Freestyle Academy proudly presents
This song is called Capitalism, a parody of Thriller by Michael Jackson. My friend had decided to do his song on communism, and I wanted our songs to compliment each other in a way. So I called the song capitalism and chose to sing about the new industrial age in the 19th century with factories and workers.
The real trouble with this song that necessitated so many revisions was the process of embracing what a parody is. I had already had some experience with recording into a mix, but this left me with an unfulfilling perfection that made the song unlike a parody and more of a cover with different lyrics. So I started by taking the first half of the song where its just instrumentals and filling it with my best try at Michael Jackson sound effects like "OW!" and "HEHE!" But it still did not have the humorous feel of a parody. So with the suggestion of Mr Florendo, I decided to add panning to these sound effects so that you can hear them from all around you. While this did add a little more interest, it didn't really embrace the true chaos that could have made it amazing. Finally, with one last attempt to make this a great parody, I used the razor tool to delete all of my prior Michael Jackson sound effects. I completely ditched any sense of perfectionism that I held onto, and I brought myself and my friends Justin and Stephen into the recording booth to all simultaneously make different Michael Jackson Sounds at completely random intervals. And with that, Capitalism, the parody of Thriller, was born. The beginning sounds circus like, with a zoo of different sounds coming from all around. And just before the instrumental bit ends, my friend Justin lets out the final word "men," a callback to the first song we ever made together, which reverberates off into the distance using the studio reverb plugin as I begin to sing.
Capitalism taught me that sometimes in the path to greatness, the answer is not always to learn more, but to unlearn what holds you back. By learning to let go of perfection, I unlocked a sea of possibilities in art and comedy that shall continue to follow me as a freestyle student.