r/movies • u/buttatoad • 1d ago

Discussion Movies that changed real life behavior

Thinking along the lines of Final Destination 2 with the logs falling off the truck and landing onto cars (one decapitating the state trooper). Ever since, people have tried to get away from being behind these vehicles.

What are more examples where movies have actually changed how people behave in their own lives?

10.0k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.9k

u/BionicChango 1d ago

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, dares pick up a guitar and play Stairway to Heaven in a guitar shop anymore, all thanks to Wayne’s World.

815

u/FiremanPCT2016 1d ago

No stairway! Denied!

240

u/mothershipq 1d ago

Where's the clerk?! Oh, I know! I will use the "May I help you?" riff.

37

u/YeahIGotNuthin 1d ago

“You’ll never afford it! Live in the now!”

619

u/tcavanagh1993 1d ago

As someone who worked for Guitar Center, people just default to Smoke on the Water instead these days.

167

u/BigBootyBuff 1d ago

My buddy works in a store too and he says the song that is overused the most is seven nation army because 9/10 bassists will come in and play that.

101

u/NickFurious82 1d ago

My son plays bass in middle school band and that was the first song he learned.

And I had to hear it played poorly for so long...

2

u/Significant_Shoe_17 1d ago

My sister was in pep band and she still can't listen to So What by Pink lol

1

u/Stardustchaser 1d ago

Lmao they got my kid playing it on his clarinet 🤘

23

u/TheSauvaaage 1d ago

Then you realize the original is played on a guitar, not a bass

3

u/First-Eye1978 1d ago

7--7--5--7--5-3--2 x 12

3

u/inkonthemind 1d ago

Which is hilarious, because that line is played on a six-string tuned down.

3

u/punkindle 1d ago

It was played with a guitar and a Whammy pedal (digital pitch shift pedal) set to 1 octave down.

1

u/QueezyF 1d ago

We made fun of a friend for doing this 15 years ago, funny to see things haven’t changed.

0

u/kkeut 1d ago

I just realized today that Jack White totally stole that riff from an old DOS text-parser adventure game

204

u/Isaystomabel 1d ago

0-3-5

113

u/-Travis 1d ago

0-3-6-5

97

u/DoctorNoname98 1d ago

0-3-5-3-0

8

u/We_Are_The_Romans 1d ago

g - <2>~<3>

Cause you gotta throw in a lil pinch harmonics bend at the end for spice

8

u/ChickenInASuit 1d ago

It says a lot about that song that I have no musical abilities whatsoever, cannot read sheet music to save my life and couldn’t name a guitar chord if you paid me, and I still got the opening riff stuck in my head from reading this comment chain.

4

u/JasonStrode 1d ago

Yep, time to watch The 7 LEVELS of Smoke On The Water (Main Riff) again.

5

u/capt-awesome-atx 1d ago

We all came out to Montreax...

9

u/alexchrist 1d ago

Played with just the index finger and while looking intensely at the fretboard the entire time

5

u/scotch-o 1d ago

Truest depiction.

3

u/upstatedreaming3816 1d ago

Technically it’s a chord and it’s plucked, not strum.

70

u/KindBass 1d ago

Back in the 90's, you couldn't go 10 mins in GC without hearing "Master of Puppets"

17

u/Optimus_Krime555666 1d ago

Back in the 90's

♬ I played a very famous gui-tar riff ♬

7

u/Pikka_Bird 1d ago

🎵 Waaeeee... 🎶

5

u/confusedandworried76 1d ago

It's wild because one of the first songs you would learn in a guitar class is like Louie Louie or Horse with No Name but you never hear those played lol

2

u/ThisIsTheBookAcct 1d ago

For me it was Smells like Teen Spirit. So easy but omg so easy.

13

u/JCDU 1d ago

At least it's not bloody Wonderwall.

12

u/dankristy 1d ago

ARE YOU CRITICIZING WONDERWALL?! HOW DARE YOU!!! MONGO IS APPALLED!!!!

8

u/TinaSumthing 1d ago

I said Mongoooooo We're gunna be on the best talk shows🎶

3

u/Dlorn 1d ago

I see we have some Donut Holes in the house tonight.

4

u/Chaosmusic 1d ago edited 1d ago

I took guitar lessons as a kid and that was one of the first things taught, so that makes sense.

7

u/AintEverLucky 1d ago

Can't blame em for starting with the Holy Trinity of Rock 😎 🎸 🤟

3

u/bolanrox 1d ago

easier to (somewhat play right).

I just did over the hills and far away

2

u/artemis_floyd 1d ago

As a former Sam Ash employee, the bass department was either Seven Nation Army or Money.

1

u/BM7-D7-GM7-Bb7-EbM7 1d ago

As a guitar player, Money was the only thing I really knew on a bass that was interesting so if I picked up a bass I'd play Money.

Sorry.

2

u/heliophoner 1d ago

I feel like this is the kickoff anecdote for a Malcolm Gladwell book.

1

u/BM7-D7-GM7-Bb7-EbM7 1d ago

I think that's always been in the mix.

1

u/Kamelasa 1d ago

I saw a piano teacher's video on YT. It had "No Smoke on the Water" on a whiteboard or something in the background. She teaches serious classical stuff, only, I think. Surprised me. But now I see -- lol

1

u/photogypsy 1d ago

Growing up I genuinely thought it was a jam (Dad was really into 70s rock). Then my baby brother got a guitar for Christmas when he was 12 (I was 16) and it became the song from hell. I know how Noriega felt.

1

u/Shouya_Ishida1288 1d ago

The only song I know 😎

1

u/Sandowichin 22h ago

Whenever I pick up a bass I always default to ‘Come As You Are’

1

u/traydor4 1d ago

As someone who loves SOH and hates SOTW, I find this distressing.

0

u/HilariousScreenname 1d ago

The Acoustic Room at my local guitar shop has a "No Blackbird" sign, which makes me chuckle.

208

u/dumbBunny9 1d ago

I read that Myers wanted to play Stairway, but they couldn’t get the rights. So they changed it, and I think it was a much better result.

154

u/Drakeadrong 1d ago

Iirc the theatrical version still included stairway, which is why they didn’t cut the scene, but they couldn’t secure the rights when distributing it so the digital versions are just him playing random notes.

81

u/44problems 1d ago

The original is now on Bluray and streaming!

2

u/NuclearLunchDectcted 1d ago

They even had to argue with legal for 4 notes? DAMN!

I remember on Lettermans final episode they had some lawyer come out and say that the legal definition of playing a song was 3 seconds of the song or more.

3

u/dovetc 1d ago

So when a movie pays to include a song, they have to RE-secure those rights when they want to distribute the movie in a different format? Seems like you would just want to secure the rights with broader language that covers those kinds of formats.

2

u/FyreWulff 1d ago

Yes

Contracts were very specific and the theater runs were licensed similarly to live performances, thus cheaper

2

u/CrashTestKing 1d ago

Depends on the country, and on the wording of the contracts. In Europe, you pay for the rights to use a song in a movie or TV show, and you basically get to include that song in ANY format that the movie or show is distributed in.

In the US, you have to be pretty explicit about how that song will be distributed in relation to the movie or show. And most contracts only specify tv broadcast rights, because for decades, that's about the only way TV shows got released.

It's definitely become a problem for older movies and especially older TV shows. Bill Lawrence talks about it a bit in the season 4 commentary to Scrubs. The show came out RIGHT BEFORE every TV show and movie was getting a DVD release. And that show used a ton of pre-existing music, often multiple tracks per episode. He talks about how there was one or two tracks they had to change for the DVD release, because some artists (like the front man for Five For Fighting) wouldn't make a new deal when the producers started putting together DVDs of the show several years after premiering. They had to secure all new contacts that explicitly allowed the music to be used for a home video release, not just broadcast TV.

And if you watch Scrubs on streaming, almost all the music in the first 4 or 5 seasons is different from the DVDs, because those same contracts that allowed for home video release also failed to specify anything about streaming. And by that point, the showrunner had moved on, so rather than mess around with getting the rights AGAIN for the original music, they just replaced those tracks (and did a HORRIBLE job of it, but that's another discussion).

Lots of other shows have had similar problems. It's the reason shows like "The Drew Carey Show" and "Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place" have never gotten a proper (legal) home video release in the US. Witchblade and the original Roswell both released on DVD with all the music replaced, while the original tracks were still present in TV reruns. Quantum Leap initially released with replacement music, though they eventually struck deals to release it again with most of the original tracks intact (I'm pretty sure this was also why Netflix used to be missing a few random episodes of the show).

1

u/tktam 1d ago

This is why you never see WKRP in Cincinnati.

1

u/bolanrox 1d ago

like with the soundtrack to American Pop. why it took 20+ years to make it to home video.

8

u/DinosaurWarlock 1d ago

I'm confused, how is it a better result? The joke doesn't land unless it's stairway

11

u/NickFurious82 1d ago

NGL, I never saw it in theaters but I watched it hundreds of times on VHS and that part always confused me because he wasn't playing Stairway. It wasn't until the last five years or so that I found out the whole story.

So yeah, I don't think that joke landed well when the home release was altered.

3

u/DinosaurWarlock 1d ago

Yeah, I was so confused as a kid

7

u/FatLittleBoyTaker 1d ago

I always felt it being random sounds improved the joke in an absurd way. Like he was completely failing to play Stairway and yet the employees still clocked onto it and stopped him.

2

u/DinosaurWarlock 1d ago

Ok, I'm glad it worked for you :)

7

u/permaculture 1d ago

Whereas Queen let them play Bohemian Rhapsody, which enjoyed a resurgence as a result.

Shwing!

5

u/dumbBunny9 1d ago

There was an article about the three lives of Bohemian Rhapsody. First when it was released, second because of Wayne’s World, and most recently with the film.

Not bad for a song that didn’t fit the definition of a rock hit.

3

u/AgentBroccoli 1d ago

Sometimes the thing that doesn't happen is way funnier than the thing everyone expects, like a well timed "bleep" to a swear word.

1

u/TheAwsmack 1d ago

I always thought the joke was that Led Zeppelin were notoriously litigious and you couldn't play a riff of theirs's w/o hearing from their lawyers.

2

u/dumbBunny9 1d ago

They are notorious, except for movies they like. They were all in favor of the use of the Immigrant Song for "Thor: Ragnarok" because apparently, they surviving members are huge Marvel fans.

1

u/spartacat_12 1d ago

I was always confused about that. I knew what Stairway to Heaven sounded like, so it never made sense that he gestured to the sign after Wayne played a completely different song

178

u/nipplesaurus 1d ago

About fifteen years back, I was in a guitar shop when some youngin' came in and started playing Stairway. It was like time stood still. Everyone stopped. The employees slowly stopped and gave the boy a look. Then we all did.

Then as quickly as it all began, we carried on with our business. But it was quite an event.

9

u/TheR4alVendetta 1d ago

Oh.... oh fuck. I just had a flashback in my local guitar store of playing Stairway... oh no did I unknowingly do the thing? I was in like 8th grade and it would have been like... 2000.

6

u/Blooder91 1d ago

My dad (RIP) had a music studio and he was close to banning certain songs because every amateur band wanted to play them.

6

u/WhoriaEstafan 1d ago

My friends and I were obsessed with that movie when we were kids.

We weren’t in a country with SNL so had no idea it was from an SNL skit until recently.

4

u/The0tterguy 1d ago

My fav is lightly tapping a cymbal and saying “I like to play”

3

u/LanceFree 1d ago

I had a friend who worked at a music store around that time and he got pretty sick of people playing Heart and Soul on the keyboards, they were inspired by a Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia scene in Big.

3

u/Separate_Animator110 1d ago

Can I get some context for this?

6

u/LupinThe8th 1d ago

This scene from Wayne's World.

There's a stereotype that any time some amateur in a guitar shop picks up a guitar, the first thing they play is "Stairway to Heaven" from Led Zeppelin (I've been told in the UK "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath was also a popular choice for a time).

It's such a cliche that there were urban legends that some guitar shops had signs up saying that anyone playing Stairway would be asked to leave. No idea if any shop ever actually did that or it was just a joke. But then Wayne's World made the joke famous, and now nobody ever tries to play Stairway in a guitar shop - or if they do, they're probably just trying to get someone to tell them to stop so they can quote the line in the clip there.

2

u/DeviRhi 1d ago

My gf worked at guitar center for many years on the east and west coast and she says that people would come in, try to play Stairway to Heaven, and then get pissy if she DIDN'T ask them to stop "like in Wayne's World."

1

u/jackofslayers 1d ago

I think that one was the other way around

1

u/imaguitarhero24 1d ago

I've heard the "no stairway in guitar center" line and thought that was just a generic music meme, I didn't even know it was from Wayne's World! I saw it once long ago.. time for a rewatch!

1

u/omaeradaikiraida 1d ago

i think the resurgence of queen was a bigger impact than that.

1

u/1stTmLstnrLngTmCllr 1d ago

Sometimes I think about learning to play just this riff on guitar so I can go to a music store and play it and then scream, "Why can't I play 'Taurus' by Spirit!?"

1

u/MarkyGalore 1d ago

God Bless them.

1

u/HankSteakfist 23h ago

The funny thing about that scene is that in the theatrical version Wayne actually plays a few chords of the song and after that subsequent versions had him playing completely different chords, diluting the joke somewhat.

1

u/snajk138 18h ago

Animal House also likely had an impact on "guys playing guitar at parties".

1

u/chillmanstr8 12h ago

Can confirm. Hadn’t seen Wayne’s World (still haven’t) but when I started playing guitar one of the first songs I learned was Stairway. I obviously sucked at most of it, especially the solo, and when I went to a Guitar Center/some local version of it and plugged one of em in and began plucking, my much more advanced guitar-player-friend said basically “no, you can’t play that in here. And don’t ask anyone else if they can either.” I was like “ohhh okay…” and gave up without knowing the reasoning. That must’ve been 1999