Mandatory Fun is a fourteenth studio album by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. Produced on its own, the album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014. Yankovic had previously released the Alpocalypse in 2011, and toured to support him when he first spoke about the next recording. When he started working on what would become a Mandatory Fun, Yankovic found himself listening to older acts, many of whom he would spoof in style on the album.
Recorded in studios in Los Angeles and Massachusetts from 2012 to 2014, the album contains twelve tracks, which include parody tracks by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde, and Imagine Dragons. It also features original songs in pastiche form, imitating Pixies style, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & amp; Nash and the Southern Culture of Collapse. Yankovic composed the original first, and wrote the last parody to get them to be on time after the album's release. Many artists react positively to parodies; Williams said he was "honorable" to be faked by Yankovic, while Imagine Dragons counseled Yankovic about how to replicate the sound in their original song.
After Yankovic 32 years under contract, Mandatory Fun marked the number one album in the United States. It received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Yankovic chose not to release the lead single and instead publish the album by launching eight online music videos during the first week of the album release through a different video content portal. Among other things, "Kata Crime" became the top 40 Yankovic songs, making it one of the few artists to achieve such a feat in four separate decades.
The album won for Best Comedy Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Yankovic's fourth Grammy career. Due to the completion of his record contractual obligations and the success of the video strategy, Yankovic has suggested Mandatory Fun may be his last traditional album, switching to a more timely release of singles and EP songs.
Video Mandatory Fun
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During the closing stages of the Alpocalypse tour, Yankovic stated in an interview with The Morning Call that he had one more album on his contract; paper and other sources means this album will be the last. Yankovic then clarified that this was the last album on his current record deal with his label, that he is currently "weighing his options" to renew the contract or find another publisher, and explained that he did not retire from the music of the foreseeable future. In subsequent interviews with NPR Weekend Edition , he stated that this was probably his last conventional album, switching to a more frequent single release and EP. For LP, Yankovic states that given the time interval between the start of the process and the release of the finished product, "it is likely that a lot of material will become somewhat behind when it comes out".
The first song composed for the album is the original song in the style of various bands, compared to the direct parody, pastiches "better age". Before making these songs, he had listened to old songs like Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture in the Skids for his own entertainment. Crosby, Stills & amp; Nash's parody style "Mission Statement" is drawn from his experience of attending executive meetings in his musical career. Shortly after completing the song, Yankovic met with Graham Nash, who accidentally asked Yankovic to parody "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Yankovic played a pastiche tape on his phone to Nash on the spot, and claimed that Nash liked the song. "First World Problems" is an original composition that mimics the Pixies style, which Yankovic has done together for a charity concert two years earlier. The song features vocal background by Amanda Palmer, mimicking Kim Deal's vocal style (especially from the song "Debaser"). Palmer, citing Yankovic and Pixies as her childhood heroes, explained on her personal website that she and Yankovic met at one of her concerts in Los Angeles a few years earlier. After Yankovic learned that his fans had petitioned him for a headline at the Super Bowl show in the first half, he realized he had no sports-themed compositions in his repertoire, and decided to write "Sports Song".
Yankovic notes that the usual method he uses to create parody ideas is to scan Billboard's graphics, radio games, and online buzz to create a list of top candidates. From that point on, he does the possibility of playing words in song titles, potential humor and general direction for his version. Fans are speculating ahead of the release of the album that Yankovic will parody "Let It Go" from the Disney movie Frozen , due to the song's popularity. He then explained that he was considering making a parody of Frozen titled "Make It So" about Star Trek: The Next Generation, but decided not after finding such a parody already existed. Yankovic observed that the existing spoof "got enough attention online to get Disney's legal department to ask them to tear it down! I can not think of any ideas I like as much as 'Make It So', so... I give up!". There are several other songs that he meant to parody, but felt he could not develop ideas that were smart enough for, and instead used them in the medley "Now That's What I Call Polka". More specifically, Yankovic states that while Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is an "iconic song", it's too recurring for him to incorporate new lyrics effectively. Maps Mandatory Fun
Recording
Twelve songs were recorded for Mandatory Fun . Most sessions take place at Way Station, GoDaveyGo Studio, and Bedrock L.A. in Los Angeles. Yankovic recorded pre-recorded every song on his personal laptop before recording, to show his bandmates the direction to enter. The earliest songs produced were "Mission Statement", "Lame Claim to Fame" and "My Own Eyes", recorded on September 4, 2012. Three more songs were recorded: "Sports Song" on May 3, followed by "First World Problems" and "Jackson Park Express" on May 8, 2013. Yankovic announces Amanda Palmer's involvement in the album later that month. His background vocal sessions for "First World Problems" occurred at Mad Oak Studios in Allston, Massachusetts, because he could not travel to L.A. at the time. Yankovic trained Palmer from distance through Skype as he tried to imitate Kim Deal's vocal style.
As usual for him, Yankovic sought permission from the original artist for his parody; Unlike the previous album, it has little difficulty in obtaining this. Yankovic stated, "This is the first time I get everything I want, and I can not be happier about it." He can get Pharrell Williams's permission for the three songs he represents on the album, Williams "Happy", "Blurred lines" Robin Thicke, and "Get Lucky", via personal email to the artist after manager Yankovic has trouble working with this with the Williams manager ; according to Yankovic, Williams is "honored" to have his work used by Yankovic. Yankovic and his band got full cooperation from Imagine Dragons, who gave permission and gave advice on how to re-create some of the sounds used in "Radioactive" for Yankovic delivery "Off".
When Yankovic decided to parody the "Fleeing Line", he initially worried that at the time his version would be released a year later, many parodies were already there. He therefore chooses to go in a different direction by making a "Word of Evil", which continues his appeal with the grammar previously expressed in pieces of video in which he corrects wrong marks and wrong text in public. Yankovic said that his version avoided misunderstanding of the original song and the various parodies that existed. He also considers this "the only chance that 'Fleeing Line' will be used in one's school curriculum". "Word Crime", "Off" and "Foil" are all recorded in December 2013 while "Tacky" and "Now That's What I Call Polka!" produced in April next. Lisa Popeil also revealed in April that she will be recording with Yankovic for her album. Comedian Patton Oswalt, who appeared in the video for "Foil", listened to Yankovic's album in May 2014 and revealed that "He insinuated a band I worshiped since the 90s." Yankovic then asserted that Oswalt referred to his pastiche Pixies.
The eleven tracks were completed in early 2014, and Yankovic set a release date in the middle of the year to keep the material "as soon as possible". However, he hopes to find a "big hit of summer" to add to the set. Yankovic remembers that he determined the saturation point of "Fancy" Iggy Azalea by asking his daughter: "I said, 'Are they talking about Iggy Azalea at school?' And he said, 'Well, not so much.' I asked the same question two weeks later and he said, 'Oh yes, that's what they're talking about now!' â € Yankovic then traveled from Los Angeles to Denver, Colorado in early June 2014 to ask Azalea permission to parodize the song.He noted that meeting spoof targets personally is not the usual method of obtaining permission, but it is necessary in this case to meet the deadline album, described by TMZ as an "ambush" when Yankovic presented the lyrics of a potential parody to Azalea backstage at one of his concerts, clarifying that the meeting was much more polite and disproportionate by TMZ.Yankovic recorded a Azalea parody of "Handy" on the same month, and announced that the album mastering process was completed on June 12th.
Composition
Compulsory Fun consists of twelve tracks, five of which are a parody of popular songs during album production. The opening of Iggy Azalea parody "Fancy" is "Handy", which is done from the point of view of someone described by Kenneth Partridge of Billboard as "the most braggadocious contractor in the world". The characters depicted in rhythmic songs on various handyman's tasks include putting up countertops, floor tiles, and fixing leaf blowers. Kevin O'Keeffe of The Wire notes that the only direct connection between the character and the Azalea is the line "I got 99 problems but a switch instead of one", which refers to Azalea's appearance in the "Trouble" song.
The Southern Culture on the Skids pastiche "Lame Claim to Fame" tests a culture that is obsessed with celebrities. It features name-drops often as the singer brags about having tangential associations with popular people. "Foil" is a parody of the Lord Royals song and focuses on two cases of aluminum foil use: the first verse relates to food preserved with matter, while the second verse describes the foils used by conspiracy theorists as protectors. hat. O'Keeffe observes that it is the shortest parody on Mandatory Fun because it removes the last bridge and chorus from the original song. The original composition of "Sports Song" envisioned marching bands of college directly insulting opposing teams with their struggle songs. Annie Zaleski from The A.V. Club summarizes the trajectory as "a decent but not overly inspired feed on fandom fanatics".
Robin Thicke's parody follows "Word Crimes" involving singers who show grammatical errors that are often made in online messages, and embarrass people involved in misconceptions of other common texts. "My Own Eyes" is a parody of the style of Foo Fighters in which the protagonist recalls seeing unusual events throughout his life, like an old man dying of "Bieber fever" and a mime "hacked to death with a fictional machete". Partridge felt that pastiche "fell flat" without the writing and personality of Dave Grohl. "Now that's what I call Polka!" was the twelfth polka medley Yankovic, in which Yankovic sang popular songs during the recording, accompanied by polka music. The title is a parody of the old album compilation series released by EMI, Now That's What I Call Music! .
The song "Mission Statement" emulates the style of Crosby, Stills & amp; Nash, with lyrics citing a series of key words and corporate executives jargon. Yankovic considers it "ironic to pair it with CSN style songs, whose music pretty much represents the antithesis of American companies". Rolling Stone notes that the song mimics the band-lined harmonies used in "Carry On" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".
"Off" is a farce from the Radioactive "Imagine Dragons" song centered on a very lethargic character covered in food scraps. O'Keeffe said on the breath sounds of the original song that was contextualized in parody, as the character mentioned that he needed an inhaler. The Pixies pastiche "First World Problems" lampoons people who complain of First World problems like the lack of gluten-free cookies in the airport lounge. The song features an "off-kilter guitar and escort vocal Black Francis-esque" with reference styles for Pixies songs "Debaser" and "Hang Wire". Pharrell Williams's "Happy" pickup is the song "Tacky", in which the proud singer has no shame and makes a choice that is not fashionable or unwise. The review notes that the song lists various disruptive actions related to social media, referencing Instagram, Twitter, and Yelp.
Following Yankovic's traditions to record long songs such as "Albuquerque", "Genius in France" and "Trapped in Drive-Thru", he closed the album with a 9 minute plus song called "Jackson Park Express". The song is in the style of Cat Stevens, and described by Zaleski as "a deep sketch of the long-bus-ride-romance that is really a figment of the protagonist's imagination." Another detailed review is the conversation between two bus passengers that involves topics such as relationships, deodorants, and the wearing of other people's skins; the protagonist insists that the latter is "not in a scary way." Comedy site Chortle believes that "Jackson Park Express" is the best song on the album, and "arguably the funniest thing he ever wrote."
Packaging
The front cover and title of the album was first confirmed through the RCA Records website. Regarding the title of the album, Yankovic mentions that, "It's just an oxymoron that I'm always amused about. It's used a lot in corporate retreats and, I'm told, in the military." Yankovic also acknowledged that the name was speculated to be a reference to the album that marked the end of its label contract for 32 years.
This artwork is designed to resemble the agglomeration of Soviet and Chinese propaganda, and Yankovic is depicted by Rolling Stone as wearing a Russian military costume over a font that resembles Soviet text. Communist propaganda is often drawn in shades of red, features of people lined up, and backed up in the background by a leader's image. Yankovic stated that the cover image was photographed in early August 2013. Yankovic said cover art was a play on the name of Mandatory Fun.
Promotions
See also: World Tour Required
Before the album finishes and the release date is set, Yankovic has booked promotional appearances that happen to fall around the time of the album release: this includes appearances in the Epic Rap Battles of History series where he dressed up as Isaac Newton, and Comedy series Central Drunk History where he played Adolf Hitler. Yankovic began hinting at the release of Fun Obligatory using social media in mid-June 2014. On June 14, he posted a "secret" picture of himself with the message "July 15", the Rolling Stone < > set as release date of album. Yankovic used a series of short trailers to tease the album, using stock footage of historical communism and military propaganda films interspersed with imagery from the album cover. He then observes that his portrayal of Hitler in Drunken History corresponds to the "totalitarian theme" of Mandatory Fun .
Yankovic announced that there would be no pre-album singles for Mandatory Fun, and instead he would let the listeners decide which song became his hits. He also revealed that he will participate in Reddit's "Ask Me Anything" session on the day of the album's release. Yankovic explains that the pre-release campaign deliberately withholds song information, as he feels it has become more difficult to establish a unique parody of YouTube's age of content creation. He then made an appearance on the sitcom Hulu The Hotwives of Orlando that coincided with the launch of Mandatory Fun . After the album was released, he explains that singing out singles is not technically necessary, as customers can purchase songs individually from a digital vendor.
Yankovic made a commitment not to tour for a full year during 2014, instead of using Mandatory Fun to tour "in revenge" in 2015. "The Mandatory World Tour" was announced in January 2015 , and close places in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand throughout 2015 from May. Yankovic continues this tour in 2016 especially throughout North America.
Music videos
To help promote Mandatory Fun in social media circles, Yankovic produced eight music videos for the album; one is revealed every day starting on July 14, 2014, the day before the album's release. Yankovic commented that "there is no more music television" as it was in the past, and that "the Internet [...] is a new MTV" that operates continuously. Yankovic came up with the idea for a video promotion of the new album about two years before it was released. He feels that releasing a new video for eight days constantly "will make an impact because people will talk about the album all week". This approach has been compared to Beyoncà ©  © Knowles' marketing for his album Beyoncà ©  © who took advantage of social media; when asked if this video strategy was influenced by Knowles, Yankovic pointed out that the previous footage Alpocalypse featured a video for each song at the time of release: "No one told Beyoncà ©  © 'Hey, you did Al Aneh, is not it? 'So as a note, I am the first. "
Although the music video aspect of Yankovic's songs has long been a part of her success, RCA Records has chosen not to fund any video production for Mandatory Fun. Yankovic instead turned to various social media portals including Funny or Die and CollegeHumor who had worked with him in the past; these sites help to cover the cost of video production with Yankovic before video ad revenue. He chose to distribute the videos to different portals to avoid burdening them with all the costs and work required to produce them. This release strategy is considered by The Atlantic as a "web-enabled precision video delivery operation, and evidence of some serious digital thought thinking" because it allows the video to be viewed by a different audience of audiences for each site. During an interview on Fox Business, Yankovic explained his funding method to Stuart Varney, who seemed to misunderstand the possibility of Yankovic's video monetization.
The first music video debuted on July 14th, featuring the song "Tacky". Produced by Nerdist Industries, Williams's own one-shot imitated video used in his video for "Happy": It featured Aisha Tyler, Margaret Cho, Eric Stonestreet, Kristen Schaal, Jack Black and Yankovic wearing tacky clothes and dancing poorly at the destination while inserting lyrics to a song about someone boasting about the choice of style in question. The video was filmed at the Palace Theater in downtown Los Angeles, formerly featured as Julianne Moore's apartment in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski . Yankovic stated that during each of six continuous shoots, he had to hurry down five flights of stairs while changing his clothes to appear at the beginning and end of the video. The video for "Word Crimes" features a kinetic typography created by Jarrett Heather, which reflects the theme of appropriate grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The video "Foil", produced jointly with CollegeHumor, shows Yankovic as an obsessive cooking host on the use of aluminum foil, suddenly down to conspiracy theories; it also included guest appearances by Patton Oswalt, Tom Lennon, and Robert Ben Garant.
"Handy" released via Yahoo! The "Sketchy" channel screen, and presented in late night infomercial style with Yankovic performing as general contractor of housing; the video also includes Eddie Pepitone, Justin Giddings, and Ted Hollis. The videos for "Sports Songs" played in the theme of the song, featuring Yankovic along with the Marching Tigers band Riverside City College who performed routines on the soccer field during the song; the video was directed by Yankovic with Andrew Bush and Brad Schulz and produced together with Funny or Die. The video for "The First World Problem" was directed by Liam Lynch, and showed Yankovic, disguised as a "pretentious jerk" wearing a "wig douchey blonde", overreacting to small disruptions to a well-off lifestyle.
"Lame Claim to Fame" is a stop-motion video directed by Tim Thompson's animator, using a scrapbooking approach to show the protagonist's bonding relationship with various celebrities. This video takes a year and a half to complete. Among the ins and outs of celebrities mentioned in the song, the video includes a picture of Dr. Demento, the radio host who helped Yankovic's popularity. The last video is a "Mission Statement", released via Wall Street Journal . The video is produced by TruScribe's business marketing company, displaying the time-lapsing whiteboard image they have done for ads for companies like Microsoft and PayPal. It took about 10 months to make, go back and forth with Yankovic to match their images with the concepts and music themes of the song.
Reception
Critical response
Metacritic's review collecting website gives the album an average score of 77, based on 11 reviews, which shows "favorable public reviews." The Los Angeles Times provided the perfect four-star rating album and referred to it as "cold stone works", praising how the album's parody tracks worked well from their original material with the lyrics of Yankovic. The A.V. The Club considers this album a success with just a few mistakes, with "smart meta-comments about pop music and never-too-serious collections". Rolling Stone reviews the song "Tacky" which states that "Weird Al is in good shape throughout the track".
Allan Raible of ABC News described the album as one of his best works, writing, "What makes this so sharp is that it really captures the current culture in bubbles in a more pointed way than on previous records." Billboard thinks the original tape is the best material, and "Word Crimes" is the best parody. Paste also agrees that Yankovic's original material is the culmination of the album, and that as a whole, Mandatory Fun is "a nice, funny album that shows that Yankovic is not slowing down." down a bit ".
Obligatory Fun won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in the 57th edition.
Commercial performance
Obligatory Fun debuted on top of the United States Billboard 200 on the week of 2 August 2014. This made it Yankovic's first album number one on the chart in his book more than 30 years career. Mandatory Fun is the first comedy album to debut in number one slot. Mandatory Fun is also the first comedy album to reach number one spot since Allan Sherman My Son, the Nut in August 1963. It reached the biggest selling week for a comedy album. since The Beavis and the Butt-head Experience in 1994 after selling 104,700 copies during the sales week ending July 20, 2014. Before the last figure, Yankovic was scheduled to sell 70,000-75,000 retail copies at the end of the tracking week, placing it just above Jason Mraz Yes! . Estimated sales figures almost doubled from sales of Alpocalypse during the first week of launch in 2011. The song "Word Crimes" placed # 39 on Billboard Hot 100 for the same week, the song The fourth Top 40 in Yankovic's career and making it a third artist, after Michael Jackson and Madonna, has had Top 40 songs in each of the four decades since the 1980s.
Businessweek links the successful sale of Mandatory Fun to viral music video campaigns. ABC World News explains that Yankovic's success is in part due to Internet interest in viral videos and humor pursuing what Yankovic has done for his entire career. Yankovic himself was amazed by the response he got from the album and the video release, stating that "I've been doing the same for 30 years and suddenly I'm having the best week of my life" and that he's "kind of stumbling on my formula for the future". He also stated, "Album No. 1 is something I never had in my wildest dreams that I ever thought would come true." Total video collections have gained over 46 million views in the 10 days since the album's release, and six of the top eight videos reached the top on Twitter Billing Real-Time Trending 140 charts during that week. In contrast, Yankovic's video for "Perform This Way", the main single from Alpocalypse , received only 16.8 million views in the three years since it was released, while individual videos from Fun Obligatory i >, like "Tacky", received 12.8 million views in its first week. His exposure on social networks jumped 3.391% between the week of July 7-13 and July 14-20, giving him more exposure than Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Justin Timberlake.
Track list
Personnel
The following is adapted from album liner notes.
Releasing history
Graphical position
Note
References
External links
Official music video from YouTube account "Weird Al" Yankovic:
- "Word Crime"
- "Foil"
- "Lame Claim to Fame"
- "First World Problems"
- "Sports Songs"
- "Useful"
- "Tacky"
- "Mission Statement"
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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