World of Weird Al Yankovic

Now that Al is in the studio recording one, if not two, more originals, I wanted to take a moment to start up speculation on parody material.

I have two ideas which I think would lead to excellent work:

1) Al should parody a rap song which features multiple MCs. If the album was coming out right now, I would recommend "Forever" by Drake, featuring Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem. Another popular choice would be "Run This Town" by Jay-Z, featuring Kanye West and Rihanna. Obviously, he should wait to see what options are available closer to the release/recording time. The opportunity to parody multiple artists within one song has always been a smart idea as far as killing off more birds with one stone. Kanye West and Lil Wayne, for example, are probably slightly past their prime as far as getting parodied by Al is concerned, but if one of his album tracks (ie not the lead single) was one of these multi-MC collabo-jams that are SO popular these days, it would give him the chance to check a few extremely popular artists off of his list. (When I first heard he was doing an Usher parody on the last album, I assumed he would do "Yeah!" as it also gave him the chance to parody Ludacris and Lil Jon). Additionally, these songs almost always have a sung chorus, something catchy to explain the "premise" of the song (eg being white and nerdy) which he could then expand upon in each verse, and this would give him a chance to at least reference the hugely prevalent AutoTune movement in pop music these days.

2) Justin Timberlake He is the only artist I can think of right now that is huge enough where his next album will likely have a chart-topping number one hit for weeks and will go down in the pop music history books as "Sexy Back" already has. Al has already expressed interest in parodying JT (around the release of SOL, Al joked that he could have written "Hairy Back"), and it is quite clear from his multiple SNL appearances and collaborations with Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island team that Justin would be a very gracious target possibly even agreeing to collabo or appear in the video if Al got creative. I don't know if JT is in the studio or even prepping for a new album, but it's been a couple years since FutureSexLoveSounds came out and I am assuming we will hear from him soon. If/when his next huge hit comes out, and the timing works out that Al is about to release his own album, Al should strongly consider recording a Justin Timberlake parody as his lead single. He is one of a very select few artists in 2009 that still has that Michael Jackson/Madonna/Nirvana ubiquitousness; not only are his songs huge hits, but HE is a huge hit. And, of course, he is very worthy of Al's treatment.

These are my first thoughts as of right now. Obviously Al should also be keeping his eye on huge rock hits, though I can't think of any targets off the top of my head that Al should definitely go for at the moment. Some of these calculations will have to be made based on when the songs are recorded and when he plans to release the album. I assume everything is up in the air at the moment while he tries to figure out if/when his feature is going into production, but I hope he considers these ideas.



What songs/artists/styles do you hope Al considers for the parodies on his next album?

If he does a multi mc collabo jam parody, I'd want to get MC Lars on it. Other than that, even I'm sick of rap parodies...and I defended WYL.

Yeah but he can't straight up ignore the genre altogether. I find it very hard to believe that there won't be at least one more rap parody on the album, given how prevalent rap is in pop music in addition to the fact that they make great subject matter for parodies as he can fit more lyrics into the song. Consider the jokes per capita of White & Nerdy vs. You're Pitiful for an example of this.

I agree that rap parodies are getting a little played out, which is why I strongly caution against a rap parody lead off single. However, I am of the mindset that they are inevitably going to be on the album so he might as well do it right, crossing several artists off of his checklist in the process.

David Lovelace (animator of the Virus Alert video) just announced via his Twitter that he just started work on a "big corporate flash project." Anyone else think there's a chance that this might be another video for Al?

My honest guess would be no, but there's always the possibility.

He needs to get the emo genre. I'm honestly surprised he hasn't touched it yet. It's been such a huge part of pop culture lately.

My Chemical Romance has a new album coming out, I'd bet on that.

TMBJon @ October 13, 2009 07:48 pm wrote: No! It's coincidental, not ironic.

I was actually using verbal irony there, thank you very much.

Moving on, I already gave my to sense on the Disney pop parody, so I have nothing else to say.

I'm still betting on Black-Eyed Peas, Miley Cyrus, and (depending on when the album comes out) Lady Gaga.

Emo-rock should be relegated to an original style parody and Lady Gaga should just be given "Polka Face" in the titular medley so that won't matter when the album comes out (since the polka medley tends to be a little dated...although I would've liked to have seen Al parody "Just Dance" or "LoveGame", those two songs are already a bit dated...there's a better chance that he might parody "Paparazzi" which may lead to an interesting video.)

...and JCM does have a point, sometime within the next ten years "Disney pop" may join rap on the level of "genres way too big to ignore" and could lend itself well to a direct lyrical parody...

Also, Al should seriously consider a style parody of Kings of Leon if they rack up anymore recognizable hits within the next decade (if not, then he should seriously consider a "use somebody" parody.)