Old Spice in new bottles: Classics of pop culture

Editor’s note: Classical music of any kind often feels boring and inaccessible—but not with Narendra Kusnur. He offers an accessible and fun guide to Western classical music—which has shaped movie soundtracks and top 40 hits alike. In the last column, he looked at compositions created before the 1830s—which have become part of cinematic lore. This week, he continues this delightful pop culture history—taking us from Old Spice commercials to EDM tracks. As always, we’ve put all the music referenced in the article in a YouTube playlist for you to enjoy.

Written by: Narendra Kusnur has been a music journalist for over 40 years—including a decade-long stint covering the beat at the Mid-Day newspaper. He currently writes for The Hindu, Free Press Journal, Hindustan Times, and Rolling Stone India—besides the in-house magazines of prestigious institutions—such as NCPA and Shanmukhananda Hall.

About the lead image: It is one of the many depictions of Fortuna—the empress of the world—referenced in ‘O Fortuna’ from the Carmina Burana (more on that below).

In examples drawn from Western classical music, some tunes have become so popular that they have attracted audiences from younger generations and different musical tastes. In the previous column, we specifically mentioned those created before the 1830s, with examples like Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Toccata And Fugue in D Minor’, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’ and Ludwig Van Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ and ‘Moonlight Sonata’. 

This time we shall focus on five pieces written after 1830, in what began with the Romantic Period and moved on to the 20th-century Modern Period. Tunes like Johann Strauss II’s waltz ‘The Blue Danube’. Maurice Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake’, which have been featured earlier, will not be repeated.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, an Old Spice aftershave lotion commercial was quite popular. The music remains fresh in one’s mind. Let's have a look.

it was called ‘O Fortuna’, and was created by German composer Carl Orff as part of his piece ‘Carmina Burana’. Interestingly, the main melody was inspired by a 13th-century Latin poem.

First staged in 1937, ‘O Fortuna’ is one of those classical pieces that became an important part of popular culture. It was used in the 1981 film ‘Excalibur’ when King Arthur, played by Nigel Terry, and his knights ride into battle. From the rock world, Ozzy Osbourne used it in many live performances in the 1980s, and it made an entry into Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic of The Doors. Michael Jackson used it as part of a promotional video for the ‘HIStory: Past Present & Future’ compilation in 1995. Let us see how the same music has been used in different situations. This is the clip from ‘Excalibur’:  

And here’s the Michael Jackson promo: 

Ride or die

A tune that immediately comes to mind is German composer Richard Wagner’s ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’. It is the popular name of the prelude from ‘Die Walküre’, the second of four epic dramas that constitute his opus ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ (The Ring Of The Nibelung). In the original form, the ‘Ride’ is about eight minutes long. Here is its rendition in the operatic form by the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan in Trondheim, Norway, in 2021.

The instrumental part of the ‘Ride’ attracted filmmakers. The instrumental part of the ‘Ride’ attracted filmmakers. The piece was used in the 1915 film by DW Griffith's film ‘The Birth Of A Nation’, which was praised for its technical mastery and widely criticised for its racist depictions of slavery. 

The piece also naturally found a place in the 1957 short animated film ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’, which parodies Wagner’s operas. It also plays during a chase scene in the 1980 film ‘The Blues Brothers’, starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Most people will remember its use in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film ‘Apocalypse Now’, where Bill Kilgore (played by Robert Duvall) descends on a Vietnamese village while playing the tune. Here’s the video.

Isn’t it a marvellous piece of cinema?

V for victory

Another pop culture favourite was Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’. In previous parts of this series, we talked about the immense popularity of his ballets ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘The Nutcracker’. ‘The Year 1812, Solemn Overture’, shortened to ‘1812 Overture’, was written as an independent piece commemorating Russia’s successful defense of the French invasion by Napoleon’s army in 1812. In modern usage, when performed at outdoor venues, it has often been accompanied by the use of cannons as a symbol of victory. Here’s one of those renditions at Moscow’s Red Square in 2017.

Many orchestras stopped playing this composition after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Earlier, it was regularly used in feature films or cartoons, besides being sampled by musicians. For instance, it plays in the 1977 sports drama film ‘The Bad News Bears In Breaking Training’ and in the 2005 political action film ‘V For Vendetta’, starring Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving. 

British band The Move used an extract in its riff of the 1966 hit ‘Night Of Fear’ and Canadian group Rush adapted it in its suite ‘2112’. The most famous such example is American singer Dan Fogelberg’s ‘Same Old Lang Syne’. See his live version of the song: 

This is a short clip that describes the connection.

Planetary parlance

Now, let’s go on a space odyssey. English composer Gustav Holst’s ‘The Planets’ is a unique composition. Written between 1914 and 1917, it is a seven-movement orchestral suite, where each movement is named after a planet. Thus, the pieces are themed around Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, in the order the composer has used. 

Different movements have been used in films and by musicians in different ways. ‘Mars’, with its war theme, is a natural favourite. Progressive band King Crimson’s ‘The Devil’s Triangle’ and rock group Black Sabbath’s ‘Children Of The Grave’ are both inspired by ‘Mars’. The animated sitcom ‘The Simpsons’ used ‘Mars’ and ‘Jupiter’ in different episodes, whereas the 1976 fantasy film ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ used ‘Venus’ and ‘Mars’. The famous soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer was sued by the Holst Foundation for using ‘Mars’ in ‘Gladiator’ (2000), but the case was settled privately.

A well-known example is the use of ‘Mars’ by John Williams in ‘The Imperial March’ in the Star Wars franchise, though he also adapted a bit from a section of Frederic Chopin’s ‘Piano Sonata No 2’. Here is the original performance of ‘Mars’, as played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Susanna Maikki. 

This is followed by a comparison between the original Holst piece and the Star Wars theme.

Elegy to EDM

The final tune in this month’s column is American composer Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio For Strings’, created in 1936 as the second movement of his String Quartet Op 11. It has often been associated with its pathos and cathartic passion but cut to the 21st century, and there have been some interesting adaptations.

It was played after radio broadcasts on the deaths of former American presidents Franklin D Roosevelt in 1945 and John F Kennedy in 1963, and at the funerals of scientist Albert Einstein and Princess Grace Of Monaco. Tributes to victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack and Covid also used this theme. It was used in films ‘The Elephant Man’ (1980), ‘Platoon’ (1986), ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ (1992) and the French rom-com ‘Amelie’ (2001). 

Let’s look at a video collage using scenes from Oliver Stone’s 1986 war film ‘Platoon’.

What’s surprising is that though ‘Adagio For Strings’ is often seen as a moving and haunting piece, it has become a favourite among DJs in the electronic dance music (EDM) space. It’s been used by William Orbit, Ferry Corsten and Tiesto, whose piece of the same name became a huge club hit in 2005. Let’s conclude by dancing to that. The purists may want to give it a pass.

Those were some pieces that became very popular after 1830, in the Romantic and Modern Eras. As in the examples above, the same piece of music has been used for different purposes. 

PS: If you need a list of all the amazing music shared by Narendra. Enjoy the music. 

• ‘O Fortuna’ in the Old Spice ad
• ‘O Fortuna’ by Carl Orff 
• ‘O Fortuna’ from ‘Excalibur’
• ‘O Fortuna’ from Michael Jackson’s promo vid
• ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’ by Richard Wagner
• ‘Ride Of The Valkyries’ by the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra
• ‘1812 Overture’ by Tchaikovsky
• Russian rendition of ‘1812 Overture’ 
• Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg
• ‘Mars’ by the BBC Symphony Orchestra 
• ‘Imperial March’ from Star Wars by John Williams
• ‘Adagio for Strings’ by Samuel Barber
• ‘Adagio For Strings’ by Tiesto

ICYMI, you can check out Narendra's previous columns on symphony here, concertos here, dancehall music here, ballet music here, and Western classical on the big screens here.