World of Weird Al Yankovic

I don't think the about-any-subject songs are gone. See Another Tattoo, Party in the CIA, Trapped in the Drive-Thru. I personally like the modern social commentary songs, such as TMZ, but I can see where you're coming from. I think many of us can agree that parodies that are commenting on social happenings are best when they're relevant to the song being parodied though, like Perform This Way being a satire of Gaga herself or White & Nerdy detailing the polar opposite of Chamillionaire's persona.

Yeah, I DO realize that he still does non-culture/time-sensitive parodies as well (Another Tattoo) but those ARE my favorite ones and yes, the satirical, parodying-the-original-artist stuff is always fun as well. I mean, anything Al does, I'm pretty much on board with... it's just... he is called WEIRD Al... and I don't think talking about the most recent pop-culture phenomenons is all that weird... but yeah, I've been a rabid fan ever since Off The Deep End so there's no turning back at this point. I just happen to find the non-topical stuff funnier.

It'd be kinda funny if in the polka or something he made a little joke by mushing some of "Brave" together with "Roar" for the whole "it's the same song" joke thing, like as a one-off joke thing idk just thoughts
Y'all think the polka is done by now too, right? There's like one song left right we're getting pretty close to summer jams season here so keep your ears open people

yankochick38 wrote:It'd be kinda funny if in the polka or something he made a little joke by mushing some of "Brave" together with "Roar" for the whole "it's the same song" joke thing, like as a one-off joke thing idk just thoughts
Y'all think the polka is done by now too, right? There's like one song left right we're getting pretty close to summer jams season here so keep your ears open people

I guess he could do that with brave but Al has to pay the royalty difference for the medley plus he needs permission from each publisher to even make their songs as a medley so i doubt the owners or Roar and Brave would find that humorous.

yankochick38 wrote:It'd be kinda funny if in the polka or something he made a little joke by mushing some of "Brave" together with "Roar" for the whole "it's the same song" joke thing, like as a one-off joke thing idk just thoughts

That's something YouTubers do, not Al. I don't think it has potential return on investment to spend time on when he should be writing the lead parody.

yankochick38 wrote:Y'all think the polka is done by now too, right? There's like one song left right we're getting pretty close to summer jams season here so keep your ears open people

I was thinking the same thing today. With this in mind, I looked at both the Billboard Hot 100 and the iTunes charts. Here are songs currently in the top ten of both lists:

"Happy" by Pharrell Williams
"All of Me" by John Legend
"Problem" by Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea
"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
"Turn Down for What" by DJ Snake and Lil Jon

Becoming such a huge Al fan over the past 5 years has made me listen to all types of music more, and I'm usually on top of these things, but I have absolutely no idea who Iggy Azalea is. Do you? Do any of these catch your eye for a lead parody, or are you holding out till later this summer?

CharlesNelson wrote:Becoming such a huge Al fan over the past 5 years has made me listen to all types of music more, and I'm usually on top of these things, but I have absolutely no idea who Iggy Azalea is. Do you? Do any of these catch your eye for a lead parody, or are you holding out till later this summer?

Iggy Azalea is, as far as I can tell, a rapping Australian woman who resembles a love child between Nicky Minaj and Gwen Stefani.

On an unrelated note, as much as I'm sure that the lead parody is always taking up some part of Al's psyche these days, it also seems like he's doing a lot of unrelated promotional stuff (most notably, there's the upcoming Epic Rap Battle that he filmed recently). I'm kind of wondering how much weight he's putting on the lead parody right now, or how much scrutiny he's putting into the artists that are dominating the charts at this moment. I realize that he could be writing something or reaching out to an artist at this very moment. I certainly hope so. But with the possible exception of Pharell's "Happy", I don't know if anything that's huge at this exact moment is going to be remembered as a major part of 2014's cultural zeitgeist in the long run.

The obvious wardrobe choice for "Happy", if it's indeed the lead single, is an over-sized Pharell hat.

CharlesNelson wrote:"Happy" by Pharrell Williams
"All of Me" by John Legend
"Problem" by Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea
"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
"Turn Down for What" by DJ Snake and Lil Jon

Aside from "Turn Down For What" (I don't know how Al would parody that one) and maybe "Problem" (I could see Al parodying this, but would be a bit of a stretch) I'd say these are all pretty solid candidates for lead singles. Still, I think it Al wanted to go for an Ariana Grande parody. Maybe "The Way (ft. Mac Miller)" would be a better option. If the polka weren't likely finished already, I'd say those songs would work well there.

I'd also say "Happy" has the best chance of being this album's lead single because of the timing factor. The song was included on the "Despicable Me 2" soundtrack last summer but didn't become a major chart-topper until very recently (when Pharrell famously performed it at the Grammys and rereleased it on his "G.I.R.L." album this year). Since "Happy" seems to have been out longer than all these other songs (which only came out earlier this year), Al may have had more time to notice its rise in popularity and work on possible parody lyrics.

there is no way happy will be the lead parody.

Al might use Happy as a last resort for a lead parody if absolutely nothing better comes around by the time he's ready to put album 14 out there. It's kind of a lame song overall. Maybe a supporting parody buuut lead? Idk...
The most popular songs amongst my friends right now seem to be TURN DOWN FOR WHAT (which would be great in the polka maybe????) and Talk Dirty to Me (not the one by Poison but the other one)
Also, 5 Seconds of Summer is the new up and coming One Direction with that She Looks So Perfect song, kind of a NSYNC vs Backstreet Boys thing going on there

Pretty sure Al has already parodied Royals into Spoiled, a song about how he left out his food too long and now everything's spoiled (spoooiled)
Taking all bets on Spoiled now who wants in

And what's all this talk about "something a youtuber would do" yo Al was the original youtuber if something's funny enough he will put it in a song man

I think we're still waiting on THE BIG ONE tho for the lead parody because at this point everything else is kind of old or meh so yeah
Summer jamz yo
Keep an ear out for em