How Did Popular Culture Influence Shakespeare's Plays

Shakespeare in Popular Culture Shakespeare was an English playwright who lived in the Elizabethan times and wrote many plays that many people enjoyed. Shakespeare wrote many plays, some of which are still very popular today. Screenwriters even based some of their movies and musical storylines on s Shakespeare’s plays. Some songwriters have also based their songs on Shakespeare’s plays or made music specifically for his plays.
Shakespeare has written many plays and few are still popular to this day. By looking at the number of publications of and about each Shakespeare play, it is seen that people have been more interested in tragedies (Estill). Hamlet is a tragedy that has been deemed Shakespeare’s most popular play. Hamlet has been voted best Shakespeare play by
Verdi’s opera, Falstaff, is among one of his best works (Madocks). Verdi’s passion for Shakespeare was his inspiration for writing the opera. William Walton also wrote the scores for the Henry V soundtracks (Madocks). Walton was able to match up the expression of the music to the expression of the piece, which caused many people to enjoy it (Madocks).
Romeo and Juliet inspired many popular pieces of music still enjoyed to this day. In West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim wrote the songs while Jerome Robbins made the choreography (Madocks). Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” was written about Romeo and Juliet and included many references to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky wrote the music for Romeo and Juliet, which Shakespeare used in his play (Madocks). “When composer Balakirev heard the love theme, he wrote, ‘This tune was simply DELIGHTFUL…’” (Madocks).
Shakespeare wrote many popular plays that we know and love. Many movies were made with Shakespeare inspiring them. Shakespeare references have been put into songs and music has been composed specifically for Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare was a popular figure in his time and