Sunday 17 August 2014

"Word Crimes" - "Weird Al" Yankovic

As everyone knows, I'm not a fan of doing two music posts near to one another, but I don't have much time tonight to write anything longer than a music post. Now, for tonight's feature:


It's "Word Crimes" by "Weird Al" Yankovic, taken from Mandatory Fun, his fourteenth studio album. The song is a parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines"; the parody focuses on poor writing skills instead of sexual consent (or the lack of it). In my opinion, "Word Crimes" is the best version of "Blurred Lines" in existence: it does not carry any of the original song's controversy and it allows people who like the melody of "Blurred Lines", but not the lyrics, to hum it without feeling guilty. I know two people who despise "Blurred Lines" but love "Word Crimes".

The only controversy that stemmed from "Word Crimes" was Yankovic's use of "spastic" in the lyrics, as that word is considered offensive in some areas (it's sometimes used as a slur against mentally-challenged people). Yankovic apologized for using it.

I have long been a fan of "Weird Al" Yankovic. His work has been made more difficult in recent years due to the plethora of parody artists on YouTube, but Yankovic's works are almost always more clever and he's had hits in the past few decades, whereas most other parody acts rarely last beyond a couple of songs; also, he is an expert at creating parody songs that do not contain any profanity. He is a parody master.

2 comments:

  1. Yes! Word Crimes is the best! I think English classes should play this song. :)

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  2. Neat blog! :) I'll have to follow her. Thanks for sharing.

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