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In modern times, the '''Answer Song''' became widespread almost as soon as recorded music became available, generally losing much of its combative character and with the answering song often imitating the original very closely. The convention became extremely common in R&B and Country music, where it generally took the form of a reply to a song made by a member of the opposite sex. It's also common as dirt in [[Filk]], where one singer makes a commentary on another's song, ranging from sarcastic to sad. Modern Hip-hop has returned to the scurrilous character of the medieval ''tensó'', deploying songs of a distinctly angry nature in which artists denounce each other.
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* Woody Guthrie's famous "This Land Is Your Land" was written as an answer to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America."
* One of the longest answer record cycles was started by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters' 1954 R&B hit "Work With Me Annie", and its [[Sequel Song]] "Annie Had a Baby". Answer songs include "Annie's Answer" by the El-Dorados, "Annie Pulled a Humbug" by the Midnights, "Roll With Me Henry" by Etta James, and "I'm the Father of Annie's Baby", by Danny Taylor.
* "Sweet Home Alabama" is [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]]'s defense of the South, in response to [[Neil Young]]'s criticism of racism in "Southern Man" and "Alabama." (Unfortunately, its rebuttal of Young basically amounted to "so what?" Not exactly the best way to sell your point, guys.)
** [[Joni Mitchell]]'s "The Circle Game" is an answer to [[Neil Young]]'s "Sugar Mountain".
** Also, Warren Zevon wrote a pretty savage response to "Sweet Home Alabama", "Play It All Night Long".
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* [[Older Than Steam]]: Sir Walter Raleigh and [[Christopher Marlowe]] traded life philosophies on the battlefield of poetry, namely, "[http://www.bartleby.com/106/5.html The Passionate Shepherd To His Love,]" and "[http://www.bartleby.com/101/122.html The Nymph's Reply To The Shepherd.]" Responses to these poems are still done today - but [http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/bait.php John Donne's statement] is particularly fine.
* Screeching Weasel's song "I Wrote Holden Caulfield" was a response to the [[Green Day]] song "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?"
* Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now!, led by Art Brut frontman Eddie Argos, do nothing but answer songs. "Billie's Genes", for instance, is a response to [[Michael Jackson|"Billie Jean"]] from the point of view of the bastard son, while "G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I've Got A)" is a response to [[Avril Lavigne]]'s "Girlfriend" from the very frustrated boy Avril was trying to catch the attention of.
* [[Katy Perry]] said that "California Gurls" is her answer to [[Jay
* Bob Luman's 1960 hit "Let's Think About Livin'" was one of these, written as a kind of [[Take That]] to the many [[Teenage Death Songs]] of that era.
* Music/Madness lead singer Suggs has claimed that the band's hit song "Baggy Trousers" (which is about fond memories of school) was a response to "Another Brick In the Wall" by [[Pink Floyd]].
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* [[Pulp (band)|Pulp]]'s "Common People" is an answer record to the general phenomenon in [[Britpop]] of middle-class people idealising and impersonating traditional English working class culture, especially [[Blur]]'s "Park Life".
* Done within the same band with Sloan: Chris Murphy's song "Ready for You" was answered by Jay Ferguson's b-side "I Thought That I Was Ready For You".
* [[Taylor Swift]] 's "Better Than Revenge" is an answer to [[The Jonas Brothers]] 's "Much Better" which may have been an answer Swift's "Forever and Always".
* [[Timbaland]], [[Justin Timberlake]], and [[Nelly Furtado]]'s song "Give It To Me" was one big answer where each artist attacks another. Furtado:[[Fergie]] Timbaland:Scott Storch Timberlake:[[Prince]]
* Hip-hop group Sporty Thievz sometimes did answer songs to female-sung R & B songs, providing the male point of view - the best known example is "No Pigeons" ([[TLC]]'s "No Scrubs"), but they also did two [[Destiny's Child]] answer songs: "No Billz (Why, Why, Why?)" ("Bills, Bills, Bills") and "Independent Men" ("Independent Women", naturally enough).
* [[Bob Dylan]]'s "Clothes Line Saga", a parody of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe" was originally titled "[[Lampshaded Trope|Answer]] to 'Ode'".
** Also, "Fourth Time Around" is an answer to "[[The Beatles (band)|Norwegian Wood]]".
* Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" is equal parts '''Answer Song''' and [[Take That]] to Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side Of Life".
* The Roxanne Wars, which spawned possibly the most Answer Songs in history. The U.T.F.O. song "Roxanne, Roxanne", an insult track about a woman who wouldn't accept their advances, was responded to with "Roxanne's Revenge", in which a fourteen-year-old using the stage name Roxanne Shanté, claiming to be the Roxanne in the song, insulted U.T.F.O. The Real Roxanne's track "The Real Roxanne" also appeared, and this started a massive outpouring of songs from other Roxannes, Roxanne's friends, Roxanne's family members, etc.
* In response to [[Jay
* [[Billy Joel]]'s ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eAQa4MOGkE It's Still Rock 'n' Roll To Me]'' was a very deliberate response to the then-emerging [[Punk Rock]] and [[New Wave]] movements. In fact, the same can be said for ''Glass Houses'', the album it came from.
* Shortly after the release of Annie's single "Anthonio", an artist claiming to be Anthonio Mendes, who was really Sebastian Muravchik of the British synthpop group Heartbreak, released an answer song titled "Annie".
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[[Category:Music Tropes]]
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