10 Inventors Who Hated Their Own Creations
7. Edvard Grieg - In The Hall Of The Mountain King
Take a moment and google Edvard Grieg. Take two minutes and collect as much information as you can in that 120 seconds. Outside of people who are either Scandinavian or Romantic-era classical fans Grieg is a bit obscure, especially next to his romantic era contemporaries like Beethoven or Chopin.
But Grieg's work has left a recognisable mark that many people around the world are aware of: In The Hall Of The Mountain King, AKA the Alton Towers theme, AKA that kickass Apocalyptica track, AKA that music from the opening of WWE's Vengeance 2001 pay-per-view.
Written as incidental music for Henrik Ibsen's “Peer Gynt”, the piece is something of an inside joke by Grieg meant to highlight 'ultra-Norwegianism'. The sheer fact that the music accompanies a scene that features trolls, goblins and gnomes should have felt Norwegian enough.
It's a common problem for an artist to try to satirise a concept or trope but their work is instead misconstrued as the real thing. Grieg didn't think much of the piece and hoped that the 'irony would be felt'. The irony was not felt, nor indeed understood.