Songwriting Sunday: The Power of the Piggyback or Parody Song

Two weeks ago, I shared music from people born in the month of October with my students as part of our Musicians of the Month series. One of the musicians that I shared was Weird Al Yankovic - one of my favorite people since I met him in a sandwich shop at 2am in West Hollywood in 1986. I put "Eat It" on the playlist, and my clients got angry!

They were upset that the song that they were listening to sounded like Michael Jackson's song, but it wasn't.

For those that were able to listen rather than just engage in bluster, I explained the concept of a parody song, and I remembered that I haven't written about this valuable tool in this blog series.

I combine the concepts of piggyback and parody songs into one. It just makes sense that I am doing the same thing when I use a melody for a piggyback song or a parody - they are the same things. I have used piggyback techniques for myself, with my clients, and with my interns over the years.

How do I do this?

I strip the song of all lyrics (if needed). I then find a focus and start to rewrite lyrics reflecting that focus. Clients and I have written manners songs, emotion acknowledgement songs, and all sorts of things over the years. It is often easier for my clients to replace lyrics than start from scratch, so that's what we do.

The big difference between a piggyback song and a parody, at least in my brain, is that a parody keeps the sense of the song intact but tweaks it just enough that it is an obvious homage. A piggyback song just uses the structure of the original but doesn't really keep any of the words or sense of the song.