Beethoven: The man, the myth, the essay due on Thursday
 

Before we get started, no, I'm not asking you to do my research for me. If nothing else, I've got Wikipedia.

But I am interested in what you all think about Beethoven. What does his name call to mind? What about his music? Do you know of any places in pop culture where he's shown up?

I love that movie. Charles Grodin is hysterical.

...

Seriously, everyone goes on about how great Mozart was and how, if you have babies listen to his stuff, they'll grow up smarter and all that rot (which, frankly, is true if you have them listen to most kinds of music. Stimulation is good for the brain). But you know what happens if your babies listen to Beethoven?

They'll grow up to be awesome. You heard it here first!

The only pop culture reference I can think of is the series of overly drawn out movies about a St. Bernard by the same name. That and lots of his music is used as background noise.
edit: alas, ninja'd

Mozart's okay, but I prefer Beethoven myself, almost over all music, but then again I haven't heard it all!

My favorite song of his is definately Moonlight Sonata (half because I like it, half because I don't know the name of any of his other songs). all of his work is peaceful, and I always can imagine some kind of, for lack of a better word, "scene" in my head that involves the music. The only thing I like more that his music, is remixes of his music! Like so:

"linkage"

I can't say much more than that, so you'll have to go to Wiki (Wiki-Wiki-Wah) for anything essay worthy.

Well, there is that DDR "Speed over Beethoven" and all those nice musical pieces I love, and the fact I just did the classical era in Musical Appreciation class...but I also know him as the guy who is proof that deaf people can become good musicians. Yeah....

And the St. Bernard too. That dog was cool.

Shit. Pyros beat me to mentioning Speed over Beethoven.

I always preferred Bach, but that's because I'm a big big fan of Toccata and Fuge in D Minor. Just the opening intro where the keys slowly increase in inensity gets me every time.

I like Exodus by him, but only certain versions of it.

His name was Ludiwg. Ludwig von Beethoven. If you remember correctly, he shared the name with Ludwig von Koopa of Castle 4 in Super Mario Bros. for SNES. Beethoven was named after a video game character!

(Wait, no... thats not right...)

Also, he based the music of his 9th symphony off of the "Drink Milk, Love Life" commercial.

What does his name call to mind? Well off the top of my head..

BEETHOVEN! Beethoven is IT, clear and simple!! Do you understand?

Might I point out that Beethoven became deaf after he became a good musician?

Hmmm. Modern pop references... I don't know if this counts, but Beethoven featured in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (w00t for Beef-oven) along with many other historical, um... people...