Problem: Yankovic was born in Downey, California and raised in Lynwood, California. He is the only child of Mary Elizabeth (Vivalda) and Nick Yankovic. His father was born in Kansas City, Kansas, of Yugoslavian descent, and began living in California after serving during World War II; he believed "the key to success" was "doing for a living whatever makes you happy" and often reminded his son of this philosophy. Nick married Mary in 1949.

Yankovic is well known for creating parodies of contemporary radio hits, typically which make up about half of his studio releases. Unlike other parody artists such as Allan Sherman, Yankovic and his band strive to keep the backing music in his parodies the same as the original, transcribing the original song by ear and re-recording the song for the parody. In some cases, in requesting the original band to allow for his parody, the band will offer to help out with the recreation: Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform on "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*", Yankovic's parody of Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing", while Imagine Dragons provided Yankovic with advice on how to recreate some of the electronic sounds they used for "Radioactive" in Yankovic's parody "Inactive". Yankovic's career in novelty and comedy music has outlasted many of his "mainstream" parody targets, such as Toni Basil, MC Hammer, and Men Without Hats. Yankovic's continued success (including the top 10 single "White & Nerdy" and album Straight Outta Lynwood in 2006) has enabled him to escape the one-hit wonder stigma often associated with novelty music. Although many of Yankovic's songs are parodies of contemporary radio hits, it is rare that the song's primary topic lampoons the original artist as a person, or the song itself. Most Yankovic songs consist of the original song's music, with a separate, unrelated set of amusing lyrics. Yankovic's humor normally lies more in creating unexpected incongruity between an artist's image and the topic of the song, contrasting the style of the song with its content (such as the songs "Amish Paradise", "White & Nerdy", and "You're Pitiful"), or in pointing out trends or works which have become pop culture cliches (such as "eBay" and "Don't Download This Song"). Yankovic's parodies are often satirical of popular culture, including television (see The TV Album), movies ("The Saga Begins"), and food (see The Food Album). Yankovic claims he has no intention of writing "serious" music. In his reasoning, "There's enough people that do unfunny music. I'll leave the serious stuff to Paris Hilton and Kevin Federline." Yankovic considered that his first true satirical song was "Smells Like Nirvana", which references unintelligible lyrics in Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Other satirical songs include "Achy Breaky Song", which refers to the song "Achy Breaky Heart", "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long", which refers to the repetitious lyrics in "Got My Mind Set on You", and "Perform This Way", set to Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" that drew inspiration from Lady Gaga's outlandish but confident attitude. Yankovic is the sole writer for all his songs and, for "legal and personal reasons", does not accept parody submissions or ideas from fans. There exists, however, one exception to this rule: Madonna was reportedly talking with a friend and happened to wonder aloud when Yankovic was going to turn her "Like a Virgin" into "Like a Surgeon". Madonna's friend was a mutual friend of Yankovic's manager, Jay Levey, and eventually Yankovic himself heard the story from Levey.

What was he known for?

Answer with quotes: Yankovic is well known for creating parodies of contemporary radio hits, typically which make up about half of his studio releases.

Question:
Joseph Bruce is a native of Berkley, Michigan. He was the last born of three children. His father, Richard Bruce, stole all of the family's money and left when Bruce was two years old. Joe's mother, Linda, was forced to care for him and his siblings, Robert and Theresa, off the income she made as a janitor.
After being released from jail in 1990, Bruce decided to get away from gang life and start a career in professional wrestling. Bruce's friend, Rudy Hill, got him booked in a local wrestling promotion. Rudy had lied to the promoter by telling him that Bruce had been trained at the Chris Adams Wrestling School in Texas. At the event, Bruce met Rob Van Dam and Sabu, two other first-timers with whom he became very good friends. Bruce wrestled as Corporal Darryl Daniels, wearing a U.S. Army uniform that his brother had sent him while in the Gulf War, and had his first match against "Irish" Mickey Doyle at Azteca Hall in Southwest Detroit. Training alongside Rob Van Dam, Bruce went on to wrestle for Al Snow, including the event which featured the debut of Van Dam. After a short run in the business, Joe realized his dislike for the backstage politics, and decided to take up a career in music, taking the name Violent J. Bruce returned to wrestling in the independent circuit in 1994, under the name Hector Hatchet. He competed for Midwest Championship Wrestling throughout the next year, wrestling in between recording sessions and touring. From 1996 to 1998, Bruce was involved in a rivalry with Sewer Dwella in Insane Championship Wrestling. He continued to compete in several independent promotions for the next three years, including IWA Mid-South and NWA Mid American Wrestling. In 2001, Bruce appeared in Xtreme Pro Wrestling at XPW Rapture to aid Utsler. After Bruce suffered a real-life injury from a sloppy clothesline, the duo left the company. On October 5, 2002, he and Utsler wrestled in Ring of Honor and defeated Oman Tortuga and Diablo Santiago. Bruce was later made a playable character in both Eidos Interactive's video games Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home and Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes the Neighborhood as Violent J. To help promote the games, he competed in a series of matches for Backyard Wrestling in 2003 and 2004.
Answer this question using a quote from the text above:

What is the independent circuit?

Answer:
Bruce returned to wrestling in the independent circuit in 1994, under the name Hector Hatchet.