i am wandering about my fellow parodeers techniques (ooh-err misses) do you not listen to the song you are going to parody ? and when leaving comments do you not down load the song to sing along to?i still don''t understand how we still have dktos when we have all the songs in the world at our fingertips.
anyway how do you write your parodies ?

i always have the song on my mp3 and usually (unless a particular line is stuck in my head) i start with the first line and carry on till the last line.two days is the usual time frame although my last one (http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/thebeatles1485.shtml)  was a bit difficult and it took me five days.
i am interested to find out how the rest of you write your master pieces.

I admit that sometimes I look at lyric sheets when I write... :-\\ But I'm really trying my hardest not to do that anymore. Most of the time when I do I have the OS up in my head, and since my last parody was of a rap song that I knew the general rhythm to, I think I was all right (although they got me for leaving out a couple of lines or something, bah)

I dunno really. It depends.

I rely on the web's lyric sheet for writing--but I have also learned that you should compare at least 2 sites' renderings for overall accuracy. I  have written a number of parodies without being totally knowledgable about them (many of my Prince parodies fell into this realm, just because i committed myself to doing the Hits albums).

As far as hearing a song...I very a limited access to online music---I am mostly online at work, where listening to music at certain times is just not possible, and downloading mp3s is a no-no. In reading a parody, though (especially for commentary in contests), I do appreciate the work that went into a DKTOS tune and try to judge the work on a literary basis (if nothing else).

i am wandering about my fellow parodeers techniques (ooh-err misses) do you not listen to the song you are going to parody ?



Yes, I listen to TOS as I'm writing my parody.



and when leaving comments do you not down load the song to sing along to?



Not always. I already have many of more popular OSs that are parodied here, so there isn't a need to d/l those. Many I know by heart, so again I don't d/l those either. But yes, I usually play TOS along with the parody lyrics before I vote/leave comments.



i still don''t understand how we still have dktos when we have all the songs in the world at our fingertips.



Not everyone uses Limewire or the like, or has an infinite CD collection. There's been many a song that I couldn't find anywhere on the 'net. There is a thing called laziness, too.

Once in a while, I won't d/l a song because of the distinct possibility of it sucking, and I'd rather not have my vote possible negatively influenced by how awful TOS may be.

As I'm still on dial-up, I might not d/l a song because of its size. IIRC "Jesus of Suburbia" by Green Day took the better part of an hour to d/l because the only files available on Limewire were 320k quality, and it's a 9 minute long song.



anyway how do you write your parodies ?



My favorite thing! I've been over this many times, so I'll just leave this link:

http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php/topic,10527.msg479959.html#msg479959

Parts 1-6 are the most relevant to this topic




i always have the song on my mp3 and usually (unless a particular line is stuck in my head) i start with the first line and carry on till the last line.two days is the usual time frame although my last one (http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/thebeatles1485.shtml)  was a bit difficult and it took me five days.
i am interested to find out how the rest of you write your master pieces.


I've got "When I'm 64" on MP3, I'll check out your parody a bit later on.

I admit that sometimes I look at lyric sheets when I write... :-\\ But I'm really trying my hardest not to do that anymore. Most of the time when I do I have the OS up in my head, and since my last parody was of a rap song that I knew the general rhythm to, I think I was all right (although they got me for leaving out a couple of lines or something, bah)

I dunno really. It depends.


I was correct in that the last short chorus is missing, but FWIW I should have voted you straight 5s.  :)

I do listen to the songs that I parody and I also use lyrics and will get them if I don't have them.

When it comes to getting actual ideas, I improv to the OS nowadays. It's how I get most of my ideas. I tend to improv to most songs repeatedly before I write them, so I can keep them fresh in my mind*. I actually improved to one song well over 40 times before writing(although not in one day).

*It's also a good way to come up with rough lyrics for the parody, thus reducing the period of time it takes to write it, I write 99% of my parodies on paper first, at least until I finally get internet at home.

I get the lyrics, get the song, and make it up as I go... and after every line I check out the music and see how it would sound, if it's too hard I have to go back and do it again til it sounds right... This suffered with my song's http://www.amiright.com/parody/80s/billyjoel206.shtml and http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/thebeatles1489.shtml and http://www.amiright.com/parody/80s/michaelsembello3.shtml very severely... After chorus I sing it through and see if it works, and if it does good like, I continue, if not, I go back again