I've never been a big fan of cover songs, but I've enjoyed a few of them through the years, most notably, Alien Ant Farm's cover of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal and 311's cover of The Cure's big hit, Love Song. However, the reason why I bring this up is because of another cover song of sorts.
Now with the NBA All-Star game just a few weeks away, you are starting to see some interesting NBA commercials in sports related telecasts, the best of which is Nike's newest. Nike has always been known for their fun and edgy advertisements, such as the contraversial Instant Karma ad with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen from the early 1990s. The newest one showcases some of the NBA's best young talent, including Amare Stoudamire, Chris Paul, and Tony Parker. But what really got my attention is the music used in the commercial.
The original song is not contemporary by no means nor is it a Top 40 hit from the late 20th Century. If anything, it's from one of my favorite pieces of music from the 19th Century. What the commerical uses as its background music is the Dies Irae portion of the Dream of a Witches Sabbath movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The original piece is a fantastic example of what Berlioz called idée fixe or where a fixed melody or rhythm is figured prominently throughout a song or movement. The low tones from the Dies Irae portion is an example of this. And in the commercial, set with a kickin' hip-hop beat, the song sounds very interesting and great for that matter. Who was the creative genius to meld these two genres together?
I unfortunately am not as well versed into today's hip-hop as I was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but either way, keep an eye out, or in this case, both ears out for this extraordinary entertaining bit of modern advertising.
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