This Is a Song: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

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 [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|break the fourth wall]], but, in fact, are pretty much all about the fact that they're songs.

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

''We're tired of our motto, so we thought we'd try a song.'' }}

 

== Film ==

 

''It's the theme from Spy Hard.'' }}

** 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 ''[[The Colbert Report|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 ==

 

* [[Fresh Prince of Bel Air|Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down...]]

 

== Music ==

* 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.

* [[Jon Lajoie]]'s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Gs4xGw1Eg Radio Friendly Song]".

* [[Leonard Cohen]]' "Hallelujah" spells its own chord progression.

* Molly and the Tinker's "The Anti-Singalong Song" is a song about [[Mind Screw|the act of]] ''[[Self-Demonstrating Article|singing]]'' [[Post Modernism|"The Anti-Singalong Song"]]. [[Logic Bomb|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."

* ''I Write the Songs'' by Barry Manilow is the [[Trope Codifier]].

* From ''I'm Lucky'' by Jim's Big Ego:

''SORRY!'' }}

* ''Chicken and Corn'' by Annihilator:

''It's called [[Rule of Three|Chick-Chick-Chicken]] and Corn.'' }}

''This is your song.'' }}

''Not to start crying pity for me.'' }}

* ''The Last Song'' by All American Rejects:

''For you and only you?'' }}

** Similarly, the earlier ''Last Song'' by Edward Bear:

''And it won't be there'' }}

''Chickened out, grabbed a pen and a paper, sat down and I wrote this song.'' }}

* 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'':

''I forgot the words again.'' }}

''And I decided to keep on singing 'till I had had enough.'' }}

* Carly Simon presents a [[Logic Bomb]] in ''You're So Vain''.

* [[Frank Sinatra]], ''I Sing the Songs''

* [[They Might Be Giants]], ''Number Three'':

''For the two songs in me, and the third one I just made.'' }}

* [[Five Iron Frenzy]], "So Far, So Bad":

* [[The Beatles|Ringo Starr]], "This Be Called a Song".

* [[Pet Shop Boys]]' "All Over The World":

''You hear it playing all over the world'' }}

''When you're sad, when you're lonely & it all turns out wrong.'' }}

* "Kill The Director" by The Wombats

* "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 ([[Covered Up|or CAKE]]), although it's not ''necessarily'' talking about itself.

''Sad songs and waltzes aren't selling this year'' }}

* Subverted by "This is Not a Song, It's a Sandwich" by Psychostick. [[Captain Obvious|Which is not a song]], [[Sarcasm Mode|it's a sandwich]].

** But played straight later in the same album with "#1 Radio $ingle", which actually IS a song about itself.

''To say "Yeah!" (yeah!)'' }}

* "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 song we'll let be'' }}

* [[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:

''My iron lung...'' }}

* [[Simon and Garfunkel]]'s "Song for the Asking"

''Take it, don't turn away'' }}

** Also "Leaves That Are Green"

* "This is the Hook" by Deadmau5, which sounds something like an electronica-backed DJing lesson.

''I like the filters. I like the grooves, but I digress.'' }}

* "When Did You Fall" by Chris Rice:

''I’d better finish this song so my lips will be free.'' }}

* "This Song for You" by Chris de Burgh, although it's not ''entirely'' self-referential.

* "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi:

* Trace Adkins' "This Ain't No Love Song" is somewhere between this and [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]:

''But this ain’t no love song'' }}

* 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. }}

* "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":

''But it has to go right here !'' }}

* "Song About Nothing" by <3

''But we'll just have a ball'' }}

* [[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").

''And this seems to be as good as any other place to sing it till I'm blue in the face'' }}

* ''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.

 

== Theatre ==

* Several songs in ''[[Spamalot]]'' fall under this, most notably ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tldP-seoQX8 The Song That Goes Like This]''.

* "Poppa's Blues" from ''[[Starlight Express]]''.

 

== Web Comics ==

 

== 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.

 

== Western Animation ==

* The final line of the [[Title Theme Tune]] of ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]'' is:

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' has the ''Fireside Girls'':

''And it's not too terribly long.'' }}

* [[SpongeBob|SpongeBob Squarepants]]'s "The Campfire Song Song".

** [[Robotboy|I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...]]

*** [[Rule of Three|I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes...]]

[[Category:Score and Music Tropes]]

[[Category:Music Tropes]]