Commercialization of Classical Music: How television, movies and media has trivialized non-musicians perceptions of major works.

All too often we see on television, in movies, and in pet food commercials the use of  classical pieces such as “In the Hall of the Mountain King"  used to score an action montage or scene of building tension. It is unlikely that the common listener will know the score or that it is by romantic composer Edvard Grieg. Even more unlikely is that the listener will  know it is part of a larger piece of music consisting of two suites and 8 movements titled "Peer Gynt", op.23, which has a story onto itself. Chances are though, the public does recognize the tune and enjoy is. The problem  is we do not respect it as a piece of art.

Luckily this is not our fault! Although Grieg himself did not consider this to be one of his best works, it is a work of complexity, color, nationalism, and sophistication. This is where digital media comes into play in the standardization and trivialization of pieces such as these. The music of this suite has been used in movies such as; the 2001 comedy "Rat Race" and the rowing scene in the Oscar winning "The Social Network". It has also been used in televisions animated comedy show "Beavis and Butt-head" and the classic television cartoon "The Smurfs"(Wikipedia). Consider how the perception of this type of music can be changed just by what images are consistently associated with it. I cannot tell peopke how many times this particular movement from suite 1 ("In the Hall of the Mountain King") has come on during a commercial (sometimes for toothpaste) and a friend has said "oh I love that "song"!" in a child like excitement but a lack of acknowledgement of the suites achievement.

This is but only one of many pieces and movements from the classical repertoire used in this type of situation. I can think of many more examples by composers the likes of Tchaikovsky, Rossini and Beethoven that fit this same description. Do you think it is a negative thing that this type of art music has been reduced at time as background noise for a car commercial? Or do you think it is a good thing that classical music is reaching people it may not have had the chance to otherwise through these types of different media outlets?

Vincent Muscarella