It’s been two weeks since “Weird Al” Yankovic rushed into the digital-music era and rush-released his parody of T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” to iTunes. In the first week that it was available at Apple’s digital-music store, the track sold 21,000 copies and entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 104; this was after a snafu that resulted in it coming out a day later than he’d originally announced, which in turn resulted in a lot of typo-riddled comments from frazzled Al fans. That release-date issue has resulted in him deciding to not announce future singles until they’ve safely arrived at store shelves, according to a post at his blog reflecting on what went down. “I’ve learned from hard experience that iTunes is not able to guarantee a time–or, apparently, even a day–that a song will go live on-line,” he wrote. Ouch!
It’s a day late, but “Weird Al” Yankovic’s take… More »
Over the summer, accordion-wielding parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic told Billboard that he was prepared to take advantage of the iTunes age by breaking free from the album mold, and using iTunes to release songs that were more of the moment than was possible during the era of “Eat It” and “Like A Surgeon.” Last week, Yankovic took to his blog (!!) to announce that his first foray into rush-releasing his response songs would land on iTunes tomorrow, although he was cagey about just who would be his target: “I’m only supposed to ‘tease’ this release right now–I’ll post more info about it in a couple days. But I will say that it’s a parody of a song that very recently was (or perhaps still is) the number one song in the country. That would be another first for me–I don’t think I’ve ever released a parody of a song while the original song was still number one!” Uh oh, are you thinking what I’m thinking?
“Weird Al” Yankovic takes to his blog and offers up the inside scoop on his rush-recorded parody of the country’s No. 1 song that arrives at the iTunes Store tomorrow: “Actually, the name of my song is ALSO ‘Whatever You Like.’ For you history buffs, I believe this is the first time that my parody has had the exact same name as the song I was parodying. Just so you know, I’m only doing this as part of my on-going effort to confuse as many people as I possibly can. But I promise you, even though my song title is the same as T.I.’s, I DID change the lyrics. Somewhat.”
Today’s completely dubious claim about why an arm of the music industry might be hurting comes from Wired‘s Scott Thill, who wrote in response to R.E.M.’s new, ad-agency-created video for “Man-Sized Wreath”: “Music videos aren’t dead, they’re just dying, and they’re dying because of bloated videos like ‘Everybody Hurts.’ When fans can use their favorite songs to make their amateur films without fear of losing their comparatively miniscule cookie jars, then the new age of promotional video will be here at last.” Say what?
The online efforts of Jack White, Trent Reznor, and Thom Yorke have been interesting, but it’s not like their music is necessarily improved by eliminating corporate middlemen or pre-release waiting periods. To find someone who could truly benefit from new technology, one must look to visionaries who truly strive to capture a cultural moment. Like “Weird Al” Yankovic. “Certainly there is the possibility of me being a lot more topical,” Yankovic told Billboard. “Before I would have to wait until I was getting ready to put an album out and hope I’d be able to latch onto something that was topical and timely–and even then it would be a couple months before I’d be able to get an album in stores. Now, with iTunes and portals like that, ostensibly I could come up with an idea, record it and get it out in the marketplace within a week. That’s exciting.” It most certainly is.
Gentle readers, I am writing this from my couch, where I am as crouched in the fetal position as I can be (going all the way would, of course, render me completely unable to type). I am not operating at 100% right now, and what better way to exploit my lousy physical state for music-blogging gain than by writing a listicle (oh man, using that word just made me worse) about music one should listen to while under the weather? Specifically, when one is put under the weather by a foodstuff from one of New York City’s finer dining establishments? (I swear, if the matzoh ball soup I had for lunch yesterday is the culprit, I am going to cry.) Five songs that are making me feel just a little bit better after the jump.
Apparently, last night was the premiere of That’s Amore, wherein a guy with the most ridiculously fake accent regularly featured on a television program in recent memory tries to find love or ratings or whatever. Really, MTV? Is this what it’s come to? Isn’t a wrestling match in a pool of spaghetti a little close to territory already covered by The Joe Schmo Show (a show whose comeback I would welcome, if anyone cares)?
Instead of dwelling on the negative, let’s focus on the slightly less negative. We’re all aware that music is out of the question, but what MTV programming currently in the channel’s dustbin division deserves a comeback, so as to spare viewers the sight of the guy pictured above sporting a Speedo?
