Murder and singing go together. Though the baddies dissolve into smoke when they are killed, they are still actually murdered by Buffy and her "righteous" cohorts. We are conditioned, through the show, to not perceive it as murder because of the fact that these monsters are evil. Or something. This is fine. Good guy kills bad guy. Yay!
Why, though, is singing mashed together with killing? I suspect it is done in order to further force the viewer to recognize the brutality of what is occurring on the show. Singing, particularly when Buffy is the main voice, can be seen as innocent. Murdering baddies while stalking a graveyard is not. The musical aspect of the show accentuates the base premise, which is to highlight the life of a young woman destined to impale creepies with pointy objects.
Though Buffy was one of the first shows to feature a musical episode, music has often been linked with murder in a variety of entertainments. Sweeny Todd, anybody?
It's dark and it's dangerous and it specifically uses the perceived innocence of song to further mark a difference between innocence and murder.
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