Isn't It Ironic?: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Liz''': How are you not ''moved'' by this?!<br />

 

When a song having lyrics which are intended to be [[Irony|ironic]] is (ironically) [[Lyrical Dissonance|used unironically]] in the soundtrack of a show, demonstrating either ignorance or willful misuse by the producers.

 

Compare [[Misaimed Marketing]] and [[Repurposed Pop Song]]. Related to [[Analogy Backfire]]. This trope is about music only and should not be potholed as an equivalent to [[Take That]]. There is a page about irony itself - what it actually means, and what the different types are - and it's called ([[Hypocritical Humor|ironically]]) "[[Irony]]".

 

 

** How about the same band's "Tonight Tonight Tonight", a song about a paranoid junkie making a drug deal late at night, being used for a famous Michelob beer commercial?! (Did Michelob sponsor their ''Invisible Touch'' tour?!)

** After "Jesus He Knows Me" was released, the Christian TV station, the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), figured the band had discovered religion and picked up the song's video to air, but they decided not to after learning what the song is really about. It's about a televangelist who [[Sinister Minister|lives a decadent, corrupt lifestyle]] off the donations from his viewers.

** Speaking of instant gratification, "Rockstar" got used to promote Ameristar Casinos.

* Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" for a cruise line.

* "Bring Me Down" by Lenka was used for a Dulux paint ad in Canada in early 2012, in which a woman is unsatisfied with her bleak looking living room and cheerfully paints it red while her husband is set aside. The lyrics tells of a woman drifting apart from her partner, criticizing him that he's done nothing while their relationship crumbled, and that she needs to leave before she falls right back into his arms. The lyrics are ''surprisingly close'' to what is being depicted... except for the happy ending of course.

* In 2012, Chevrolet Argentina (a GM brand) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFi_T0q5eGk put up a commercial] for their new S10 pick-up truck, picturing it in different country-fair expositions (coal-mining fairs, yerba mate fairs, etc; common events in Argentina's country), showing it being used in tough-as-nails jobs, with a voice-over narrating fragments of a poem describing how strong and powerful the truck was ("You are a superb and proud specimen of your kind/And whether taming horses /or killing tigers /You are an Alexander /Nebuchadnezzar"). The poem? "A Roosevelt", by Rubén Darío. The thing being described? The USA under Roosevelt. And what is it about? It's an anti-imperialist poem about how Latin America isn't going to fall to Roosevelt's USA without a fight. It is one of the most famous anti-American-imperialism pieces in Latin American left-wing literature. Considering that GM is an American brand, and even more, considering that it is now partially own by the US goverment, one wonders if the marketing people were being ironic or just didn't read the whole thing through.

 

 

* PBS's History Detectives uses a part of the song "Watching The Detectives" by Elvis Costello as their theme song. The song appears to be about a young woman's very violent death, in great contrast with the usually more family friendly content of the show.

* A commercial for ''America's Next Top Model'' once used "High School Never Ends", by [[Bowling for Soup]]. The song itself is about a teenager entering high school, seeing how pretentious and superficial people are, and waiting it out for four years. Then discovering that the rest of life is the same way. First verse: "Four years, you think for sure/that's all you've got to endure/all the total dicks, all the stuck-up chicks/so superficial, so immature/But then when you graduate/you take a look around and you say 'Hey, wait!/This is the same as where I just came from,/I though it was over, aww, that's just great.'"

* ''American Idol'' had last year's winner Kris Allen perform on stage accompanied by a montage of Haiti relief efforts. The song? "Let It Be". Talk about innapropriate...

** Someone should inform Jennifer Hudson, who sang "Let It Be" for the "Hope For Haiti" telethon. Also, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be_<!-- 28Ferry_Aid_song29 these people]]. -->

* The BBC used a reworking of Lou Reed's ''Perfect Day'' as an advert to demonstrate its commitment to bringing pleasure through music, each line of the song voiced by performers as diverse as rap singers and opera divas, in order to demonstrate the diversity of the Beeb's commitent to supporting and promoting musical talent. The subtext was that the BBC is a jolly nice organisation and you too can have a wholesome and indeed a perfect day with clean-living BBC radio and television. Yet wasn't Lou Reed's original a deceptively stealth little number, only superficially about two lovers enjoying a perfect day together - but deeper down it's about his destructive relationship with the love of his life - heroin - and what it can do to screw you up long-term?

* For a few seasons, the long-running BBC technology series ''Tomorrow's World'' used an instrumental portion of [[The Divine Comedy]]'s "In Pursuit of Happiness" as its theme tune. Anybody who heard the lyrics would realise the song is quite the opposite of the show's upbeat outlook on progress - the edit used on the show looped back to the start just in time to avoid the vocal coming in with "Hey, don't be surprised if millions die in plague and murder".

* The ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Family" ends with a scene of Willow and Tara dancing to the song "I Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" by Melanie Doane. The effect of this otherwise touching scene is somewhat marred if you know that the acompanying music is actually a love letter to {{spoiler|a television}}.

* ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' did a [[Lampshade Hanging]] of this trope in "Unknown Subject", in which the unsub likes to play songs from [[The Eighties]] when raping his victims. When one of his victims {{spoiler|(who has managed to kidnap him)}} tells him she has recognized that the song he played at the bar was the same he played when he was raping her, he explains that he played it because he was the music that he chose when he asked for his wife's hand. The victim doesn't buy it... because the song was "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

* The sheer number of people who think "Closer" (aka the 'Fuck you like an animal song') by [[Nine Inch Nails]] is a great song to have sex to is astounding. If having sex because its the only thing that takes you away from the psychological hell you've found yourself trapped in is your thing, then go for it. If not, don't. Honestly, the line "Help me get away from myself" ought to have given more people a clue.

* Celldweller's "Frozen" is similarly described as a great song to have sex to, and definitely is somehow about sex, but lyrically it seems to be more about being lost in [[A Date With Rosie Palms]] whilst thinking of an ex and being unable to move on. "It's better to be broken than to break".

* It would be difficult to describe [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awy4biqD_dA "White Wedding"] by [[Billy Idol]] as having [[Lyrical Dissonance]], given the dark melody is very fitting for a song about a man resenting his younger sister's fiancee, while the bride starts having second thoughts but is forced to accept her fate. Yes, it has been played at many many weddings since its 1982 release.

* Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" is often used in ads for romantic comedies. The story behind it is that the record company [[Executive Meddling|wanted her to write a love song]] and she refused. They continued so she wrote a song to tell them off. The most ironic part is that the line "Not gonna write you a love song" is what's usually featured in the ad.

[[Category:This Index Is Not an Example]]

[[Category:Isnt It Ironic]]