Comedy music
Comedy music or musical comedy is a genre of music that is comedic in nature. Its history can be traced back to the first century in ancient Greece and Rome, moving forward in time to the Medieval Period, Classical and Romantic eras, and the 20th century. Various forms of comedic musical theatre, including "musical play", "musical comedy", "operetta" and "light opera", evolved from the comic operas first developed in late 17th-century Italy. Popular music artists in the 20th century interested in comedy include Allan Sherman, Frank Zappa, Tiny Tim, Barenaked Ladies, Randy Newman, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. Artists in the 21st century include Tenacious D, Flight of the Conchords, The Lonely Island, Ninja Sex Party and The Axis of Awesome.
Comedy music is often associated with counterculture, due to the subversive messages it displays. This informative nature of comedy music also contributes to the improvement of learning inside and outside the classroom. Forms of entertainment like musical theatre often incorporate comedy music as well.
To create comic effects in music, composers have developed several principal compositional techniques, including the use of comic text, musical parody, and unexpected juxtapositions of syntactical elements among others. Comedy music can be further categorized into several types, such as parody music, novelty song, comedy rock, and comedy hip hop. Awards dedicated to comedy music include the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album, the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the Musical Comedy Awards.
Comedy-music relationship
Comedy is a form of art that addresses comic or humorous situations, or even serious ones with a light or satirical approach. Music is also a form of art, and it is concerned with the rhythm, melody, and harmony of vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds.One similarity between comedy and music is the way they both evoke psychological and emotional effects in their listeners, without them fully understanding the specific reason for their emotions of hilarity. Comedy in entertainment is also established as musical codes set up and confirm the audience's understanding of the symbolic meaning of a scene, before subverting that understanding to play with the audience's response. Thus, a multi-faceted musical experience has the ability to elicit emotions such as humor and comedy in its listeners. This type of musical experience can be identified as comedy music.
History
Ancient Greece and Rome
The first uses of comedy in music can be traced back to the first century in ancient Greece and Rome, where poets and playwrights entertained with puns and wordplay.The origins of comedy play in ancient Greece are first recorded on pottery in the 6th century BCE, on which illustrations of actors dressed as horses, satyrs, and dancers in exaggerated costumes are painted on. Another early origin are the explicit sexually humorous poems of Hipponax in the 6th century BCE and Archilocus in the 7th century BCE. The third origin are the phallic songs sung during Dionysiac festivals, as mentioned by Aristotle.
Playwrights of comedic theatre include Aristophanes and Menander whose works mocked politicians, philosophers, and fellow artists.
Medieval Period
In the Medieval Period, minstrels, troubadours and court jesters would continue performing comedic music, some satirical, accompanied by musical instruments. Court jesters in particular would display their wit and humor through songs, jokes, and physical comedy as a way to offer critique on society and authority, working in public squares or officially hired as licensed fools to work directly under the king or queen.Classical and Romantic eras
Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy, leading to the emergence of opera buffa as an alternative to opera seria. It quickly made its way to France, where it became opéra comique, and eventually, in the following century, French operetta, with Jacques Offenbach as its most accomplished practitioner. Many countries developed their own genres of comic opera, incorporating the Italian and French models along with their own musical traditions. Examples include German singspiel, Viennese operetta, Spanish zarzuela, Russian comic opera, English ballad and Savoy opera, North American operetta and musical comedy.In the Classical and Romantic eras, composers like Haydn, Beethoven, and Schumann would place comic passages side by side with the more serious sections to bring out the contrast between them. This technique is called juxtaposition, which is a basic element of comedy. Haydn's Symphony No 45 of 1772 and his Symphony No 94 of 1792, are the most famous examples. A tradition of toy symphonies – featuring toy musical instruments – began in the classical era and continued into the 19th century and beyond.
20th century
Progress in comedy music continued over years, until vaudeville entertainers of the early 20th century added lyrics to musical numbers. In 1923, one of the first comedy music hits 'Yes! We Have No Bananas' sung by Eddie Cantor was released.In 1924 Billy Rose asked, "Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?". In 1958 the song was rereleased as, "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour " by Lonnie Donegan, the King of Skiffle.
In the 1940s, Spike Jones created songs with a comedy technique of replacing several musical notes with humorous sound effects. Followed in 1951, Stan Freberg released a series of cover songs that addressed the issue of commercialism in that age.
In the 1950s Fritz Spiegl organised a popular series of "April Fools" concerts in Liverpool. The idea was subsequently taken up by Gerard Hoffnung in London at the Royal Festival Hall. The 1956 "Hoffnung Music Festival" played to a sell-out audience in the hall and to BBC viewers throughout Britain. Two more Hoffnung Festivals followed, the second in 1958 and the third in 1961, presented as a tribute after his death. Contributions included Donald Swann's revised version of Haydn's Surprise Symphony to make it considerably more surprising, and Malcolm Arnold's A Grand, Grand Overture, scored for orchestra and three vacuum cleaners,. After Hoffnung's death, similar concerts were promoted by his widow Annetta.
Malcolm Arnold's Toy Symphony was first performed at a Savoy Hotel fund raising dinner in London on 28 November 1957, with toy instruments played by a group of eminent composers, musicians and personalities, including Thomas Armstrong, Edric Cundell, Gerard Hoffnung, Eileen Joyce, Steuart Wilson and Leslie Woodgate.
On 17 July 1958 the 'Mammoth Concert of Comic Music' was held at the Royal Albert Hall. Pieces performed included a concerto for motor horn and orchestra by Antony Hopkins, Overture: The Masterdrinkers by Spike Hughes and a concertino for piano tuner and orchestra by Lambert Williamson.
The 1960s and 1970s saw the rise of numerous comedy music artists whose careers went on for decades. These artists include: Allan Sherman, Shel Silverstein, Frank Zappa, Tiny Tim, and Randy Newman. Particularly in 1970, the radio host Barret Hansen – better known as Dr. Demento – appeared. He played tracks sent in by amateur artists, one of which was a 16-year-old 'Weird Al' Yankovic.
Yankovic released his first album in 1983, which eventually led to a 14-album contract that he did not complete until 2014. For over four decades, he released multiple hit parodies and originals, which made him a major player in the genre of comedy music and the counterculture associated with it.
In 1994, The Actors' Gang members Jack Black and Kyle Gass formed the iconic comedy rock duo Tenacious D and went on to release their debut album in 2001.
21st century
A popular 21st century musical comedy act is Flight of the Conchords, a New Zealand duo composed of musicians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, which became the basis of the self-titled BBC radio series and then the HBO American television series.At the turn of the millennium, the band Steel Panther formed in Los Angeles with songs, live shows and videos parodying the stereotypical glam metal genre and lifestyle of the 1980s.
In 2001, The Lonely Island formed in Berkeley, California with members Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, who starred in a series of SNL Digital Shorts featuring songs like Motherlover, Dick in a Box, I'm on a Boat, I Just Had Sex and more.
Through the rest of the 2000s, a movement of comedy rock acts started to take place in Australia with bands such as The Axis of Awesome, The Beards, The Kransky Sisters and Tripod.
When musician Matt Farley discovered the only songs from his band Moes Haven that were getting any plays had more-comedic titles, he switched his focus to novelty songs in 2008. Since then, Farley has written over 22,000 songs about potty humor, celebrities, food and more under band names like The Toilet Bowl Cleaners, Papa Razzi and the Photogs, The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man and The Hungry Food Band.
Taking rock and synth-pop influence in the more comedic direction, the duo Ninja Sex Party formed in 2009 with members Dan "Danny Sexbang" Avidan and Brian "Ninja Brian" Wecht who went on to record five albums of original material, three cover albums and one re-recording album. Ever since their album Under the Covers, NSP has been backed by the band TWRP. For three albums, they collaborated with animator and internet personality Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson to create the video game themed side project Starbomb.
In 2010, rappers Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff and Lloyd "Epic Lloyd" Ahlquist created the web-series Epic Rap Battles of History, a show that pinned famous figures both real and fictional in rap battles against each other. It has run for seven seasons, featuring stars like "Weird Al" Yankovic, Snoop Dogg, T-Pain and more.
The beginning of the 2010s saw Nerf Herder front man Parry Gripp starting to release a long series of successful tween pop songs such as "It's Raining Tacos", "Space Unicorn" and "Do You Like Waffles?" dealing with themes of animals and food, gaining him the nickname "the "Weird Al" Yankovic of YouTube".