New draft of description of the value of parody as preface for upcoming volume of 21st CENTURY OLDIES

Facebook calls it starting a "new job," but maybe it's more like a new venture, or even a new adventure!  What it is is that I have a full draft of this new volume of my "21st Century Oldies" series of books. 

Here's a new draft of the description about the value of parody for the upcoming volume 6  of 21ST CENTURY OLDIES: The First Quarter Century, 2001-2025.

More about Volume 6 is here https://music-and-comedy.blogspot.com/2023/11/starting-to-promote-volume-6-of-my-21st.html 

If you have any thoughts, please feel free to email me at my AOL address FJL1960, or leave a comment if that works for you.

There are three small words to one simple truth: Parody is popular. 

It’s so popular in contemporary society that you don’t even have to go to a comedy club or find a Broadway stage to enjoy this unique type of humor. Just flick on your TV or click, toggle, and swipe away at your laptop, tablet, or other digital must-have device. 

Parody is everywhere…because it has to be. 

We need it. In itself, parody is one of the most comforting forms of humor out there. It takes an event, topic, or medium to which the common, everyday person already has a strong emotional response and then reshapes it in a way that stirs an entirely different emotion. 

Parody, along with satire,  help us make sense of the absurd, bring fun to the mundane, and allow us to laugh when we might otherwise want to cry or throw our hands up in the air in defeat. They lift us up when we are down and give a new spin to things that frustrate us, offend our beliefs, or leave us wondering what could possibly come next. In other words, parody can help us digest what is going on in the world around us. 

To the memorable music of tried and true artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Schwartz, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Katy Perry, Adele, and Barbra Streisand, topics parodied in this book include American Idol meltdowns, Mark Sanford’s Argentina saga and his later political rebound, skyrocketing Broadway theater prices, the AIG bailout mess, the Covid crisis and, of course, Donald Trump, 

Turn on whatever you use to play music these days—and start reading this book. In no time, you’ll be singing along, laughing, and feeling a whole lot better about life.