Parody is protected by “fair use” copyright doctrine when it’s used for the purpose of commenting on the original. Or, to quote the decision of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994), a parody is a work that “at least in part, comments on that author’s works.”
For example, one Weird Al song that does qualify as fair-use protected “parody” in this sense “Smells Like Nirvana.” Weird Al is lifting the melody of Nirvana’s song “Smells like Teen Spirit,” but the fact that he’s using a Nirvana melody and mimicking Kurt Cobain’s singing style is part of the commentary: it wouldn’t make sense if he took a Queen song and rewrote the lyrics to make fun of Nirvana.
But most of the songs we colloquially call “Weird Al parodies” wouldn’t qualify as parody under the Campbell standard if he tried to rely on fair use alone. They don’t really “comment on” the original; they just use the melody as a vehicle for a completely different joke, as Weird Al does when he rewrites “Mickey” to be about the I Love Lucy character “Ricky.” Absent permission, they’d be on very shaky legal ground.
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Weird Al often tells stories about how he talked directly to specific musical artists to get their permission for a song, which often include charming anecdotes about how he met them in person or over the phone to get a “yeah, that sounds fun.” But that is not the end of the conversation, it is the start of a negotiation between “my people and your people.”
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So, the answer to “how does Weird Al get away with it” is that he doesn’t “get away with it.” He pays people for the right to use their music, except in the case of style parodies, where he doesn’t need to.
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If there is one thing that I would like Weird Al fans to take away from this post, it is that Albuquerque is not an original song.
This is new information to every Weird Al fan I encounter, and I’ve encountered a lot of Weird Al fans. This is a weird misconception to have about a particularly famous Weird Al song, especially when Weird Al is not an artist typically known for producing original songs: you’d think the prior would be “this is probably a parody song,” and yet everyone seems to think it’s a Weird Al original.
To be fair to myself and others who didn't know until this moment, the assumption comes from the fact the song is so extremely weird that you wouldn't expect anyone else to have done anything like...
This is new information to every Weird Al fan I encounter, and I’ve encountered a lot of Weird Al fans. This is a weird misconception to have about a particularly famous Weird Al song, especially when Weird Al is not an artist typically known for producing original songs: you’d think the prior would be “this is probably a parody song,” and yet everyone seems to think it’s a Weird Al original.
To be fair to myself and others who didn't know until this moment, the assumption comes from the fact the song is so extremely weird that you wouldn't expect anyone else to have done anything like that. And, shocker, the source material is extremely weird.
So yeah I think the safe bet when exposed to Albuquerque is the guy who did Dare to be Stupid probably is just being wacky, not that someone else is ALSO just as weird.
Here is something I learned very recently and I'm glad that they made a footnote about it:
Here is something I learned very recently and I'm glad that they made a footnote about it:
Something that’s barely related to Weird Al’s work is the fact that thanks to US law regarding “compulsory mechanical license” (17 U.S.C. § 115), if someone releases a song to the public, other people can force that original artist to give them a license to reproduce and distribute their own cover version of the song without needing the songwriters permission, just so long as they follow statutory rules and pay the regulated royalty rate, don’t “change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.”
What this means in practice is that you can do a cover of a famous song, and as long as you pay the royalty rate, you do not need to wait for Lady Gaga to give you the thumbs up, which might be convenient to you as a random person who won’t get the time of day from her publicist.
The irony is that Weird Al’s versions are not enabled by this specific license, because he substantially changes the words and changes the “fundamental character of the work,” making them derivative works, rather than simple covers. (It is also worth mentioning that Weird Al, for his part, probably doesn’t want this arrangement; part of what he negotiates for is a songwriting credit, which in practice means a more favorable rate for him)
From the article:
To be fair to myself and others who didn't know until this moment, the assumption comes from the fact the song is so extremely weird that you wouldn't expect anyone else to have done anything like that. And, shocker, the source material is extremely weird.
So yeah I think the safe bet when exposed to Albuquerque is the guy who did Dare to be Stupid probably is just being wacky, not that someone else is ALSO just as weird.
Here is something I learned very recently and I'm glad that they made a footnote about it: