Cultural References
Described by David Wondrich as a "frequent target of plunder by brass bands in the years during which they dominated the American musical landscape", the overture features prominently in Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Band Concert. It has also been used in cartoons parodying classical music (e.g. Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster in which the overture's finale is performed by Daffy Duck and Porky Pig) or Westerns (e.g. Bugs Bunny Rides Again). In Yankee Doodle Daffy, the title character even gives lyrics to the finale.
One of the most frequently used pieces of classical music in American advertising, the overture (especially its finale) appears in numerous ads, with psychologist Joan Meyers-Levy suggesting that it is particularly suitable for those targeting male consumers. It was used in a hip-hop version by DJ Shadow to accompany the 2001 "Defy Convention" advertisement campaign for Reebok athletic shoes, in an electronic version for a 2008 Honda Civic campaign and the video game Catherine.
During the third time-out of every second half at Indiana University basketball games, the Indiana pep band and cheerleading squad performs the William Tell Overture with cheerleaders racing around the court carrying eighteen flags. Indiana public address announcer Chuck Crabb said the tradition began in about 1979 or 1980. Sportscaster Billy Packer called it "the greatest college timeout in the country."
Read more about this topic: William Tell Overture
Famous quotes containing the word cultural:
“We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)