# Most overused background music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143 "2006-02-19T01:15:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/21 "2006-02-19T17:47:26Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > There’s also the typical “sunrise”/“early morning” music overplayed in cartoons And that is probably “Sunrise” from Rossini’s _William Tell_. I can’t find a midi of it to link, though… ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/22 "2006-02-19T17:55:35Z")
> [@Ottoerotic](#): > > Peter Gabriel - Salisbury Hill > > It seems like half of all love story/family movies use this damn song. It has gotten better in recent years, but hell enough already. It’s never been used so perfectly as in the re-cut trailer for [The Shining](http://www.tatteredcoat.com/archives/2005/09/28/the-shining-redux/). ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/23 "2006-02-19T17:58:52Z")
I wanted to nominate “I feel good”, but I thought of an even better: **Je t’aime (moi non plus)** by **Serge Gainsbourg** and **Jane Birkin**. Everytime any advertiser or filmmaker wants to make something over-the-top romantic, there it is. Often combined with “soft” camera focusing, rosy lights, silk bed clothing and candle lights. For shame, 'cause the man really produced many great songs and that one really isn’t one of the better. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/24 "2006-02-19T18:13:02Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > And that is probably “Sunrise” from Rossini’s _William Tell_. I can’t find a midi of it to link, though… _Morning_ from the Peer Gynt Suite, surely? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/25 "2006-02-19T18:17:41Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > _Morning_ from the Peer Gynt Suite, surely? I’ve also heard Sunrise quite a bit, but you’re right. In any given cartoon, it’s as likely to be Morning as Sunrise. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/26 "2006-02-19T19:30:22Z")
The theme from Miller’s Crossing. ---
**Author:** ![MrJackboots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MrJackboots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrJackboots)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/27 "2006-02-19T20:15:50Z")
Every time some schmuck shuffles off the mortal coil too early, someone will play “Wind beneath my wings”. Dead teenagers also score “Good Riddance” (“Time of your lives”) a lot. I remember Mozart’s Alla Turka being played a lot, but I can’t place where. Khachaturian’s Saber Dance became generic frantic-chase-scene music for a while, but I haven’t seen it around lately. It’s almost comic. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/28 "2006-02-19T20:36:06Z")
For a long time, bits from the score of **The Stunt Man** were used for any movie ad where the movie music wasn’t quite done when the ad was shot. Not so much any more, and it was always fun to spot it. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/29 "2006-02-19T21:33:54Z")
> [@dwc1970](#): > > Any scene portraying snobbish, rich people attending high-class social affairs will invariably be accompanied by Vivaldi’s “Spring” from the Four Seasons. If not that, then Mozart’s “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” can be expected. Either those, or that Boccherini minuet. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/30 "2006-02-19T22:58:09Z")
For a time in the eighties, there seemed to be a law that every movie had to have _Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now_ playing over its closing credits. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/31 "2006-02-19T23:10:03Z")
_Shake Ya Ass_ by Mystikal. It was cute in _About a Boy_ and even in _Down to Earth_, but I’ve now heard it in several films and TV series, almost invariably attached to a white person trying to act cool. (I think it was in _40 Year Old Virgin_ most recently but may be mistaken.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/32 "2006-02-19T23:14:39Z")
And I think it’s illegal to make more than two movies about the 1960s (Vietnam in particular) in any decade that do not use Buffalo Springfield’s _For What It’s Worth_. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/33 "2006-02-19T23:27:00Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > And I think it’s illegal to make more than two movies about the 1960s (Vietnam in particular) in any decade that do not use Buffalo Springfield’s _For What It’s Worth_. Hendrix’s cover of _All Along the Watchtower_ is also very popular for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/34 "2006-02-20T07:16:02Z")
Two Iggy Pop songs used a lot now: Lust for Life and The Passenger. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/35 "2006-02-20T07:46:19Z")
I love Jeff Buckley’s version of _Hallelujah_, but I’m sick of every damn tv show using it over some closing montage. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/36 "2006-02-20T17:37:11Z")
That Gary Glitter Rock and Roll Part 275 thing. MMM MMM MMM HEY!! ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/37 "2006-02-20T19:10:28Z")
Yeah I agree with a whole bunch of these: Sunrise, O Fortuna, Romeo and Juliet, Boccherini, Solsbury Hill. I’ll add the one from Shrek and it seems like just about every movie of 2001 – Smash Mouth’s “All Star”. Maybe it’s just that all the music from that time sounds about the same and there were a hundred songs that sounded like that. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/38 "2006-02-20T19:24:49Z")
“Dreams” by the Cranberries found its way onto the soundtracks of “Mission: Impossible,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and “Boys on the Side.” It also got heavy rotation in trailers for movies in which it didn’t appear on the soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/39 "2006-02-20T19:37:41Z")
> [@Ms Macphisto](#): > > I love Jeff Buckley’s version of _Hallelujah_, but I’m sick of every damn tv show using it over some closing montage. I came here to mention this, and Amazing Grace. Amazing Grace is usually played when someone dies right at the closing montage, especially slowly and tragicially (execution, for example). Hallelujah is used when it’s been a long tough day and everyone’s sitting around reflecting and sighing (off the top of my head, I can think of episodes of House, West Wing, and Without a Trace, and I’m starting to really prefer Rufus’s version, dammit). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143/40 "2006-02-20T19:59:15Z")
Let’s just say that while I loooove singing Mozart’s _Dies Irae_, I don’t especially like hearing it anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-overused-background-music/345143.md?page=3)