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| Comedy rock | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins |
United States, late 1980s
|
| Typical instruments | |
| Mainstream popularity | Minor, but growing due to the popularity of certain comedy rock-influenced bands. |
| Subgenres | |
| Mock metal | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Comedy rap | |
| Other topics | |
| Glam metal | |
Comedy rock is a term used to describe rock music that is mixed with satire or other forms of comedy. This tradition can be traced back to the earliest days of rock and roll itself, the most notable early examples being Stan Freberg who lampooned artists such as Elvis Presley and The Platters, and Sheb Wooley whose Purple People Eater hit #1 on the Billboard pop charts in 1958 and stayed there 6 weeks.[1]
Some comedy rock artists, such as Frank Zappa, Tenacious D, and more recently, Flight of the Conchords create songs with amusing, witty, and/or over-the-top lyrics. Other acts such as Dread Zeppelin, Beatallica, and GWAR rely more on gimmicks such as outrageous costumes or mixing genres for comic affect.
Many mainstream rock bands are known to incorporate comedy songs in their work: Bloodhound Gang, Blink-182, Bowling For Soup, Sublime, Primus and System of a Down.
Rock has been the target of many spoofs and several spoof bands have gone on to have actual hit records, a good example would be The Hee Bee Gee Bees and subsequently Spinal Tap in the U.S., and Bad News in the U.K.. The most successful parody artist is "Weird Al" Yankovic who is now in his fourth decade of creating song parodies and has sold more than 12 million albums (more than any comedy act in history).[2]
Punk rock has made its contribution to the comedy rock ranks, with such bands as Dead Milkmen and The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Sid Vicious' covering "My Way" is comedy rock of a more sardonic sort.
The band Steel Panther, formerly known as Metal Skool, has become a fixture on LA's Sunset Strip with their spoof of 80's glam rock[3] and their success has opened the doors for other Hollywood spoof bands such as Van Stone and The Jimi Homeless Experience.
The virtual band Dethklok is death metal spoof featured in the Adult Swim animated program Metalocalypse[4] and their album entitled The Dethalbum debuted at #21 on the Billboard Top 200 list[5]
In Italy, comedy rock groups are Elio e le Storie Tese and I Vincisgrassi.
Notes
- ^ Bronson, Fred (2003). The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits: The Inside Story Behind Every Number, Billboard Books. pp. pp. 38. ISBN 0823076776.
- ^ Harrington, Richard. "Weird Al's Imitation: A Funky Form of Flattery". Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-08-10.
- ^ "Heavy-metal hellraisers rock you like a hurricane". Nightlife. LA.com (2007-01-01). Retrieved on 2008-07-18.
- ^ allmusic.com
- ^ "Dethalbum Debuts At #21 On Billboard Top 200" Oct. 9, 2007
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