Stop Hoppípolla Abuse Now

One of my favourite songs of all time is Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós. If you don’t recognise the name, you’ll certainly recognise the tune: it first rose to prominence when used as the trailer music for the BBC TV series Planet Earth. Since then, it’s been used countless times for any ‘inspirational’, ‘uplifting’ or ‘victorious’ moment in almost any TV programme.

It’s this sort of over-use that’s starting to annoy me. I remember that on last year’s Children in Need telethon, it was used when John Torode announced the winner of Junior MasterChef.

There was nothing really ‘inspirational’ about that. Where only a couple of years before, Hoppípolla‘s primary use had been to add a magnificent air to beautiful and awe-inspiring shots of Earth from above, it was now being used for a cheap, seven-minute bit of television. The child who won the contest didn’t even win anything, except, perhaps, an article in his school’s newsletter and a head down the toilet from the jealous school bullies.

It’s cases like this that demonstrate to me that Hoppípolla is becoming something of a cliché. It’s on the verge of giving Rob Dougan’s Kurayamino variation of Clubbed to Death (you know, the one from the training sequence in The Matrix) a run for its money as the single most over-used piece of music on television.

I’m now annoyed that the music’s becoming devalued. If I put my iPod into shuffle mode and hear the beginning piano riff of Hoppípolla, I want to smile, sit back and enjoy the music for what it is. I don’t want to be reminded of the fat kid on MasterChef, or Bobby Charlton wandering up to the stage at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards to receive the lifetime achievement trophy, before appearing less than a fortnight later on some health yoghurt adverts.

My basic message to programme makers is as such: use Hoppípolla at truly inspirational, uplifting or happy moments, such as long-lost children being reunited with their mother. Avoid using it for every single mildly victorious and happy part in your programme: e.g. if a team comes second in a pub quiz at the local. That’s taking it too far.