“Barbie Girl” in the Style of Classical Composers
The music’s classic. It’s fantastic.
Barbie has been a cultural phenomenon for a while, but the box office success this summer has elevated the iconic doll to new heights.
One cultural phenomenon that goes back more than 25 years is the song “Barbie Girl,” which you may or may not have noticed does not appear in the movie.
Back in 1997 when Aqua released the song on the MCA label, Barbie’s parent company Mattel sued, claiming trademark infringement.
The lawsuit lasted until 2002, when the case was dismissed. Mattel made an egregious error in trying to quash fan-created content because they didn’t like how the fans were portraying their product.
Mattel continued their stance to this day, choosing not to include the song in the movie. However, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sing “Barbie World” over the end credits, rapping over a sample of the original song.
All of that is the preface to this Classy AF entry.
When an artist takes the familiar and combines it with a deep sense of knowledge about another related area (as Tom Lehrer so effectively did with “Clementine”), the result is magical.
In this case, we have Josep Castanyer Alonso performing “Barbie Girl” in the style of classical composers.
He gives us six variations on “Barbie Girl,” in the style of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Ravel. If you have even a passing familiarity with any of these composers, you’ll get it.
And please stay for the conclusion, because there’s a surprising revelation.
Barbie was always classy, but it’s great to see “Barbie Girl” be Classy AF.
Genius!
Classy AF, indeed!