Here’s a guy who probably starting goofing on popular music songs in college or something, found that he had a gift for it, and parlayed it into a successful career. And the world is richer for it.
Absolutely, that’s his gimmick. Very talented. It’s just that if there’s no point of reference to modern pop you don’t get the full Weird Al effect. Nature of the beast. I know he does some original songs or at least he used to, has ever did an oldies parody album?
Freegards
I don’t know if Dr. Demento is still on the air, but a local (then syndicated) radio show (and affiliated compilation albums) helped spread word of Al’s talents.
To find anything like that in any kind of music these days, you are supposed to “pay” for radio.
I’ll listen to talk radio or CDs in my car and if I have the internet at home/work, why would I ever PAY for radio when I can stream a good live/archived program that wasn’t simply playing songs in a random order?
As a matter of fact, Weird Al has a degree in architecture from California Polytechnic State University.