Affectionate Parody / Music

• "Donna" by 10cc sends up numerous cheesy songs from the late fifties and early sixties. Made even funnier by the fact that one of the songs it's sending up has the same title (but is by Marty Wilde).
• 2ge+her is MTV's Affectionate Parody of the Boy Band trend, especially *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. *NSYNC has stated that they found it hilarious and really wanted to make a cameo in the original television movie, but scheduling conflicts prevented it from happening.
• The video for Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" includes just about every Michael Jackson joke possible, from a moonwalk that lights the sidewalk below to an ending with scary eyes.
• The Backstreet Boys put out a music video for their song "Just Want You to Know" in which they parody 80's Hair Metal by playing one such band named Sphynkter, as well as playing fans of said band.
• Big Bad Bosses is this for boy bands of the late '90s and early 2000s, as well as video game villains (all of the members in-universe are villains; they're portrayed by people who work at That One Video Gamer).
• The Blue Man Group song "It's Time to Start" parodies rock concerts by explaining what rock concert tropes the audience should carry out, ranging from the realistic ("Rock Concert Movement #1, the basic head bob", and "#2, the one-armed fist pump") to the ridiculous ("#4, the behind-the-head leg stretch", which the Blue Men proceed to actually do). #3 ("the up-and-down jumping motion") receives a step-by-step explanation, though in live performances it's been replaced with #10 ("getting a closer look at the audience") which involves footage from a miniature camera supposedly being shoved down an audience member's throat. The live introduction to "Shadows Part 2" goes even further by invoking "Rock Concert Movement #237: Taking The Audience On a Jungian Journey Into The Collective Unconscious By Using The Shadow As A Metaphor For The Primal Self That Gets Repressed By The Modern Persona And Also By Using An Underground Setting And Labyrinth Office Design To Represent Both The Depths Of The Psyche And The And The Dungeon-like Isolation Of Our Increasingly Mechanistic Society Which Prevents People From Finding Satisfying Work Or Meaningful Connections With Others".
• Cannabis Corpse. They're Cannibal Corpse... WITH WEED!
• Da Yoopers are a group from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (residents of which are commonly called Yoopers, from "U.P.-ers"), whose music is a mix of song parodies ("Rusty Chevrolet", for example, is a Jingle Bells parody) and original songs; their style is not so much to parody other music, however, as it is one big affectionate parody and homage to the Yooper lifestyle and way of speaking.
• DaVinci's Notebook has their song "Title of the Song", which parodies any and all boyband love ballads. How do they do so? They sing in verse what typically goes into the song at that given point. Including when the singer should "drop to their knees to elicit a crowd response" and "hold a high note". The comments on the vid/song are also great examples of Affectionate Parody on most comments made on YouTube.
• Engutturalment Cephaloslamectomy plays slam that makes a point of poking fun at most aspects of the slam genre. They've made it clear that while they're musically a serious band, their lyrics are intended to be a lighthearted parody of said music.
• The band Flight of the Conchords has produced several songs which are parodies of certain types of music:
  • "Inner-City Pressure" is a parody of Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls").
  • "Think About It" parodies music which uses the desolation of the modern world as subject matter.
  • "Bowie", which, as you might expect, is a reference to David Bowie, more specifically his song "Space Oddity".
  • "You Don't Have to be a Prostitute" is a parody of The Police's "Roxanne".
  • "Not Crying" is a parody of 10cc's "I'm Not in Love".
• "I Don't Believe You Want to Get Up and Dance (Oops!)" by The Gap Band is an affectionate parody of George Clinton's Parliament works, poking fun at his repetitive hooks, references to traditional children's songs, and Spoken Word in Music tendencies, sometimes quoting him directly (e.g. the line, "The bigger the headache, the bigger the pill; the bigger the doctor, the bigger the bill!" is a reference to a line in "Dr. Funkenstein" that goes, "The bigger the headache, the bigger the pill, baby. Well, call me the Big Pill."). And if that wasn't enough, the song goes on for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. This kind of Epic Rocking was typical of Clinton's work. And if that wasn't enough, near the end of the song, it starts interpolating a melody from the song "Disco to Go" from one of his lesser projects, The Brides of Funkenstein. And George Clinton found it absolutely hilarious.
• Gloryhammer, a side project of Alestorm's vocalist, intentionally plays up all of the Power Metal stereotypes, from ridiculously upbeat music to the band going on stage dressed as knights and wizards to second language English grammar errors, despite the lyricist being from Scotland.
• The Hee Bee Gee Bees, created for the 1980s radio series Radio Active, spoofed numerous artists of the 70s and 80s. Now sadly almost forgotten.
• Many of the more humorous songs of the Slovak World Music band Hrdza have this element to them. Rather than just adapt the country's existing folkloric music like most other bands of their genre do, they generally tend to write their own material. They do this deliberately In the Style of said folk music from various corners of the country, with the lyrics commonly lampshading the various well-worn clichés and tropes of typical folk songs, or being tongue-in-cheek troperrific. It's even better when you realize that the band knows their stuff about folk music, treats it with respect, and makes an effort at authenticity, but isn't afraid to poke fun at tradition in a tasteful way and give the whole thing a modern and relatable spin. This is possibly why they've become such a beloved (if niche) band, compared to some of the more over-reverent world music acts in the country, or the ones that treat folkloric music just as fodder to base rock or metal covers on.
• Country Music parodist Cledus T. Judd, who always asks the artists' permission before making parodies of their songs. The only artist who ever turned him down was Garth Brooks, who initially declined to let him parody the Trisha Yearwood duet "In Another's Eyes" but later changed his mind. Judd has also gotten the original artists to help him out several times.
• Kompressor's work affectionately parodies industrial music.
• As "the greatest fake MCs on Earth," The Lonely Island have taken everything they love about rap, hip-hop, R&B, and club music for the sole purpose of making songs about making dookie your pants, having sex with piles of manure, premature ejaculation, and most importantly, the Space Olympics.
• Massacration were originally created by Brazilian comedy group Hermes & Renato to star in a music video making fun of Heavy Metal band conventions (such as Brazilian metal bands singing in English, or the emphasis on macabre imagery in lyrics and clips), but ended up becoming quite successful as a real Heavy Metal band, even though they're still spoofing the genre; they've even released albums and opened shows for serious bands, like Sepultura.
• Freddie Mercury's "The Great Pretender" video spoofs his band Queen's past music videos and Mercury's image as a Large Ham.
• The video for Miike Snow's "Genghis Khan" is an affectionate parody of campy Tuxedo and Martini Spy Fiction. It also plays with Foe Romance Subtext and the cliche of the sexually ambiguous supervillain and turns it into something rather sweet.
• Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer sends up much of modern Hip-Hop with a British accent.
• Like Gloryhammer (see above), Nanowar of Steel parodies Power Metal and its associated tropes. They have even brought in members of the bands that they're parodying (e.g. "Pasadena 1994" is a song about the World Cup final between Italy and Brazil done In the Style of Sabaton, and Sabaton's Joakim Brodén actually provides guest vocals).
• Anders Nilsen's song "Salsa Tequila" contains all the elements of a "summer hit", namely: "accordion", "lyric video", "saxophone", and "to top it all off, Spanish lyrics". Unfortunately, these are written by someone who does not speak a word of Spanish, creating a catchy but nonsensical song to lightly poke fun at typical summer hits.
• Paul and Storm (a duo consisting of two former members of DaVinci's Notebook, mentioned above) have a number of these:
  • Most notable are their Randy Newman Theme Songs.
  • They have a series of supposition songs, namely "If James Taylor Were on Fire", "If Bob Dylan Were Hiding at the Bottom of a Well", "If James Taylor Were on Fire at the Bottom of a Well", "If Leon Redbone Suffered a Debilitating Head Injury", "If Aaron Neville Were Waiting for a Parking Spot at the Mall But Someone Else Snagged It", and finally "If They Might Be Giants Were the Ice Cream Man").
  • Once, for the Masters of Song Fu competition, Paul and Storm were asked to do a song in the style of their friend Jonathan Coulton. The result was the song "Live", which uses the "mad scientist in love" theme that's part of some of Coulton's songs, most notably "Skullcrusher Mountain". Coulton returned the favor (as part of the same competition) with the song "Big Dick Farts a Polka".
• P.D.Q. Bach:
  • P.D.Q. Bach is supposedly the talentless, ne'er-do-well son of Johann Sebastian Bach (1807-1742?). Many albums of P.D.Q. Bach's music exist (performed by classical musicians). There's also a biography. They are actually the creation of Peter Schickele, who is far better known for P.D.Q. Bach than for the serious classical music he composes.
  • In a more specific example, "Bach Portrait", on a P.D.Q. Bach album but credited to Schickele, is an Affectionate Parody of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait".
• The Pet Shop Boys song "The Night I Fell in Love" blurs the lines between this and Take That!; a parody of the homophobia both inherent and explicit in the songs and public persona of Eminem by imagining him having a homosexual affair with a starstruck young fan, the song is written in a gentle, sweet fashion that is more teasing than anything else (though Neil Tennant has denied this, claiming that it was actually inspired by Eminem's claims that the homophobic remarks were from the point of view of his alter-egos and not him). Eminem's response, however, was a bit less gentle; in "Can I Bitch", he runs them over with his car. In general, artists take the occasional potshot at Mr. Mathers because they know that, no matter how mild or teasing the shot, he'll double the publicity for them by completely overreacting. Though whether this is because he's genuinely insecure, or it's all part of the act, no-one quite knows.
• Psychostick are an Affectionate Parody of modern mainstream metal, poking fun at its Serious Business Angst with all kinds of Mundane Made Awesome subject matter. Examples include:
  • "#1 Radio $ingle", which makes fun of the pop-rock earworm songs that are always on the radio.
  • A Song Parody of Drowning Pool's "Bodies" called "Numbers (I Can Only Count To Four)".
  • "Grocery Escape Plan", a The Dillinger Escape Plan-style metalcore song... about a trip to the grocery store.
• Anna Russell's parodies of popular and classical music vary widely in their sincerity. In her "Survey of Singing from Madrigals to Modern Opera", the parodies of madrigals and coloratura arias are too silly to be true, but "Wir gehen in den Automaten" could be mistaken for a Bach cantata if the lyrics weren't about ordering bacon at the Automat, and "Aria from 'The Psychiatrist'" only sounds insane when compared with Magda's aria from The Consul and its repetition of the question "What is your name?"
• The Rutles (originating in a Rutland Weekend Television sketch) are a spoof of The Beatles. George Harrison was actually involved in the project.
• Spinal Tap, of This is Spın̈al Tap fame, affectionately parodies a number of genres including skiffle, 60s rock and pop, 70s rock, but especially Heavy Metal, including the often over-the-top theatrics and blunt sexual imagery of 1980s hair metal.
• Spose's "Alternative Radio" is one long love song to the genre, complete with an Affectionate Parody musical and lyrical style, as well as numerous shout-outs to the artists, bands, and songs.
• Steel Panther started out as a Hair Metal tribute band. Now, it makes parodies of the the genre's notorious Self-Deprecation and double entendres.
• Ray Stevens's "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow" is this to Barry Manilow, playfully ribbing Manilow's style. Manilow himself loved it.
• In the behind-the-scenes for Lindsey Stirling's Assassin's Creed III medley, one of her crew dances about in a parody of her own moves, whilst holding two sticks to imitate bowing a violin. Everyone ends up laughing, though Stirling also pretends to be indignant and say she doesn't look like that.
• Tragedy, an "all metal tribute to The Bee Gees", parodies both the Bee Gees and glam metal.
• "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" by The Traveling Wilburys is this to Bruce Springsteen. Written mostly by Bob Dylan with significant input from Tom Petty, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne, it's set in Springsteen's home state of New Jersey (also the setting for many of The Boss's songs), includes the titles of many Springsteen songs in its lyrics, and borrows from seemingly every trope in his oeuvre.
• Of all things, on 16th December 1995 Tsuburaya Productions (in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment) released "Scat Ultraman: A Bright Future", a song starring the titular alien superhero in the style of Scatman John's "I'm Scatman", complete with music video.
• Ultra Vomit is a French band that started out as mainly a grindcore act but branched out into making parody songs (and competently) in just about every style from extreme metal to Punk Rock.
• "I'm Nice To You" by Vulfmon, a side project of Vulfpeck, is a funk-infused affectionate parody of 2000s midwestern emo music. Featuring Jacob Jefferies on vocals, it has all the makings of an emo rock song with the belted vocals and angsty, petty lyrics, but you can tell it was done in a way that is a tribute of sorts to the genre while keeping Vulfpeck's signature funky sound.
• The Dukes of Stratosphear was XTC's send-up of psychedelic rock, an influence which would later start being more prominent in their non-parodic work. Songs usually were in the style of specific sixties groups — most obviously, "Bike Ride to the Moon" parodies Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, while "Pale And Precious" is The Beach Boys somewhere between their Pet Sounds and SMiLE eras, and "Brainiac's Daughter", "Collideascope", and "The Mole from the Ministry" all parody different aspects of of The Beatles. Production-wise, they incorporate a lot of Gratuitous Panning.
  
  At one point Andy Partridge wanted to do something of a Spiritual Sequel dedicated to bubblegum pop of the same era — it never ended up happening, but one such song ("Cherry in Your Tree") turned up on a soundtrack album for Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego, another ("Standing in for Joe") was reworked for Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2), and two others ("Candymine" and "Visit to the Doctor") are on Partridge's demo compilation Fuzzy Warbles Volume 7. The XTC song "Knights in Shining Karma" also took its name from one of the fictional band names intended for the project.
• Unlike Bob Rivers, "Weird Al" Yankovic's parodies usually seem to have a touch of class in them, even those that make fun of the singer directly. He does it well enough that even the artists he parodies like his work. It helps that Al asks first.
  • Michael Jackson found "Fat" and "Eat It" (parodies of "Bad" and "Beat It" respectively) to be so hilarious (even going so far is to lend him the same sets from his videos to make new ones), that he gave Weird Al permission to parody all of his songs, as well as all future songs, with the exception of "Snack All Night" ("Black or White"), which Jackson said was too serious a message, though Al still performs it live.
  • James Brown was more than happy for Al to parody "Living In America" as "Living With a Hernia", but seeing as James had had a hernia (mercifully minor) a few years earlier, he asked Al to give fifty dollars to a hernia charity. Al complied with a smile, saying he was honoured to do so.
  • Notably, when Weird Al asked Mark Knopfler for permission to parody Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" as "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies", Knopfler granted the request with the condition that he played the guitar part himself.
  • "Smells Like Nirvana" which makes fun of Nirvana's unintelligible lyrics. Kurt Cobain loved it.
  • The liner notes of Alapalooza state that all royalties from "Achy Breaky Song" go to the United Cerebral Palsy Association. The song is harsh by Al's standards, as it is one of the few songs of his that send up the original song itself; Al and the songwriter of "Achy Breaky Heart", Don Von Tress, agreed that the parody was "mean-spirited" and they both decided that the money made from the song should go to charity as a sign of goodwill.
  • "Traffic Jam" is a parody of Prince's music style.
  • He did get in trouble with Coolio for "Amish Paradise",^note incidentally, a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" for unclear reasons. Apparently, Al's people talked to Coolio's people, who said yes, but Coolio himself didn't approve it. (And got angry about it.) When he found out about Coolio's response, Al apologized, like the class act he is. Eventually, Coolio got over it too and gave Al a hug.
  • Something similar happened when Al wanted to do a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". Apparently, Al was granted permission to do the parody, but after he'd recorded "You're Pitiful", Atlantic Records (Blunt's label) refused the permission, so Al dropped the tune from his latest record. However, he still performs it (and a few other refused parodies) live. He also released the song for free, just as a Take That! against Atlantic.
  • With his Doors-style parody, "Craigslist", Ray Manzarek requested to play the organ part himself.
  • Lady Gaga's management initially denied permission for the release of "Perform This Way", Al's parody of "Born This Way" from Alpocalypse, mainly because of the original song's message promoting tolerance and LGBTQ+ rights. However, after Gaga intervened, she gave permission for Al to release it, with Al choosing to have proceeds from the parody go to the Human Rights Campaign.
• Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention recorded an album entitled Cruising with Ruben & the Jets, an affectionate parody of fifties Doo-wop music. The result was so authentic sounding, many people mistook the songs for another band entirely, causing the album to border on an Indecisive Parody.

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