# Music that sounds like a parody, but is the real thing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341 "2013-02-14T23:09:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/61 "2013-02-17T05:27:11Z")
[Somebody’s Watching Me–Rockwell](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/62 "2013-02-17T05:43:15Z")
To my ears, Todd Rundgren himself always makes his romantic\* songs sound like a parody or pastiche of the genre. Right now I’m thinking of “I Don’t Want to Tie You Down” where he interjects a falsetto “Oh Jesus!” in a repeat of the chorus. So many of his songs sound like he closely studied the styles of a given genre and reproduced them faithfully (cf. _Faithful_). \*or blue-eyed soul, or stadium rock, or power pop… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/63 "2013-02-17T05:46:42Z")
When I first read the article title, I thought of the Shaggs. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/64 "2013-02-17T06:02:26Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > To my ears, Todd Rundgren himself always makes his romantic\* songs sound like a parody or pastiche of the genre. Right now I’m thinking of “I Don’t Want to Tie You Down” where he interjects a falsetto “Oh Jesus!” in a repeat of the chorus. So many of his songs sound like he closely studied the styles of a given genre and reproduced them faithfully (cf. _Faithful_). > \*or blue-eyed soul, or stadium rock, or power pop… Todd’s always been a musical magpie. Most people only know a few Todd songs, and a tiny subset of his music, and think they have a pretty good idea what he’s about. In reality, he’s worked in more different genres than anyone else I can think of. From playing Clapton-inspired Blues as a kid, to the pseudo-British pop of the Nazz, to the Laura Nyro inspired work on “The Ballad of Todd Rundgren”…through a dozen other changes. And at any point, he could have stuck with one and made more money than Elton John. But he gets bored. ---
**Author:** ![listedmia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@listedmia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/listedmia)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/65 "2013-02-17T07:44:41Z")
> [@April\_R](#): > > One of my favorites is [Because I Got High-Afroman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeYsTmIzjkw) I’ve always figured that Afroman is kind of a spoof rap act. All his songs are pretty much like that. Colt 45: “I met this woman from Hawaii. I stuck it in her ass, and she said AIEE!”. He goes way, way beyond the silliness of some other rappers. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/66 "2013-02-17T15:51:41Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Does it change your thoughts about the song when you know it’s not something she’s singing to a lover, but to her (then) infant daughter (Maya Rudolph, of SNL fame, among other things). Interesting; I didn’t know that; but it’s still filled with goddam bird tweets. ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/67 "2013-02-17T18:43:26Z")
A lot of Toby Keith’s stuff from the last decade has an air of this. He started doing some silly bombastic songs like “How Do You Like Me Now?”, and after 9/11 began singing even more bombastic songs with a patriotic militant style, like “Courtesy of The Red, White, and Blue”. Now he mostly sings cheesy songs about barroom antics he’s far too old to be singing about. You’d think he’s making a joke out of how ludicrous it all sounds. But I don’t think he is. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/68 "2013-02-17T20:18:08Z")
Wings - [Bip-Bop](http://youtu.be/Iq4yXpxvQto?t=40s) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/69 "2013-02-17T23:17:42Z")
Argh, I’m drawing a complete blank on the name but there was this indie band that was relatively popular 3 or 4 years ago that sounded like what would happen if you let third grade boys and girls learn instruments and sing…I thought the first song was a joke, but the next three were just like it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/70 "2013-02-17T23:32:18Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Argh, I’m drawing a complete blank on the name but there was this indie band that was relatively popular 3 or 4 years ago that sounded like what would happen if you let third grade boys and girls learn instruments and sing…I thought the first song was a joke, but the next three were just like it. Shaggs II?? And I thought there could be only one. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/71 "2013-02-18T02:50:58Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > A lot of Toby Keith’s stuff from the last decade has an air of this. He started doing some silly bombastic songs like “How Do You Like Me Now?”, and after 9/11 began singing even more bombastic songs with a patriotic militant style, like “Courtesy of The Red, White, and Blue”. Now he mostly sings cheesy songs about barroom antics he’s far too old to be singing about. You’d think he’s making a joke out of how ludicrous it all sounds. But I don’t think he is. I thought of Toby Keith last night! I can’t take him seriously ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/72 "2013-02-18T02:55:58Z")
That piano has been drinking song by Tom Waits. I first heard it on Fernwood Tonight and thought it was a joke. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/73 "2013-02-18T03:25:51Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > That piano has been drinking song by Tom Waits. I first heard it on Fernwood Tonight and thought it was a joke. I think it is a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341/74 "2013-02-18T04:01:10Z")
I was surprised to learn that the Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” wasn’t just a royalty-free soundalike for Beck’s “Loser,” when I heard it used in a soundtrack. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-that-sounds-like-a-parody-but-is-the-real-thing/650341.md?page=3)