An Interesting Development....

Despite the ridicule I get from my friends whenever I admit this, one of my favorite musical artists is "Weird Al" Yankovic. The man is a musical and comedic genius. So much so that his career has outlasted some of the mainstream artists he's parodied over the years. In fact, there has been cases where his parodies have worked as advertisements for the original versions, boosting sales for the original artists. The most notable example being Mr. Yankovic's parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin' Dirty" entitled "White & Nerdy".

Today, Mr. Yankovic unveiled a new parody of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" called "Perform This Way". I had no idea that Mr. Yankovic was even working on a parody of Lady Gaga, but of all the artists currently popular, she would be the logical choice since there is so much to lampoon. It's almost like she's asking to be made fun of. After listening to the song, and thoroughly enjoying it, I looked into the other side of it because at the beginning of the video, Mr. Yankovic states that this was supposed to be the new single for his next album. But after going through several hoops to get Lady Gaga's approval, including fully producing and recording the song, she turned him down. For the full story from Mr. Yankovic himself, click this link to go to his blog.

Now, I believe that any artist has the right to protect their own music. And I am constantly amazed at how honorable Mr. Yankovic's personal policy of getting approval from every artist he parodies. But I have to agree with Mr. Yankovic's point where Lady Gaga should have just said no upfront instead of making him go through all the trouble of writing, recording and producing the track only to shut it down.

So, in an effort to give more awareness to this track, so Mr. Yankovic can see that people still appreciate the hard work he put into it, I've included it here. And if you're so inclined, please donate to the Human Rights Campaign.