Poe In Popular Culture

Edgar Allan Poe, American author and poet, was best known for his literary use of mystery and macabre seemingly associated with a gothic/romantic tone. Often considered the creator of detective fiction, Poe would also write short stories that were admired for his unique approach to literary style. His stories would grip it's audience through it's bemused narrative and grim atmosphere Poe would create, which almost always involving a risky/deadly threat to it's characters. This stylistic undertone to literature influenced writers all around the world. Though Poe past away in 1849, at the age of 40, he would go on to represent an ionic figure in popular culture that identified to Poe's ghastly, yet appealing imagery used in his short stories. His work would appear in several bits of literature, music, art, and media which remains a reoccurring trend even to this day.

Music

In terms of influence Poe has on the music industry, his most renowned short stories such as "The Raven", "Cask of Amontillado" and "Tell-Tale Heart" were re-imaged into actual songs placed on Alan Parsons album released in the 1976, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination". Parson's clever use of audio effects and instrumentals delivered a sound that served to represent images/feelings portrayed in Poe's stories. For instance in "Tell-Tale Heart," thumping of drums were used to mimic a heartbeat best heard at 1:27. You can also listen to the full song below.

 

Poe has also influenced other bands such as "30 Seconds to Mars", "The Cure", and even "The Beatles" where Edgar Allen Poe can actually be seen on the cover of their album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". A popular singer in the 90's, Anne Danielewski received the nickname 'Poe' as a child by dressing up for Halloween as a character from Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Masquerade of Red Death." As you can hear in "Angry Johnny", Poe's music displayed a harsh, somber tone that mirrors the nature of Edgar's style.

 

Modern Literature

Almost every successful modern day writer has at some point been affected by Poe's unique approach to style and story telling. Most note worthy would have to be Stephen King. Being one of the founders of modern horror writing, Edgar Allan Poe's work has provide a huge impact on Stephen King's style of writing. Both styles convenience the morbid aspects of life every human being has fallen victim to at one point or another, as is our nature. The writers also favor the reoccurring theme of death, terror and gore in their work, in which their characters eventually fall prey to. 

French poet, Charles Baudelaire was famous for his collection of poems called Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), which idolized Poe's writing. Living around the same time as Poe, Baudelaire was the first to translate Poe's stories into English. Baudelaire was so strongly influenced and similar to Poe, he was often called the Edgar Allan Poe of France. Here is one poem I read from Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil," that reminds me a lot of Poe's style and specifically draws on similar concepts to Poe's short story "The Black Cat." The poem is coincidentally called "The Cats".

Both ardent lovers and austere scholars
Love in their mature years
The strong and gentle cats, pride of the house,
Who like them are sedentary and sensitive to cold.

Friends of learning and sensual pleasure,
They seek the silence and the horror of darkness;
Erebus would have used them as his gloomy steeds:
If their pride could let them stoop to bondage.

When they dream, they assume the noble attitudes
Of the mighty sphinxes stretched out in solitude,
Who seem to fall into a sleep of endless dreams;

Their fertile loins are full of magic sparks,
And particles of gold, like fine grains of sand,
Spangle dimly their mystic eyes.

— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

Media

Poe's work and life has obviously been influenced and portrayed in various forms of media. There has been multiple film adaptions of his short stories including "The Raven", "Tell-Tale heart", and many others. Several documentaries have been made in tribute to his life, and numerous amounts of television/film has been influenced by Poe.

The type of media that stuck out to me the most while researching his influence in media, was the vast amount of content uploaded to Youtube based upon his work. I enjoyed watching many of these short videos because it has a significance to my age group. Much of our art and creation is expressed through the internet, so it becomes a humbling feeling to see my generation still express and carry on his legacy through their creations. This was a neat animation done in inspiration of "Tell-Tale heart", my favorite short story of Poe's.