Here’s why you know that song from Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig’s hilarious Golden Globes bit
Composer Kevin MacLeod’s royalty-free music, including “Fluffing A Duck,” is everywhere, yet few people know his name
Whether you know it or not, you’ve most likely heard a piece of music written by Kevin MacLeod. If you were watching the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, you’ve definitely heard it. During their presentation of the award for best actor in a comedy, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig tried to play it straight, only to be distracted by a snippet of a bouncy song called “Fluffing A Duck” that brought out their goofiest dance moves. The bit also got some of the best reactions of the night from the audience, including Golden Globe nominee Andrew Scott and Jennifer Lopez. Even watching at home you could feel the release of tension in the crowd after a night of awkwardness and jokes that didn’t land.
If the music sounded familiar but you just couldn’t place it, there’s a reason for that. Despite Wiig’s claim that the song has had the same effect on them for decades, “Fluffing A Duck” has only been around for one. Originally released in 2014, it’s been used in a number of apps and video games since then, including Racing Penguin. The song is just one of thousands of royalty free recordings that MacLeod has made available to the public. Most of it can be accessed via YouTube or on his personal website, where he offers a Creative Commons Attribution copyright license, which means you can use it for free as long as you credit him. You can also buy a license that doesn’t require credit for $30 per song.
MacLeod composes pieces for a wide variety of different moods and tones. They’re designed to be atmospheric background scores for all kinds of visual content and have been dropped into everything from cooking demonstrations to scenic travelogs to instructional tutorials and more. Take this jaunty number called “Carefree,” for example. If you’ve spent any time on the internet at all there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard it before.
[pm_embed_youtube id=’PLx53r85FKaLxelizE-sI_ep4W39Ak3Z_U’ type=’playlist’]Or maybe you’ve encountered this playful track called “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys.” It was also written by MacLeod.
MacLeod has become a sort of modern folk hero in online spaces due to his philosophy that art should belong to everyone. He was even the subject of a 2022 documentary called Royalty Free: The Music of Kevin MacLeod. In interviews MacLeod comes across as earnest and surprisingly humble for a guy whose music has been used in literally millions of videos, commercials, trailers, video games, podcasts, and other media. His work is played more frequently than any big pop star you could name, yet he remains relatively unknown.
Perhaps the surprise appearance of “Fluffing A Duck” during the Globes will bring MacLeod more attention within the entertainment industry, although at least one of the biggest names in the room has already featured MacLeod’s music in a film. When he was working on Hugo, Martin Scorsese used some of MacLeod’s compositions as temporary music before the score was complete. After the final cut was locked, the producers discovered that some of the temp music was inadvertently left in and had to call MacLeod to secure the rights to it. He charged Paramount Pictures the same $30 fee as everyone else.