So: King Missile - novelty band?
"Detachable Penis" is definitely a novelty song in my book.
Bongwater also veer heavily into novelty territory.
But if the world doesn't end, I'm gonna need a note.
Cordelia ,'Potential'
Buffista Music 4: Needs More Cowbell!
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
DavidS - Mar 26, 2010 7:00:57 am PDT #2779 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Frankenbuddha - Mar 26, 2010 7:01:08 am PDT #2780 of 6436
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
In the same (jugular?) vein - Bongwater - novelty band?
Dana - Mar 26, 2010 7:01:11 am PDT #2781 of 6436
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
And it makes a great vid.
DavidS - Mar 26, 2010 7:01:48 am PDT #2782 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
In the same (jugular?) vein - Bongwater - novelty band?
Heh. See my edit. Sometimes.
Frankenbuddha - Mar 26, 2010 7:05:07 am PDT #2783 of 6436
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Heh. See my edit. Sometimes.
Heh indeed. Though I think both might argue "performance art" vs. "novelty".
Which brings us (or me at least) to the question of Laurie Anderson. I'd definitely say not a novelty act, though some of her songs are funny enough to qualify.
DavidS - Mar 26, 2010 7:07:37 am PDT #2784 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Part of the problem is this:
I say, "No, it's too awesome to be a novelty song!"
Novelty songs can be awesome! Famously, a lot of novelty bands featured top notch musicianship. Notably Spike Jones band. And the Bonzo Dog Band isn't only a novelty band, though songs like "The Intro and the Outro" work perfectly well as novelty. I mean Monty Python Sings is an album full of novelty songs but they're brilliant and hilarious and have that dark, Python undertow.
P.M. Marc - Mar 26, 2010 7:09:10 am PDT #2785 of 6436
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
"Dick in a Box" is another recent classic novelty song, and video. It's not a song parody, but it does parody boy band video conventions.
No, not really with the boy band video conventions, but it does parody the immediate pre-grunge era top 40 music video style effectively.
DavidS - Mar 26, 2010 7:10:12 am PDT #2786 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
I'd definitely say not a novelty act, though some of her songs are funny enough to qualify.
Right. "O Superman" is a serious song, but it was a hit as a novelty. Dry irony can be mistaken.
Oftentimes the novelty of the song is that it's an unfamiliar genre. The first rap hit, "Double Dutch" was sold as a novelty. "Stars on 45" were also considered novelty songs. Cut-ins were novelties.
DavidS - Mar 26, 2010 7:13:42 am PDT #2787 of 6436
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
but it does parody the immediate pre-grunge era top 40 music video style effectively.
Yeah, I guess boy bands didn't really sport that beard that Justin was wearing in the video.
Fred Pete - Mar 26, 2010 7:19:21 am PDT #2788 of 6436
Ann, that's a ferret.
So it sounds like a humorous video for a non-novelty song can also create a novelty. Maybe the classic example is David Lee Roth's medley of "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody." Where the song itself is sung pretty straight-forwardly, but the video parodies everyone from Willie Nelson to Boy George.
But where does that leave something like "Centerfold"?