Oh Weird Al

[rebeccmeister]

Thanks to Weird Al, I suddenly have a bunch of pop songs stuck in my head. Mercifully, at least the lyrics are entertaining.

This New Yorker article on how smash-hit pop songs are constructed has made me angry with the genre, and even more appreciative of the art of taking nonsense lyrics and replacing them with something meaningful, strange, and funny.

Comments

[annikusrex.livejournal.com]

funny, it takes articles like this to make me interested in pop music! i knew about producer teams, obviously, but it's so much more romantic to know about the obnoxiously rich songwriter who just wants to be a star. i wish someone who follows the genre more closely could tell me whether adele made any real impact in the trajectory of pop, as the end of the article sort of predicted. my instinct is to say no, but i have no real idea.

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

I have been amused by how many people have been saying, "I don't even know the songs that Weird Al is making fun of, this time around." I mostly *do* know the songs, but for miscellaneous reasons (the awesome Mod Carousel cover, being stuck around college-age rowers). They're preferable to the country-western music which is the other major alternative "background noise" option in many shops around here, but in many cases I'd prefer silence. If I sit down and learn the Weird Al lyrics, at least I will have something entertaining to sing or hum over the top of the original stupid lyrics.

I do appreciate knowing the details of how many of the songs are (insanely) generated. I have no idea either, in the Adele case.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

I blame you for my earworm now playing "Amish Paradise". It usually has better taste than that. :)

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Well, hey - this morning it was "She Blinded Me With Science" instead. So it goes!

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

Blinding me with science! Science -- Science -- Science! :)

[trifold-flame.livejournal.com]

I think it's kind of beautiful- I mean, these are dedicated, dreamer-type people, and they are making music that moves millions. I can see how one could see a falseness in it. But there's also still the same romance in this story that has always been about the music industry.


... says the woman whose current favorite musical artist is this drunk kid down the block who sings and plays guitar on his roof. So what do I know? ;-)

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Interestingly - while I usually don't listen to lyrics, in general I prefer lyrics that aren't nonsense-lyrics, which is part of what I don't care for in most pop music. That, plus most pop music isn't especially complex or interesting from a "music theory" perspective.

But of course, when it comes to music, one of my favorite truisms remains quite true: there's no accounting for taste. And hey, it's okay if other people like things I don't care for. :-)