It was sampled for the soundtrack of the film Yellow Submarine. Conducted by George Martin, it was released as "Sea of Monsters". In the movie Se7en, Morgan Freeman is doing research in a library late at night and comments towards the nightwatchmen that they should take in some of the culture of the place, instead of playing poker all night. As an answer, one of the night guards turns on the radio to this musical piece, which becomes the score for the scene where Morgan Freeman finds lots of plot tells (whilst the guards still play poker...) The song was also used in the production of video games, Mega Man Legends, where it is featured in the Kattlelox museum.
Procol Harum borrowed a few bars from this piece for their hit single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale".[4]
Sweetbox based their song Everything's Gonna Be Alright on Air On the G String.
The 2009 Taiwanese drama, Autumn's Concerto (Next Stop, Happiness), samples this song on multiple occasions. In the drama the origin of the song is described as follows: Once when Bach was about to perform, his instrument was sabotaged so that all the strings except the G string were broken. While the audience was waiting to see his embarassment, he composed the Air on the G String.