Being rude in return would have been to put the song on the album anyway.
It would be if when someone said no he just dropped it and moved on instead of being a little bitch about it.
Because putting the song on youtube and then giving it away for free on top of it is clearly respecting the artists wishes that he so cares about.
It’s the opposite of classy to pretend you care by asking permission and then going ahead and doing it anyway. No one made Weird Al ask permission. He’s the one voluntarily doing it. If his asking is meaningless, it’s a straight up stupid exercise.
If Weird Al knows better than they do what’s good for their careers, then why is he asking their permission when he has no obligation to do so?
This whole mess is entirely Weird Al’s creation. And all of this retroactive justification is bizarre. Weird Al is the one who chooses to seek permission. Everything that follows is on his shoulders. Asking permission implies abiding by the askee’s decision. Which implies that Weird Al has respect for an artist’s decision to say no, regardless of anyone else’s perceptions of the advantages or drawbacks of doing so. Again, if he operates withe the intent of imposing a “major jerks” escape clause, it behooves him to disclose that up front.
Remember Whitney Houston?
Her initial success was even greater than Gaga’s. But when you hear about Whitney Houston today, it’s always some variation of how badly she burned out instead of her phenomenal debut success.
In the meantime, Weird Al is a legend among novelty artists.
Surely people will remember Lady Gaga, but whether she will enjoy long-term success or be a flash-in-the-pan is still up in the air, particularly with the relatively lukewarm reception her new material has been receiving.
There’s an additional wrinkle in this particular situation. Al had intended the proceeds from this song to go to the HRC. He probably thought that, given that the song was already recorded and that he wouldn’t have profited by it anyway, he might as well try for voluntary donations.
He’s always made clear that asking is a courtesy, not a binding contract. He’s also stated that the permission is for including the song on an album, specifically. He’s also clearly a strong-willed individual himself, as you sort of have to be to keep a career going this long. I don’t really find it that unusual or scandalous that if he decides a circumstance conflicts with his own sense of ethics, he’ll have the last say in what to do with his work. I don’t believe that that in any way renders the entire act of asking for permission unnecessary or nonsensical.
It’s possible for more than one action to be rude.
I’m sorry, but if they didn’t want a WA version of the song, the first step should have been saying no at the beginning. He hadn’t written the fucking thing yet, and they tell him to write and record it. Then they say no. I’m sorry but that’s flat out retarded. In this day and age even if Al hadn’t released the song, it probably would have gotten out somehow. And in any day and age, you don’t ask an artist to write and record something and then seriously expect them to hide it in a closet for the rest of time.
No, what is retarded is writing and recording it as a means to get approval for releasing it. That is all on Al, he didn’t have to do any of that, he chose to do all of it and then acted like a bitch when he didn’t get what he wanted. You keep acting like any of this was required of him when he did it only to stick to his moral code or whatever, which he then threw right out the window when things didn’t turn out the way he wanted.
It’s not a freaking moral code, it’s simple professional courtesy. Weird Al has never handed final say over to another artist. Don’t try to make it bigger than it is.
It’s just plain self aggrandizing bullshit if it goes out the window when he doesn’t like the answer.
I’m sure he doesn’t like being told no by Prince and Paul McCartney either, but he abides by their wishes, probably because they A, don’t have him write and record the song before they’ll okay it, and B, because they’ll communicate something beyond a flat no. This was just a baffling situation all around.
Again, I agree that he should have stepped off and walked away as soon as they said they wanted to hear the song first, but I still have a hard time seeing how he’s acting like a bitch.
He asked for permission, she (or her manager, whatever) said no, he released the song on youtube and plans on giving it away for free. That is practically the definition of acting like a bitch. He didn’t have to do ANYTHING that was requested of him, that they asked him to write and record the song should in no way affect what he did. He either cares about the artist wishes or he doesn’t, period.
You do realize what “final say” means, right? You do understand how it’s possible to take another’s input into consideration when making your own decisions without being required to follow said input?
I fail to see how any of that makes him any less of a bitch.
Then you’re welcome to your opinion.
They didn’t tell him no, they led him on.
The crack pipe had much to do with that. I think that Gaga will avoid that.
Yes he is. Exactly my point.
I think that she’ll have a career like Madonna’s. That pretty clearly seems to be her model. She’ll have to reinvent herself along the way and I believe that she is savvy enough to do that.
I have seen a few hundred concerts in my time and I’ll probably see a few hundred more before I die and I wouldn’t see either Al or Gaga for free so I really have no dog in this fight.
And that is my point. You can only think that right now. Surely things have been going well for her so far for the most part, and the potential for enduring success is there, but no one was expecting Whitney’s downfall when she was dominating the charts, either.
Of course, we agree that novelty star != pop star and comparing the heights of their carreers is like apples and oranges. Within their specialties, though, Lady Gaga still has a long way to go.
Well obviously. When did I ever claim precognition?