This Is a Song



"Joss, that song had no content. It wasn't even about the movie, it was about itself! That's like breaking the ninth wall!"

- Jed, Ten Dollar Solo, Commentary the Musical

A song that is, at least partially, about itself.

When Medium Awareness meets music. There are quite a few songs in which the lyrics explicitly reference the fact that... well, it's a song. However, since listing every example that does this would be practically impossible, this trope limits the range to songs that don't just break the fourth wall, but, in fact, are pretty much all about the fact that they're songs.

Generally Played for Laughs. Closely related to The Something Song. Compare Self-Demonstrating Song. Sometimes Breaking the Fourth Wall. See also Trope Name, Post Modernism and Heavy Meta.

Anime and Manga
"You know us as Team Rocket, and we fight for what is wrong. We're tired of our motto, so we thought we'd try a song."
 * Whenever Pokémon's Team Rocket decide to forgo their usual motto in favor of a song:

Film
"You're watching Spy Hard. It's the theme from Spy Hard."
 * The Title Theme Tune from Spy Hard. Of course, given the artist who wrote it and the type of film it is...

"This is the song that comes under the credits, These are the credits, so this is where it goes."
 * 'The Credits Song' from the Veggie Tales movie Jonah and the Big Fish.

"There should be a rule that the song under the credits, remotely pertains to the movie's basic plot! But that's not the case!"
 * And then later:


 * In The Sound of Music, the song Do Rei Me is about singing the song Do Rei Me. The scene is a Training Montage as the characters learn how to sing.
 * In A Colbert Christmas, the first song is "Another Christmas Song," which is about how he wrote a christmas song and intends to make lots of money off of it.

Live Action TV

 * The Song That Never Ends from 'Lamb-Chop's Play House'.
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000 made one for Fugitive Alien: This is the song written for the train chase...
 * The Title Theme Tune of It's Garry Shandling's Show.
 * Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down...

Music
"I may have made it rain Please forgive me My weakness caused you pain And this song is my sorry"
 * In Markoolio's song Nostalgi, the verses are about nostalgia. The refrain, however, is an argument where Markoolio sings that he want the song to have a refrain - and the chorus sing a They Just Didn't Care message about how he shouldn't bother because they can just record one later.
 * "Just a Song About Ping Pong" by Operator Please.
 * Tim Minchin's "Dark Side".
 * Also, his song "The Fence".
 * Jon Lajoie's "Radio Friendly Song".
 * Leonard Cohen' "Hallelujah" spells its own chord progression.
 * "Don't Download This Song" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
 * Molly and the Tinker's "The Anti-Singalong Song" is a song about the act of singing "The Anti-Singalong Song". Or rather, about refusing to sing it.
 * "So Far, So Bad" by Five Iron Frenzy. "They won't play this song on the radio. (So far, so bad. That's how it goes.) They'll pull our record from the shelves."
 * Britney Spears - Everytime

"Now here's the part of the song where you'd expect to find a little IRONY! About how I'd really much rather have you back SORRY!"
 * I Write the Songs by Barry Manilow is the Trope Codifier.
 * From I'm Lucky by Jim's Big Ego:

"This is a song, All about... The best darned food in the world, It's called Chick-Chick-Chicken and Corn."
 * Chicken and Corn by Annihilator:

"And you can tell everybody This is your song."
 * Naturally, Your Song by Elton John:

"I've taken enough of your time with this stuff, And all without a change of key. The intention here was to try and help make it clear Not to start crying pity for me."
 * Lampshaded to hell and back in the self-explanatory This Song's Just Six Words Long by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
 * In fact, Weird Al does this all the time, throughout his repetoire.
 * Shel Silverstein's 26 Second Song, designed as a Take That to all who thought his usual songs were too long.
 * DaVinci's Notebook's song Title of the Song is made of this trope.
 * Dave Soroka pushes this to another level in Thief Of Hearts

"This may be the last thing That I write for long. Can you hear me smiling When I sing this song, For you and only you?"
 * The Last Song by All American Rejects:

"It's the last song I'll ever write for you It's the last time that I'll tell you Just how much I really care This is the last song I'll ever sing for you You'll come looking for the light And it won't be there"
 * Similarly, the earlier Last Song by Edward Bear:

"I couldn't tell you that I was wrong, Chickened out, grabbed a pen and a paper, sat down and I wrote this song."
 * Barenaked Ladies, What A Good Boy:

"Second verse, The same as the first. I forgot the words again."
 * Tenacious D does this frequently, from advising all male listeners to pay close attention at the start of their song, Fuck Her Gently, to making tributes to other songs.
 * Lagwagon's Falling Apart:

"Well, I thought I'd write a little song, So I wrote a little song. Then I tried to write some lyrics, But I didn't last too long. So I figured: why not sing about me Trying to write a song an' stuff, And I decided to keep on singing 'till I had had enough."
 * Lemon Demon's Holy Bison Breaks is about songwriters block.

"You prob'ly think this song is about you."
 * Tony Mason, author of Barney's on Fire, did an entire album of this, with tracks such as Title Track, Hit Single and The Song You Skip.
 * Carly Simon presents a Logic Bomb in You're So Vain.

"There's only two songs in me, and I just wrote the third. Don't know where I got the inspiration or how I wrote the words. Spent my whole life just diggin' up my music's shallow grave For the two songs in me, and the third one I just made."
 * Frank Sinatra, I Sing the Songs
 * They Might Be Giants, Number Three:

"Don't worry what this song would say, you'll never hear it anyway. They won't play this song on the radio. So far, so bad, that's how it goes."
 * Five Iron Frenzy, "So Far, So Bad":

"This is a song about boys and girls You hear it playing all over the world"
 * Ringo Starr, "This Be Called a Song".
 * Pet Shop Boys' "All Over The World":

"So now you know the words to our song, Pretty soon you'll all be singing along. When you're sad, when you're lonely & it all turns out wrong."
 * Pulp's "The Fear":

""So with the angst of a teenage band Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand Here's another song about a gender I'll never understand""
 * "Kill The Director" by The Wombats

"I'm writing a song all about you A true song as real as my tears But you've no need to fear it, 'cause no one will hear it Sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year"
 * "Track #10" by the Procussions. The lyrics consist solely of variations on "This is track number ten!"
 * "The Song Of No-involvement" by Skyclad.
 * Anything by Fall Out Boy
 * "Sad Songs and Waltzes" by Willie Nelson (or CAKE), although it's not necessarily talking about itself.

"This is the part of the song where I talk about emotions And this is the part of the song where I sing about how I feel so cold inside And this is where my producer told me To say "Yeah!" (yeah!)"
 * Subverted by "This is Not a Song, It's a Sandwich" by Psychostick. Which is not a song, it's a sandwich.
 * But played straight later in the same album with "#1 Radio $ingle", which actually IS a song about itself.

"This song ain't bad or good and as far as I know Don't infringe on anyone's copyright so This song we'll let be"
 * "Only A Northern Song" by The Beatles, which is actually more about the dissonance in the song than the song itself.
 * George Harrison wrote "This Song" while legal action was underway regarding "My Sweet Lord/He's So Fine", saying in part:

"This, this is our new song Just like the last one A total waste of time My iron lung..."
 * Radiohead's "My Iron Lung", which was about Fan Dumb audiences who wanted to hear "Creep" and only "Creep". It's up to interpretation whether the song is talking about itself or a hypothetical song, though, in the relevant part:

"Here is my song for the asking Ask me and I will play So sweetly I'll make you smile This is my tune for the taking Take it, don't turn away"
 * Simon and Garfunkel's "Song for the Asking"

"I was twentyone years when I wrote this song I'm twentytwo now, but I won't be long"
 * Also "Leaves That Are Green"

"Now it is time for the breakdown. The breakdown allows the track to really break the repetition. Let's filter the hi-hat, let's filter the chords, let's filter the bass. I like the filters. I like the grooves, but I digress."
 * "This is the Hook" by Deadmau5, which sounds something like an electronica-backed DJing lesson.

"And I can tell now by the way that you’re looking at me I’d better finish this song so my lips will be free."
 * "When Did You Fall" by Chris Rice:

"This ain't a song for the broken-hearted"
 * "This Song for You" by Chris de Burgh, although it's not entirely self-referential.
 * "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi:

"This ain't no love song I just felt like gettin' my guitar on And singing a tune, singing about you Yeah feeling good and tapping my shoes And all this stuff I’m making up Well, you probably wont be hearing it on the radio But then you never know So baby, if you want, you can sing along But this ain’t no love song"
 * Trace Adkins' "This Ain't No Love Song" is somewhere between this and Suspiciously Specific Denial:

"'Cause they market this song to young, impressionable, and insecure teenage girls 'Cause all you gotta say is "ooh baby, I love you" and "girl, I need you in my world" Yes, they market this song to young, impressionable, and insecure teenage girls 'Cause all they gotta do is find a sexually attractive man that can sing all the words
 * "Pop Song" by Jon Lajoie"
 * Darryl Rhoades and the Hahavishnu Orchestra's "This Song is Boring" lampshades itself with not only the words repeated ad infinitum but the same guitar riff over and over."

"And when at last I find you, This song will fill the air Sing it loud so I can hear you, make it east to be near you"
 * "This Is My Song," written by Sir Charles Chaplin for his 1966 movie A Countess From Hong Kong and performed by Petula Clark.
 * This portion of the last verse from The Beatles' "I Will":

"'This is a great big opening song...' 'This is a very simple tune...' 'This is the song you've already heard...'"
 * Chicago's "25 Or 6 To 4" was about the song writer's bout with writer's block.
 * 'West End Musical' by Mitch Benn is three of these put together.

"This iiisss - the Very Happy Ending Song ! It's a happy, clappy ending song, it's a bit too long, But it has to go right here !"
 * And in The Now Show Pantomime (2010), he completed things with The Very Happy Ending Song

"So this is a song about nothing (Nothing!) This is a song about nothing at all Some other bands try to write serious songs But we'll just have a ball"
 * "Song About Nothing" by <3

"And when I have some words This is the way I'll sing - Through a distortion box To make them menacing Yeah, then I'm gonna have to write a chorus We're gonna need to have a chorus And this seems to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face"
 * Dragon Road song -- not Akira Kushida's, Dungeons and Dragons themed filk one ("It was on the first of August...").
 * Sparks' "Strange Animal" is about someone escaping the police by somehow walking into a song, although it's never quite specified that it's the song you're now hearing. At one point he begins to criticize the very song he's now part of ("But this song lacks a heart \ comes off overly smart"), and in the end it seems that he murders everyone else in the song and tries to change it into something more to his liking ("You're in need of a fix \ of a total remix \ so I must kill you all").
 * The lyrics to King Crimson's song "Happy with What You Have to Be Happy With" from their album "The Power to Believe" is filled with this trope. Here is a sample:


 * Hook by Blues Traveler is entirely about itself, describing how the hook brings you back, confessing that he doesn't mean any of what he is singing, and how the lyrics affect the listener, among other things.
 * Wild Swimming by Martha Tilston contains a verse in which she tells the person to whom the song is directed, that she plans to write a song about him, in which she will compare him to wild swimming. That song is, presumably, the one being sung.
 * Vanessa Amorosi: "Heres your fucking song" on "I Thought We'd Stay Together".
 * Taylor Swift has done this at least a couple of times. 'Dear John' and 'Our Song' are the ones that spring immediately to mind.

Theatre
"The first line of the blues is always sung a second time First line of the blues is always sung a second time So by the time you get to the third line you've had time to think up a rhyme."
 * Several songs in Spamalot fall under this, most notably The Song That Goes Like This.
 * "Poppa's Blues" from Starlight Express.

"It's the opening song It doesn't have a title, no And it's not very long But it's the starting point for our musical"
 * "Untitled Opening Number" from Title of Show is mostly one of these.

Web Comics
"* this is a ringtone song... ringing all the--*"
 * In El Goonish Shive, Sarah's cellphone has this little gem:

Web Original

 * Homestar Runner has "Secret Song", the secret song on the Strong Bad Sings CD, which is a love song sung by Homestar directed toward... the secret song.
 * Half the songs on Commentary the Musical, but particularly Ten Dollar Solo, as seen in the page quote.
 * A snippet of Deadpool's ringtone from I'm a Marvel And I'm a DC

Western Animation
"This is the theme song for Jimmy Neutron."
 * My Life as a Teenage Robot has This is the Song That Goes On Forever, in a parody of the aforementioned Song That Doesn't End.
 * The final line of the Title Theme Tune of Jimmy Neutron is:

"This is the Fireside Girls song! And it's not too terribly long."
 * Phineas and Ferb has the Fireside Girls:


 * SpongeBob Squarepants's "The Campfire Song Song".
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...
 * This is the song that never ends/ And it goes on and on my friends/ Some people started singing it not knowing what it was/ and now they keep on singing it forever just because...
 * I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...