Comedy music can come in many different forms such as parodies of popular songs, novelty songs, comedy rock and comedy hip hop and is just seen as a bit of fun but is it now actually becoming something that a lot of people will listen to?
The Midnight Beast seem to have alerted everyone to their music with their TV show and are now starting to make an impact on the ITunes charts as well as getting praise from other artists. The group from London have been getting positive reactions from not only the general public but also the people that they are parodying. ‘Tik Tok Parody’ reached number 90 in the UK and even Ke$ha stated on her website that it was even better than her version. Surely then it is only a matter of time before they bring out a song that will go right near the top of the charts? On YouTube they have over 300,000 subscribers and and a combined 50 million views on their channel which just shows how popular the group are and now with their TV being out, I expect their album which is due out on the 13th August to be a massive success.
Stefan, Dru and Ashley are hoping to make it big in the UK
However, it is easy to say they will be a success and its clear people like their songs but that doesn’t mean people will want to pay for them. If they do need to loom somewhere for inspiration then Weird Al Yankovic is certainly someone that has made a living out of parodying songs and writing his own comedy songs as he has sold over 12 million albums and received four gold records and six platinum records in America.
‘Weird Al’ even reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 in 2006 with his album ‘Straight Outta Lynwood’ with even the title of his album being a parody of N.W.A’s album ‘Straight Outta Compton’. Even the single ‘White & Nerdy’ (a parody of Ridin Dirty by Chamillionaire) reached number 9 and it just goes to show that comedy can make a mark on the charts.
The Lonely Island are probably the most similar to The Midnight Beast in America and they have had even more success some would argue than ‘Weird Al’ as they have collaborated with a lot of artists including T-Pain, Akon, Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Natalie Portman. These are some huge artists in the world of music, with the exception of Portman who is an actress. They, like The Midnight Beast first started off on YouTube but they have quickly grown into a well known group all around the world.
There are plenty more examples of music being influenced by comedy, for example, Tenacious D use a lot of jokes in their songs and they in my opinion would fit into the bracket of comedy rock along with Bloodhound Gang (although they are less ‘rock’). The list does go on and they are getting huge numbers of hits on YouTube like Flight of the Conchords.
That could be part of the problem though people want to have a laugh listening to their songs but do they really want it to come on whilst listening to their iPod on shuffle? My guess would be no and that is why it is difficult just to focus on the music and a lot of the ‘singers’ have to do other things such as TV work or even just be a comedian and use music in their work such as Bo Burnham and Tim Minchin.
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