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''Mandatory Fun'' is the fourteenth studio album by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic. Self-produced, the album was released by RCA Records in the United States on July 15, 2014. Yankovic had previously released ''Alpocalypse'' in 2011, and toured in support of it when he first spoke of his next record. When he began to work on what would become ''Mandatory Fun'', Yankovic found himself listening to older acts, many of which he would stylistically spoof on the album. Recorded at studios in Los Angeles and Massachusetts from 2012 to 2014, the album contains twelve songs, which include parodies of songs by Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, Lorde and Imagine Dragons. It also features original songs in the form of pastiche, imitating the styles of the Pixies, Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Southern Culture on the Skids. Yankovic composed the originals first, and wrote parodies last in order for them to be as timely as possible upon the album's release. Many artists reacted positively to being parodied; Williams remarked that he was "honored" to be spoofed by Yankovic, while Imagine Dragons advised Yankovic on how to replicate sounds in their original song. After Yankovic's 32 years under contract, ''Mandatory Fun'' marks his first number one album in the United States. It received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. Yankovic chose not to release a lead single and instead publicized the album by launching eight music videos online during the first week of the album release through different video content portals. Among these, "Word Crimes" became Yankovic's fourth top 40 song, making him one of few artists to achieve such a feat in four separate decades. The album won for Best Comedy Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Yankovic's fourth career Grammy. Due to the completion of his record contract obligations and the success of the video strategy, Yankovic has suggested ''Mandatory Fun'' may be his last traditional album, switching to more timely releases of singles and EPs of his songs. ==Background== During the closing stages of the ''Alpocalypse'' tour, Yankovic stated in an interview with ''The Morning Call'' that he had one more album on his contract; the paper and other sources took to mean that this album would be his last. Yankovic later clarified that this was the last album on the current recording contract with his label, that he is currently "weighing his options" for renewing the contract or looking to another publisher, and made it clear that he was not retiring from music in the foreseeable future. In a later interview with NPR's ''Weekend Edition'', he stated that this might be his last conventional album, turning instead to more frequent releases of singles and EPs. For an LP, Yankovic stated that given the time lapse between the beginning of the process and the release of the finished product, "chances are a lot of the material is going to be somewhat dated by the time it comes out". The first tracks conceived for the album were original songs in the style of various bands as, compared to direct parodies, the pastiches "age better". Prior to composing these songs, he had been listening to older acts such as Cat Stevens, Foo Fighters, and Southern Culture on the Skids for his own amusement.〔(Rock and Roll Coffee: An Interview With "Weird" Al Yankovic ). The Weeklings. Retrieved on July 13, 2014.〕 His Crosby, Stills & Nash style parody "Mission Statement" draws from his experiences attending executive meetings in his music career.〔 Shortly after completing the song, Yankovic encountered Graham Nash, who coincidentally asked Yankovic to parody "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Yankovic played a recording of his pastiche on his phone to Nash on the spot, and claimed that Nash loved the track.〔 "First World Problems" is an original composition emulating the style of the Pixies, whom Yankovic had performed alongside for a charity concert two years earlier.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/weird-al-yankovic/ )〕 The song features background vocals by Amanda Palmer, emulating the vocal style of Kim Deal (particularly from the song "Debaser"); who cites Yankovic and the Pixies as being her childhood heroes, and elaborated that she and Yankovic had met at one of her concerts in Los Angeles a few years previously.〔 After Yankovic learned that his fans had petitioned for him to headline a Super Bowl halftime show, he realized that he lacked a sports-themed composition in his repertoire, and decided to write "Sports Song". Yankovic noted that his usual method of generating parody ideas is to scan ''Billboard'' charts, radio play and online buzz in order to create a master list of candidates. From that point, he works out possible puns on the song titles, the potential for humor and general direction for his versions.〔 Fans speculated ahead of the album's release that Yankovic would parody "Let It Go" from the Disney film ''Frozen'', due to the song's popularity. He later explained that he considered making a ''Frozen'' parody titled "Make It So" about ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', but decided not to after discovering such a parody already existed. Yankovic observed that the existing spoof "had gotten enough attention online to make the Disney legal department ask them to take it down! I couldn't think of an idea that I liked as much as 'Make It So', so... I gave up!".〔 There were several other songs he intended to parody, but felt he was unable to develop a clever enough idea for, and instead used them in the medley "Now That's What I Call Polka".〔 More specifically, Yankovic expressed that while Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" is an "iconic song", it was too repetitive for him to incorporate new lyrics into effectively.〔 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「Mandatory Fun」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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