Traditional Chant in Popular Culture
Chant is a popular component of film scores, such as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy by Howard Shore, Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace by John Williams, Ghost in the Shell by Kenji Kawai, and Man vs. Godzilla by Akira Ifukube, and video game scores such as the Halo series by Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori.
While authentic traditional chant has occasionally figured into modern popular music in brief intros, interludes or atmospheric background usage, one of the earliest notable, fundamental uses of traditional chant in modern pop came from Enigma, who sampled Gregorian chants over trance beats for a successful series of albums and singles. Their 1990 debut single "Sadeness (Part I)" became one of the biggest dance and pop music hits of the year, topping charts around the world, while their song "Return to Innocence" uses a chant in the Taiwanese Aboriginal language Amis.
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