When Weird Al had his first hit song in 1979, the World Wide Web had not even been invented yet. Now the pop parodist’s latest offering, “Mandatory Fun,” is an Internet sensation, with stratospheric YouTube views and at least 40,000 illegal downloads, according Musicmetric. The analytics firm measures the number of times an album has been downloaded with BitTorrent, which allows users to download files from multiple people at once. “Mandatory Fun” has also climbed its way up more legitimate charts, claiming the top spot on the Billboard 200 and Amazon with songs like "Word Crimes" and "Tacky," parodies of "Blurred Lines" and "Happy" from Robin Thicke and Pharrell, respectively. His new fans might want to check out some of Weird Al's older stuff, like his 2006 single, "Don't Download This Song."
IN-DEPTH
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SOCIAL
--- Keith Wagstaff