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''Alpocalypse'' is the thirteenth studio album by "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 21, 2011. It is his first studio release in almost five years, following the release of ''Straight Outta Lynwood'' in 2006. It is also his first studio album since 1989's ''UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff'' to receive a domestic release as a vinyl record. Several of the tracks of ''Alpocalypse'' were previously released as part of the EP ''Internet Leaks''. The album was pre-released by Yankovic on the music streaming website ''MOG'' on June 14, 2011. ==Recording and production== ''Alpocalypse'' followed a five-year gap that succeeded the release of ''Straight Outta Lynwood''. Yankovic stated that he had not set any firm date for release of ''Alpocalypse'', and instead wanted to wait for the right time for its release, telling his record label that the album is "going to be out whenever there’s a dramatic shift in pop culture – whenever that happens to be". Five of the songs from ''Alpocalypse'' were previously recorded by Yankovic and released digitally during 2008 and 2009, "Whatever You Like", "Craigslist", "Skipper Dan", "CNR", and "Ringtone"; the last four were released with their own music videos. These five songs were later packaged as an EP called ''Internet Leaks'', with indications that they would also eventually appear on Yankovic's next published album. Other tracks on the album were recorded in January, May and October 2010.〔 Yankovic waited to release the album until he could cap it off with one final parody of a pop culture song of the moment; the song he chose was Lady Gaga's "Born This Way", which is parodied in the album's lead song "Perform This Way."〔 Although Yankovic is not required to obtain permission to perform parody work under United States copyright law, he sought to gain Lady Gaga's permission for his parody in early 2011, as he has done with all his parody songs in the past.〔 He was told by Gaga's manager that Gaga wanted to read the lyrics before giving approval, then that she wanted to hear a recorded version. After this was done the manager said Gaga denied permission in April 2011, which was a major setback for Yankovic, as he would have to pull the song from the album's release and prepare and record another song in its place, which would delay the album's release further. Yankovic, after spending all this extra effort (he had to work on this while performing an Australian tour, as well as put a family vacation on hold to meet the demands of Gaga's manager) did not want the song to go to waste, and instead posted it to YouTube and other music sites, indicating that he had wished all sales proceeds to go to the Human Rights Campaign charity. Through Twitter and other social media services within the day of posting, Lady Gaga and her staff realized the artist never had heard the song herself and quickly gave permission for Yankovic to use the song, saying Gaga was "a huge 'Weird Al' fan". Yankovic was able to set the date of ''Alpocalypse''s release by the end of that day, and claimed that "Twitter saved my album" based on the rapid turnaround by his fans and Lady Gaga. The name ''Alpocalypse'' is a play on words that Yankovic had listed in a notebook with other potential album titles. It was chosen for the present album to parody recent public fears of an apocalypse such as the May 2011 end times predictions and the 2012 doomsday predictions; "I figured that I might as well do my apocalypse-themed album before the actual apocalypse because I really don't think people are gonna be buying CDs at the end of the world", Yankovic stated. The title is tied to the album's cover art, a parody image depicting a happily waving Yankovic as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.〔 He rides the Black Horse, generally understood as Famine, which Yankovic attributed to "all the songs I had written about food in the '80s".〔Sellers, John. "(Tough Questions for 'Weird Al' Yankovic )". ''Spin''.〕 Yankovic created music videos for every song on the album. At the time of the album's release, videos for all but two of the songs were included with the physical DVD and deluxe downloadable version of the album. A live-action video for "Perform This Way" was released a day prior to the release of the album, while a video for the polka medley, "Polka Face", was slated to be released in late July. It was finally released in late September 2011 on Comedy Central's Jokes.com.〔()〕 The polka medley video, primarily animated but featuring some live-action takes, is the first time that Yankovic has created a video for his traditional polka medleys. Yankovic later released ''Alpocalypse HD'', which features all 12 music videos on Blu-ray, along with three from his previous album ''Straight Outta Lynwood''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alpocalypse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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