"Weird Al" Yankovic

Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic (born October 23, 1959) is a Grammy award winning American musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer.

Recognition

Yankovic has received three Grammy Awards and became eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, although he says, "I think my chances of ever making it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are about as good as Milli Vanilli's." Despite that, his fans have been aggressively campaigning for his induction into the Rock Hall and have also begun raising funds to get him considered for another key entertainment honor, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Related Topics:
Grammy Award - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - 2004 - Milli Vanilli

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Yankovic has been called a "cultural barometer" by The Onions recurring fictitious dweeb character Larry Groznic (10 November 2004), who called Weird Al's music "the consummate pastiche of popular songwriting styles for our times." The article also referred to one real-life indication of Yankovic's status: Krist Novoselic of the band Nirvana said they felt they had "made it" after Yankovic recorded "Smells Like Nirvana" (parodying Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit").

Related Topics:
The Onion - Larry Groznic - 10 November - 2004 - Krist Novoselic - Nirvana - 1990s - Grunge band - Smells Like Teen Spirit

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The popularity of Al's music among users of Internet file sharing networks has led to many parody or comedy songs shared in this manner being identified as "Weird Al" tracks which in fact have no connection to him. One major victim of this seems to be Bob Rivers, but so many wrongly attributed tracks exist that several fans have set up websites attempting to list such tracks along with their real artists. It has been argued that this not only deprives the real artists involved of credit for their creations, but sometimes associates Al's name with types of music he would never produce and would not want to be known for. A list of songs not performed by Weird Al can be found at The Not Al Page.

Related Topics:
File sharing - Bob Rivers

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