There are several musicians and bands whose works I will buy immediately upon release (or at least soon thereafter). But most of those are relative unknowns -- bands that haven't made the big time (e.g., Bobtown, The Dusty Buskers) or former stars who (how do I say it delicately?) aren't as popyular s they once were (e.g., Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe).One exception is "Weird Al" Yankovic. Yankovic is one of the few (maybe the only -- I'm not sure) musician whose albums I'll buy right away who is actually a household name. With that as backdrop, I discuss his latest release, Mandatory Fun. Scratch that. I'm not writing about tha album. I'm writing about my reaction to it.
MF makes me feel old. Of the twelve tracks, five are parodies. Of those, I am only familiar with one of the original songs being parodied. That one is "Word Crimes," which is a parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." And it's probably too strong to say I'm "familiar with" the Thicke song. "Vaguely aware of" would be a more accurate phrase. And that's only because someone I know posted the video on facebook with a comment about how this is a good example of our rape culture. Oh, and I haven't heard of the other four musicians and bands whose songs are parodied.
Turning to the Polka medley, there are twelve songs represented in the medley. I'm familiar with three of them. And that overstates my familiarity with current pop music. One of the three is "The Too Fat Polka," which was a hit in 1947. The other two are "Gangnam Style," which became a pop-culture phenomenon way beyond the world of music, and "Wrecking Ball" the Miley Cyrus hit which has become widely known throughout the culture because of the video and the popular reaction to it.
Bottom line? I am way out of touch with the world of pop music.
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