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This Is a Song

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

Sarah's ringtone is very descriptive.
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

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.

Examples:


Anime and Manga

  • Whenever Pokémon's Team Rocket decide to forgo their usual motto in favor of a song:
 

 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.

 

Film

 

 You're watching Spy Hard.

It's the theme from Spy Hard.

 
  • 'The Credits Song' from the Veggie Tales movie Jonah and the Big Fish.
 

 This is the song that comes under the credits, These are the credits, so this is where it goes.

 
    • And then later:
 

 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!

 
  • 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

Music

 

 I may have made it rain

Please forgive me

My weakness caused you pain

And this song is my sorry

 
  • I Write the Songs by Barry Manilow is the Trope Codifier.
  • From I'm Lucky by Jim's Big Ego:
 

 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!

 
  • Chicken and Corn by Annihilator:
 

 This is a song,

All about...

The best darned food in the world,

It's called Chick-Chick-Chicken and Corn.

 
 

 And you can tell everybody

This is your song.

 
 

 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.

 
  • The Last Song by All American Rejects:
 

 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?

 
    • Similarly, the earlier Last Song by Edward Bear:
 

 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

 
  • Barenaked Ladies, What A Good Boy:
 

 I couldn't tell you that I was wrong,

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:
 

 Second verse,

The same as the first.

I forgot the words again.

 
 

 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.

 
  • 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.
 

  You prob'ly think this song is about you.

 
 

 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.

 
 

 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.

 
 

 This is a song about boys and girls

You hear it playing 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.

 
  • "Kill The Director" by The Wombats
 

 "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"

 
  • "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.
 

 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

 
  • 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 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!)

 
  • "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 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

 
  • 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:
 

 This, this is our new song

Just like the last one

A total waste of time

My iron lung...

 
 

 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

 
    • Also "Leaves That Are Green"
 

 I was twentyone years when I wrote this song

I'm twentytwo now, but I won't be long

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

 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.

 
  • "When Did You Fall" by Chris Rice:
 

 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.

 
  • "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 a song for the broken-hearted

 
 

 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

 
 

 '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

  • 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":
 

 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

 
  • 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 is a great big opening song...'

'This is a very simple tune...'

'This is the song you've already heard...'

 
 

 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 !

 
  • "Song About Nothing" by <3
 

 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

 
  • 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:
 

 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

 
  • 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.

 
  • "Untitled Opening Number" from Title of Show is mostly one of these.
 

 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

 

Web Comics

 

  * this is a ringtone song... ringing all the--*

 

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 [1] ringtone from I'm a Marvel And Im ADC

Western Animation

 

 This is the theme song for Jimmy Neutron.

 
 

 This is the Fireside Girls song!

And it's not too terribly long.

 
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