never really make it as if it never happened.
- Lady Gaga:
- The Fame: As the name might imply, fame and glamour.
- The Fame Monster: As Gaga herself explained, fear, including fears associated with being a woman in the spotlight.
- Born This Way: Self-love and self-expression, and celebrating the marginalized and different.
- ARTPOP: Beauty, sexuality, image, and showmanship.
- Joanne: Reflecting on one's roots, grief, life, and world overall.
- Chromatica: Mental health, the desire to be seen at one's best versus one's true emotional needs, and regaining one's peace and confidence after a low.
- MAYHEM: Celebration of one's life journey up to now and all the love that's been part of it. This isn't explicit in most of the album's subject matter until "Blade of Grass", but is reflected in a good majority of the tracks emulating the styles of various musical influences and colleagues of Gaga's, containing references to current and late loved ones of hers (e.x. "Vanish Into You" and "Zombieboy" are dedicated to Tony Bennett and Rick Genest respectively), and/or including the odd Call-Back to her past work.
- Linkin Park:
- Minutes to Midnight: Endings and what they entail: moving on, grief, anger, starting over, and seeking closure.
- A Thousand Suns: War and sociopolitical conflict, the trauma and bitterness they cause, and finding reason to keep going in a world torn by them.
- My Chemical Romance:
- The Black Parade: Making peace with one's life and preparing for death.
- Danger Days: Authenticity, connection, determination, and a free spirit keeping one going in a rough world.
- Pink Floyd
- The Dark Side of the Moon: The pressures of modern life can drive people to madness if left unchecked.
- Wish You Were Here: How hard it can really be to lose someone, even if they're not truly "gone". Also, the dehumanising and phony nature of the modern music industry.
- Animals: The dehumanizing effects of social hierarchies, and the roles that greed and complacency play in solidifying them.
- The Wall:
- The importance of coming to terms with your past, and how easily you can become the very kind of person that you hate if you don't.
- The importance of thinking for yourself, and the perils of youthful rebellion turning into mindless obedience.
- The cyclical nature of violence and oppression, and the unavoidable fact that mindless hate always begets more.
- As ugly as the world may seem, cutting yourself off from society never makes anything better.
- The Protomen: People can't just wait for someone to come along and save them; they've got to fight for themselves. Alternatively, you can't survive on blind hope alone.
- Most of the songs by Simon & Garfunkel are about a failure to communicate with one another. Becomes Harsher in Hindsight given the duo's split, of course.
- The Weeknd: His overall discography centers the core themes of self-destruction, the dark and nihilistic side of hedonism, and the struggle to break toxic habits for the coping mechanisms they provide even knowing their cost.
- Wings: In Band on the Run, although there's no central story or narrative developed across the album, a lot of the songs revolved around the themes of Escape and / or Freedom and the many different forms this can take.
- The Megas: History Repeating focuses on, as the name suggests, history and the cyclic nature of the conflict. The major characters - Mega Man, Dr Light and Proto Man - are all carrying significant baggage from their pasts, and need to come to terms with it and move on; the minor characters often reference earlier ones, often in the form of actual quotes - "The Haystack Principle" uses lines from "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis", while "Sparked a War" draws from the closing lines of "Evolution of Circuitry".
- Much of Bruce Springsteen's The Rising is about Springsteen's reactions to the 9/11 attacks, and a lot of his discography is about the angst of living in small town America and the need to escape.
- Much of Angels & Airwaves discography is tied together by the theme of clinging to hope and finding beauty in the face of despair. Or as "The Wolfpack" puts it: "Finding a light in a world of ruin / Starting to dance when the earth is caving in."
- The band's debut album We Don't Need to Whisper is all about starting anew in the wake of calamity. Appropriate, since it was the first album that Tom DeLonge recorded in the wake of blink-182's (first) breakup.
- I-Empire is largely about humanity's boundless potential, and our capacity to build a better world.
- Love (as the title implies) is all about The Power of Love—its myriad manifestations, its capacity to transform people, and how it can help people overcome adversity and hardship. It also explores anxieties about the end of the world.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CentralTheme/Music
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