Alpocalypse
Alpocalypse is the thirteenth studio album by American parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic, released on June 21, 2011. It was the seventh studio album self-produced by Yankovic. The musical styles on the album are built around parodies and pastiches of pop and rock music of the late 2000s and early 2010s. The album's first single, "Whatever You Like", was released almost two and a half years prior to the release of the album, and the single peaked at number 104 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album's final single, "Perform This Way", was released digitally on April 25, 2011, but failed to chart.
Prior to the release of Alpocalypse, Yankovic released the EP Internet Leaks (2009); this was an experiment in using the Internet as a way to release music in an efficient and timely manner. All of the tracks released on Internet Leaks would later be re-released on Alpocalypse. The album was preceded by a minor controversy after Yankovic sought Lady Gaga's permission to record a parody of her song "Born This Way". Yankovic recorded the parody, but due to a communication error was very nearly forced to leave it off the album.
Yankovic produced a music video for every song on the record. Most of these videos were animated, but a live action video for "Perform this Way" was produced. A deluxe edition of the CD was later released that included all of these music videos, sans the ones for "Perform this Way" and "Polka Face". Yankovic later issued Alpocalypse HD, a Blu-ray release which features all 12 music videos from this album, along with three videos from his previous album, Straight Outta Lynwood (2006). Alpocalypse was met with mostly positive reviews, and was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. The album peaked at number 9 on the Billboard 200, making it, at the time, Yankovic's highest-charting album.
Title and artwork[edit]
The name Alpocalypse is a play on words that Yankovic had listed in a notebook with other potential album titles. It was chosen to parody recent public fears of an apocalypse, such as the May 2011 end times predictions and the 2012 doomsday predictions: "I figured that I might as well do my apocalypse-themed album before the actual apocalypse because I really don't think people are gonna be buying CDs at the end of the world," Yankovic stated.[26] The title is tied to the album's cover art, a parody image depicting a happily waving Yankovic as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.[26] He rides the Black Horse, generally understood as Famine, which Yankovic attributed to "all the songs I had written about food in the '80s".[27]
Visuals[edit]
Yankovic created music videos for every song on the album. At the time of the album's release, videos for all but two of the songs were included with the physical DVD and deluxe downloadable version of the album. A live-action video for "Perform This Way" was released a day prior to the release of the album, while a video for the polka medley, "Polka Face", was slated to be released in late July. It was finally released in late September 2011 on Comedy Central's Jokes.com.[28] The polka medley video, primarily animated but featuring some live-action takes, is the first time that Yankovic has created a video for his traditional polka medleys.[29] Yankovic later released Alpocalypse HD, which features all 12 music videos on Blu-ray, along with three from his previous album Straight Outta Lynwood.
Commercial performance[edit]
Alpocalypse debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 9,[39] Yankovic's highest chart position at the time, and managed to sell 44,000 copies in its first week.[39][40] During its second week, the album dropped to number 44, selling 10,353 copies.[41] As of August 2014, the album has sold 139,000 copies.[42]