Auto-reflexive songs

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Suggest me a few auto-reflexive songs (songs that consciously point to their fabrication). It can be the whole thing, like Alice Cooper's The Song That Didn't Rhyme or the Beatles' Only A Northern Song:





Or if you prefer, smaller distanciatory elements, like the note Drake can't hold at 1:57 of A$AP Rocky's f***in' Problem (I posted the clean version - very good song, amazingly stupid lyrics):

Click to read more...

 

[Jumptheshark]

like this



The Who wrote a song about the writing process of creating a song?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

like this



The Who wrote a song about the writing process of creating a song?

Interesting! It's never clearly implied that they're singing about writing this particular song (the Alice Cooper song does rhyme, but at some point he sings about the drummer being out of time), but you still have some level of distanciation, especially with the repeated "Listen" at the end. Thx!

 

[kihei]

Not sure if this one fits your definiton, but I've always liked the song:

 

[Mimsy]

Not a fan of this song, but it's the first thing that came to mind. It's more a parody:

 

[spintheblackcircle]

Suggest me a few auto-reflexive songs (songs that consciously point to their fabrication). It can be the whole thing, like Alice Cooper's The Song That Didn't Rhyme or the Beatles' Only A Northern Song:

How about a song that's about the band and fans?



Or one about the band and their entire crew?

 

[Mescaleroman]

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Not sure if this one fits your definiton, but I've always liked the song:

Absolutely. Part of a long and growing list of songs that propose themselves as "no love song". I particularly appreciate Sara Bareilles' Love Song, being a ""very tongue-in-cheek" and "nasty in a passive-aggressive way," [...] response to the record label pressuring her to make safe, "radio friendly" songs" (wiki), and of course Suicidal Tendencies' Just Another Love Song, because it's dumb and crazy.

Not a fan of this song, but it's the first thing that came to mind. It's more a parody:

Yes! Parodies' distanciation work on two level - the first one being the distance established with the original work (if absent, the effect can't be understood by the "reader"), and the second, which can be simply triggered by the first level of distanciantion being the distance to the work by the reader (here, the listener - ?). I like that you said it's more of a parody, because you sensed it wasn't exactly one. It's kind of on the fence between parody and pastiche, and it's not brilliant because it doesn't really work as either one, but it's still funny.

How about a song that's about the band and fans?

Or one about the band and their entire crew?

The second is an amazing example (and thanks for reminding me of it, that's one fun song - going right on my iPod). First one is a little more complex. It certainly works, it's close to the "this song is bad but we needed to fill up the album" trope, but not exactly it. It still carries it's own critic stance with the idea of selling out and singing for money. I like it, thx!

I'm not sure I see it. It's a song that kind of tells a story and I'm not sure the poetry and jazz components refer to itself, but I probably missed something (and that's part of the beauty, an element could be totally distanciatory to you and I could fail completely to identify it - just like the reader who'd fail to identify the targeted work of a parody and would miss the whole thing).

 

[kihei]

What. makes you interested in these types of songs in the first place?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

What. makes you interested in these types of songs in the first place?

I'm interested in all levels of reflexivity, intertextuality (and all its variants) and metalepsis (as understood by Genette). It's true of films, but of everything else too... my favorite paintings are certainly Pollock's Lavender Mist (handprints) and Full Fathom Five (cigarette butts, Shakespeare reference), and I will also fight to the death anybody who doesn't acknowledge the genius of Malevitch's Black Square.

 

[member 51464]

Tribute by Tenacious D.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Tribute by Tenacious D.

Amazing! You might have won this thread right there, thx!!

 

[ProstheticConscience]

 

[NyQuil]

 

[WeThreeKings]

Here's Classified doing a song about creating a song.



This song is more about writers block when trying to create content for the lyrics of a song:

 

[kihei]

I'm interested in all levels of reflexivity, intertextuality (and all its variants) and metalepsis (as understood by Genette). It's true of films, but of everything else too... my favorite paintings are certainly Pollock's Lavender Mist (handprints) and Full Fathom Five (cigarette butts, Shakespeare reference), and I will also fight to the death anybody who doesn't acknowledge the genius of Malevitch's Black Square.

Fan of 8 1/2, I presume.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Great find! too bad the loop couldn't be made seamless. Reminded me of:

Here's Classified doing a song about creating a song.

This song is more about writers block when trying to create content for the lyrics of a song:

First one is brilliant! Not sure I feel much empathy towards the second, but it sure can work here. Thx!

Fan of 8 1/2, I presume.

Of course, masterpiece!

 

[Eisen]

 

[Eisen]

Or "this is just a punk rock song, written for the people who can see something's wrong"

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Or "this is just a punk rock song, written for the people who can see something's wrong"

Yes! Nice finds.

 

[Eisen]

Billy Bragg's "A New England"
" I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long."

 

[NyQuil]

 

[Ouroboros]

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Opening bars of the verses of CunninLynguists track "Doin Alright"

Criminally underrated hip hop group, by the way.

 

[Lshap]

Billy Bragg's "A New England"
" I was 21 years when I wrote this song, I'm 22 now but I won't be for long."

Those first two lines were from another song written by Paul Simon.