So how does Weird Al make sense? Firstly, because he gets it. Our culture is a feedback loop, and by that logic we no longer need parody artists to exist, feeding top-down satirical interpretations of pop cultural phenomena to us, because pop, high and parody culture all exist together in one entangled knot. Within seconds of its release we re-produce it, screenshot it, memeify it and attach emojis to it (you donвЂ™t have to look much further than NickiвЂ™s вЂњAnacondaвЂќ cover for an example). Today, we donвЂ™t just consume stuff online, we document every second of our interaction with said stuff. ItвЂ™s a rare thing for someone whoвЂ™s found their niche in sending up the work of others to be so universally beloved, but it seems like that might actually be the crucial mast of AlвЂ™s career: the reason heвЂ™s flying so high in 2014 is that his comedy, and the way heвЂ™s now distributing it, captures something very specific about our current cultural mood. Weird Al has been in the parody game since 1976, and recently said himself to the Guardian, вЂњIf you'd asked me 30 years ago whether I'd still be making parody albums, I'd have laughed.вЂќ The formula has changed remarkably little in all that time: avoiding political commentary and personal attacks, Al goes for the surreal and the absurd rather than the mean, and so has the adoration of his fans and the artists he covers alike.

If parodies of pop music time and time again draw attention to that same idea-that radio-ready tunes are just vessels waiting to be filled with any inane or offensive sentiment-how is the thirst for them still so ripe in 2014? But these words caught my attention in particular this week, in the wake of parody king Weird AlвЂ™s return to the cultural zeitgeist as his new album Mandatory Fun instantly hit the No.1 spot on the Billboard charts. BurnhamвЂ™s been sending up pop music in the same way for a few years now: he found fame as a teenager by uploading videos of himself deadpanning his way through jaunty acoustic pop songs that were stuffed with incongruous, jarring jokes and politically incorrect characters.

These are the sage words of YouTube-comedian-turned-IRL-comedian Bo Burnham on his song вЂњRepeat Stuff,вЂќ a parody of the pop music industry at large, cracking the age-old chestnut that any vacuous words with a fun rhythm can be spun into Top 40 gold if the right chords and attitude accompany it. But in our monthly column Popping Off, Aimee Cliff takes the temperature of mainstream pop music.ДЄmerica says we love a chorus / But donвЂ™t get complicated and bore us, / Though the meaning might be missing / We need to know the words after just one listen. We pride ourselves at The FADER on scouring the globe to introduce you to some of the most left-field music around.

A complicated song chords weird al