History TakeThat / Music

-->So I got bored and left them there
-->They were just dead weight to me
-->Better down the road without that load

* Surgical Meth Machine's "Unlistenable", where the lyrics are mainly Al Jourgensen doing a spoken word rant about the state of rock music. Halfway through the song, Sam D'Ambruoso, the other half of the duo, starts asking him about specific bands; Music/IronMaiden, Music/LambOfGod, and {{Music/Nickelback}}, among others, all receive take thats. There are a couple hints that it's not meant to be taken all that seriously: first [[TakeThatMe Al insults his own band]], {{Music/Ministry}}, then the very last line is "{{Music/Devo}}?!? They fuckin' [[BaitAndSwitchComment rule!"]], which segues into the next track, a CoverVersion of Devo's "Gates Of Steel".

* Music/CarterUSM's "Sheriff Fatman" is a vitriol-soaked TakeThat against shady slum landlords. WordOfGod is that the corrupt character in the song is based on two real people.

* Similarly ChristianRock pioneer Music/LarryNorman's "Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?" is a TakeThat at the "rock & roll is the devil's music" attitude of the the mainstream churches; and their general antipathy toward the youth culture of the 1960s and 1970s, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement "Jesus People"]] movement in particular. A lot of of his music in general subtly and blatantly criticized both the secular counter-culture movement, which he saw as self-indulgent and morally bankrupt; and the mainstream Christian community, which he considered spiritually stifling, parasitical, and anti-youth-culture.

** The album ''Music/WishYouWereHere1975'' is full of jabs at the executives that pressured them into coming up with a follow-up to ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', especially the songs "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" ("The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think / Oh, by the way, [[IAmNotShazam which one's Pink?]]").

* Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" is aimed at music journalists that seemed to delight in the infighting that preceded the breakup of The Eagles. He occasionally sarcastically dedicated the song in live performances "To Mr. Creator/BillOReilly" or "To Mr. UsefulNotes/RupertMurdoch".

* Music/BarenakedLadies' album ''All In Good Time'', has two tracks inspired by the departure of Steven Page; frontman Ed Robertson might say otherwise but the message of the lyrics "I tried to be your brother but you cried and ran for cover", "everyone sees right through you" and "I'd use a metaphor but I'm done with you" is somewhat obvious.

** "Panic" was a swipe at BBC Radio for following up news reports on Chernobyl with plays of [[Creator/GeorgeMichael Wham!'s "I'm Your Man"]], with a child choir joining Morrissey's chants of "Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ".

* Music/{{Heart|Band}}'s track "Barracuda" was a scathing dig at a rapacious former music company who, to boost sales with a bit of controversy, performed a BlackOp by spreading potentially libellous, damaging, and above all salacious rumours, that Ann and Nancy Wilson were not only gay, their particular form of lesbian preference involved getting off with each other. With people proving ready to believe this and adding imaginative bits of their own as the rumour spread, the humiliated singing sisters wrote and delivered the track as a scathing comeback on Mushroom Records's executives and marketeers who had originated the rumours in a cynical bid to sell more product.

* "If It Makes You Happy" by Music/SherylCrow is aimed at critics denouncing her for writing "feel-good" music. "Love Is A Good Thing", from the same SelfTitledAlbum, has a verse berating UsefulNotes/{{Walmart}} for selling guns and ammo readily ([=WalMart=] later [[BannedInChina barred the album from being sold there]] in response, at the time).
* "Another Hit And Run" by Music/DefLeppard is a TakeThat to their former UK fans that accused them of "selling out".
* Music/TearsForFears -- after Curt Smith quit the band in 1991, Roland Orzabal put the song "Fish Out of Water" on the next album, telling Curt off for leaving the group and generally being difficult to work with. Curt, for his part, released the song "Sun King" on his solo ''Mayfield'' album that attacks Roland for being a tyrant with an oversized ego. They reconciled in 2000, though, and both admit to having an odd sort of affection for the other's "take that" tunes.

* "Money for Nothing" by Music/DireStraits is an interesting recursive example -- at first listen, it sounds a lot like a Take That towards mainstream music industry, but in fact, Mark Knopfler has repeatedly explained that it was inspired by an unambitious dumbass he met in an electronics store who struck him as the epitome of everything that was wrong and reactionary about rock fans (which makes it a Take That ''towards'' a Take That).
* The Music/{{Rush|Band}} album ''2112'', recorded in 1976, was intended as a Take That aimed at the band's record label (Mercury). Their previous album had sold poorly, and Mercury executives urged them not to do any more concept songs. They ignored this advice and recorded the 20-minute ''2112'' suite, figuring that they had nothing to lose. The album became Rush's U.S. breakthrough and went gold a year and a half after its release.

* Music/LouReed's [[Music/NewYork1989 "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim"]] rips Nazi-turned-[[UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} Austrian]]-President Kurt Waldheim, [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope John Paul II]] and Jesse Jackson for anti-Semitism.

* Music/ThePretenders' "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?" is an open swipe at pop or rock stars who sell out their credibility by letting their music be used for commercial advertising. The lines ''Millions of kids are looking at you, you say, "Let them drink soda pop"'' and ''Who's got soul? / From the African nation to the Pepsi generation'' are generally taken to mean that the main target is Music/MichaelJackson, who had a huge deal with Pepsi and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po0jY4WvCIc starred in a commercial featuring a rerecorded version of "Billie Jean", dubbed "Pepsi Generation"]].

* Music/JohnnyCash and his 1996 album ''Unchained'' won great critical acclaim, but few at country music radio were willing to even so much as play anything from the album ... the main reason being their fascination with "new" country artists of the time, including Music/TimMcGraw, Music/FaithHill and Music/ShaniaTwain. So when ''Unchained'' won a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for Best Country Album in 1998, Cash and the album's producer, Rick Rubin, decided to show their "appreciation" for country radio's non-support by taking out a full-page advertisement in a March 1998 issue of ''Billboard'' magazine. The ad featured a photograph of a circa-mid 1960s Cash sticking up his middle finger, along with a message reinforcing country radio's lack of support. Cash's statement triggered a renewed debate over what constitutes country music, and only strengthened his stature and legacy among fans.
* Music/BradPaisley did a shot on shallow celebrities in "Celebrity". Paisley also takes a dig at country radio -- with help from classic country artists Bill Anderson, Music/GeorgeJones and Buck Owens -- on "Too Country."
* Music/GeorgeStrait and Music/AlanJackson take their own frustrations out on country radio -- specifically, the lack of airplay of perfectly viable new material by Music/GeorgeJones and Music/MerleHaggard, among others -- in the 2000 hit "Murder On Music Row."
** Before that, Alan Jackson did "Gone Country" as a potshot against musicians from other genres moving into country, portraying them as [[JadedWashout Jaded Washouts]] who are only going into country to revive their flagging careers.

* "Mean," a No. 2 country hit in 2011 for country-pop megastar Music/TaylorSwift. Some say the song's lyrics -- about rising above adversity, particularly that induced by naysayers -- is a sly dig at conservative critics of country music, particularly those who have critically panned (some say disparaged or worse) Swift's vocal and musical style, and abilities.
* Roy Clark and "The Lawrence Welk-Hee Haw Counter-Revolution Polka," which is a take that to both CBS and ABC, which cancelled, respectively, ''Series/HeeHaw'' and ''The Lawrence Welk Show'' in 1971, in what was clearly a case of those shows (perceived, at least) to be drawing in older viewers, rather than the more desirable younger demographic, even though both shows becoming long-running ratings winners in syndication.

* Music/WeirdAlYankovic mostly avoids TakeThat in his parodies, but there are a few exceptions. One of the reasons Al's songs are as good as they are is that indeed, most of the time they're not even a TakeThat; they tend to be sediments in their own right. Which is far, far more than most parodies we hear on the radio can say for themselves. Of course, Yankovic asks permission of the artists before he does parodies of their work, and his Take Thats are rather gentle compared to most of these examples.

** "This Song's Just Six Words Long" is also a jab at the song it parodies, "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison, the chorus of which is simply the title sung over and over.
** "Smells Like Nirvana" is about Music/{{Nirvana}}'s [[IndecipherableLyrics mumbled lyrics]]. Kurt Cobain's comment was something to the effect that this was the moment he truly realized that Nirvana had hit the big time: Weird Al wanted to do a parody of one of ''their'' songs.
** The unreleased song "It's Still Billy Joel To Me", which [[OldShame probably should stay unreleased]].

** The video for "White & Nerdy," at the line "I edit Wikipedia," has Weird Al [[RetconningTheWiki vandalizing]] the Atlantic Records page on Website/ThatOtherWiki, replacing the article with "'''YOU SUCK!'''" WebVideo/AMVHell noticed. In Number 4, there is a clip for "White & Nerdy", where a character edits the Wikipedia page on Obesity, changing it to "'''YOU'RE FAT!!!'''" This shot at Atlantic Records was actually the ''end'' of an extended TakeThat. See below.
** Originally, Al's plan for the album ''Straight Outta Lynwood'' was to include "You're Pitiful," a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", and make that the first single from the album. Blunt was perfectly fine with this and gave Al permission to go forward. At the last minute, Atlantic, Blunt's label, threatened legal action to keep the song off the album. Al, not wanting to deal with a lawsuit, complied... by proceeding to distribute the track for free on the Internet. At live shows, when Al performs "You're Pitiful", he parodies Blunt's disrobing in the original music video by removing layer upon layer of T-shirts. One of the shirts reads "ATLANTIC RECORDS SUCKS".
** ''Couch Potato'' is Al's rant against mediocre and poor tv shows to the tune of Eminem's ''Lose Yourself''. Shows lambasted include ''Series/TheKingOfQueens'' (which JumpedTheShark in the first minute), ''Series/AmericanIdol'' (host Simon Cowell is described as someone who "opens his mouth, always says something foul"), ''Series/FearFactor'' (which Al says he felt the need to take a long shower after watching), and [[Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond Everybody Tolerates Raymond]].
** The narrator of "[[Music/{{RunningWithScissors}} Albuquerque]]" complains that his first time on an airplane was marred by the in-flight movie: [[Film/{{BioDome}} Bio-Dome]] with Creator/PaulyShore. This is considered a more pressing concern than [[SkewedPriorities the plane crashing into a hillside and exploding in a giant fireball with no survivors.]]
** Weird Al has made one specific verbal TakeThat, in an interview rather than in a song, and even then its a really, really mild TakeThat. In response to rapper Coolio saying that he did not authorize "Amish Paradise" (a parody of the rapper's own "Gangster's Paradise"), Weird Al said, "Yeah, well... I notice he is still cashing the royalty checks we send him."
** The video for "Word Crimes" illustrates irony vs. coincidence: A picture of a burning fire truck is labelled "irony;" a picture of [[Music/AlanisMorissette a wedding couple being rained on]] is labelled "weather."
*** "Word Crimes" also includes this lyric: "You should never/Write words using numbers/Unless you're seven/Or your name is Prince." [[Music/{{Prince}} The artist formerly and once again known as Prince]] is apparently so averse to song parodies that his lawyer instructed Al not to make eye contact with Prince at an awards show. At this point in the song, the video displays the weird symbol Prince briefly adopted in lieu of his name.
** The narrator of "Trapped in the Drive-Thru" mentions he's watching "something stupid" on TV. Several lines later, it's implied to be ''Behind The Music''.

* Famous songwriters Rodgers and Hart wrote "I Like To Recognize The Tune" as a TakeThat at jazz bands and how generic and discordant jazz was. Inevitably, jazz had its way with this song by making it a jazz standard.

-->''Fashion shoots with Music/{{Beck}} and Music/{{Hanson}}''\\

* Music/HappyMondays' "God's Cop" is a TakeThat directed at the controversial then-Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, who became known as "God's copper" since he claimed to speak with God. Music/TheFall, another Manchester band, also took a dig at him in their song "Hit The North" ("Cops can't catch criminals, but what the heck, they're not so bad... they talk to God!")
* Music/TheFall in general have done a lot of these, whether in the form of entire songs or just individual lyrics. A couple of the more blatant examples of the latter are the lines "If I ever end up like Music/{{U2}} / slit my throat with a garden vegetable" (from "A Past Gone Mad") and "But I'm so sick of Music/SnowPatrol" (from "Mask Search")

* Music/RicardoIorio, former Music/{{V8}} and Music/{{Hermetica}}[[note]]both Argentinean HeavyMetal bands from TheEighties and first half of TheNineties[[/note]] founder and leader, and frontman of Music/{{Almafuerte}}, is very, VERY fond of this trope:

* Music/{{Toxik}}[='=]s album ''Think This'' is basically one giant attack piece against television, but in the closer "Time After Time", they call out Creator/GeraldoRivera and the talk show he had in TheEighties by name:

* "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" by Danny and the Juniors would appear to be one to rock music's detractors of TheFifties.

* "Girl in a Country Song" by Maddie & Tae is a dig at the trend of "Bro-country" in TheNewTens, skewering a lot of the overused tropes in songs, such as hot girls in bikinis, drinking beer in a truck, etc. The song also name-drops or otherwise lyrically references several contemporary bro-country hits, and points out the often misogynistic nature of such songs.

* Music/TheDarkElement is fronted by Nightwish's second ex-vocalist, Music/AnetteOlzon, who was similarly fired in 2012. TDE's [[SelfTitledAlbum self-titled debut album]] contains the single "Dead to Me", which has been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8LQyzPYTls interpreted]] as a swipe at Nightwish. Though this is strictly WildMassGuessing: the song was written by guitarist Jani Liimatainen, who doesn't have much discernible reason to be personally mad at Nightwish.

* Pretty much all of the Music/DixieChicks' ''Taking the Long Way'' is a TakeThat to those who criticized lead singer Natalie Maines after she made a negative comment about then-president UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush in 2003 (a move which torpedoed the Chicks' career). In "Not Ready to Make Nice", she even expresses anger at the death threats the band got.

* ''LICH KING''''s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpLbkxEL5bs "Black Metal Sucks"]] is as the name so states, a song about how BlackMetal sucks. Most of the lyrics mock the BlackMetal community for being a bunch of overly edgy goths who wear makeup and clothes while also ridiculing the various traits of black metal (incomprehensible vocals, gratuitous usage of Satanic imagery and angsty lyrics etc)

* Jermaine Jackson, Music/MichaelJackson's older brother, is an odd example. He wrote a song known as "Word to the Badd" that was a big 'Take That' at his brother Michael about a feud they were having. This, however, backfired big time and caused what was left of his music career to implode in his face. It did not help that the song was released the same year that ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' came out.

** Music/InsaneClownPosse and Eminem's feud is legendary. Eminem put a skit on ''The Marshall Mathers LP'' depicting the Insane Clown Posse giving oral sex to a man; in return, the Insane Clown Posse recorded "Ain't Nothin' But a Bitch Thang", which opened with a skit in which Dr. Dre is performing anal sex with Eminem. The two parties no longer actively feud, and members of ICP's label, Psychopathic Records, frequently associate and collaborate with Eminem's associates D12 (particularly, Bizarre) and King Gordy, who have said that they are {{Juggalo}}s. Eminem and ICP are not particularly likely to have a similarly friendly relationship, though. Interestingly enough, Eminem was once an ICP fan. At one point, he even ''wanted'' the ICP to try and be at a party of his -- the '''entire''' reason they started feuding is because he asked ICP if they could show up ''after'' already printing a poster that said "Featuring appearances from: ICP (maybe)", and ICP felt insulted that he didn't ask them before printing the poster, and told him they would've showed up if he'd asked them first.

* "Flowers" by Music/{{Hurt}} pokes fun at a lot of targets, [[TakeThatUs including the band themselves]], but they get less lighthearted and more scathing when it comes to the verse directed at their former record label (and [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil also music pirates]]).

** Former Music/{{Genesis}} guitarist Music/AnthonyPhilips wrote a single called "Um And Aargh"[[note]]a pun on "A&R", or "Artist & Repertoire"[[/note]] in 1980, a swipe at [[ExecutiveMeddling record executives]] underestimating and dumbing down music artists for commercial reasons. The line in the chorus of the song, "This is much too good for the people" was an actual quote from a record executive about the music of a composer friend of Anthony's. "Down And Out" from Genesis' ''And Then There Were Three'' seems aimed at a similar target.

* "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" by Music/TheDecemberists is a comprehensive list of everything [[FaceOfTheBand Colin Meloy]] dislikes about the City of Angels.

** Their SignatureSong "Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog" is one of these aimed at the mainstream music industry, essentially accusing the major labels of purposefully churning out large volumes of bland, repetitive dreck designed to appeal to the LowestCommonDenominator in order to scam consumers. They even name a few specific groups that they feel are emblematic of this mindset[[note]]those being the Music/SpiceGirls, Music/PearlJam, Music/DaveMatthewsBand and Music/{{R.E.M.}}[[/note]] during their minute-long rant.

* Music/LouReed's [[Music/NewYork1989 "Good Evening Mr. Waldheim"]] rips Nazi-turned-[[UsefulNotes/{{Austria}} Austrian]]-President Kurt Waldheim, [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope John Paul II]] and Jesse Jackson for anti-Semitism,

* "Banal na Aso, Santong Kabayo" (Holy Dog, Saintly Horse) by Filipino band Yano is a clear potshot at religious hypocrites.

* Music/LilNasX's "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)", its music video in particular, is a screw-you to conservative Christian homophobia, featuring a surreal version of the Garden of Eden where the protagonist makes out with an anthromorphization of the Biblical snake ([[ActingForTwo played by himself]]), before being denied entrance to Heaven and then wilingly taking a very long stripper pole down into Hell, where he then gets freaky with {{Satan}} ([[LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles also played by himself]]) before snapping his neck and taking his crown for himself. In other words, if he's supposedly going to Hell for being gay, might as well RefugeInAudacity as he does so.

* Botch's "C. Thomas Howell as 'The Soul Man'" satirizes certain other bands, such as Racetraitor, who they felt were just using political messages as a marketing tool. The fact that the song is named after [[Film/SoulMan a controversial 1980s comedy movie meant to satirize racism]] is sometimes taken as part of the take that, but is apparently just a CreatorInJoke [[note]]the song features a guitar technique called "tapping", so a WorkingTitle was "Taps" - Since Creator/CThomasHowell was in a film of that title, the band started jokingly re-titling it after other movies in his filmography before happening to settle on that one by the time it made an album.[[/note]]

* Darkbuster's "I Hate The Unseen" is a TakeThat to The Unseen, another Boston punk band. "Lilith Fair" is one to the music festival of the same name, calling out both specific artists who have played the tour [[note]] (Music/AniDifranco gets the harshest treatment, and yet she's apparently the only artist mentioned in the song who ''hasn't'' played Lilith Fair -- it's unclear if they made a mistake or if they just brought her up in connection because she has the same kind of audience)[[/note]] and their fans.

** Doesn't stop there. Black Flag frontman Music/HenryRollins did a vicious TakeThat to ElectronicMusic in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyRDDOpKaLM&lc=1HbpRjP_MUNGbOt-GDwqhZWswKbhYRqpXVIx3JsCbxI&lch=email_reply&feature=em-comment_reply_received comedy routine.]] This led to ''two'' EDM producers [[StupidStatementDanceMix sampling this routine]] in their own songs as a TakeThat back at him; the first being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO-LMXYDKfo "Play the Record Again"]] by AC Slater, and the second being [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0TSVti62r0&feature=related "Rave Review"]] by [=SKisM=].

* A Zeeland, Michigan high school student was given a one day suspension for wearing a shirt with {{Music/Korn}}'s logo on it to class, with the vice principal who issued the suspension describing their music as "indecent", "vulgar", and "obscene" in a subsequent interview. Once news of the incident became wide-spread enough to reach the band themselves, they donated hundreds of shirts to a local radio station so they could give them out to students outside of the school. They also started selling shirts which featured their logo on the front and the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution followed by "EXCEPT IN MICHIGAN" on the back.

--> Mi rechazo hacia tus baladas de amor[[note]]My rejection towards your love ballads[[/note]]
--> me llegó desde pendejo[[note]]came to me since my youth[[/note]]
--> Cuando V8 era mala palabra[[note]]When V8 was a swear word[[/note]]
--> se intentaba con vos lavarnos cerebros[[note]]they tried with you to brainwash us[[/note]]
--> Fuiste azota del jazz-rock[[note]]You were a supporter of jazz-rock[[/note]]
--> reggae, pop, new wave, moderno[[note]]reggae, pop, new wave, modern[[/note]]
--> Hoy cantás tus amoríos[[note]]Now you sing your love songs[[/note]]
--> con fanfarria de rockero[[note]]with rockstar fanfares[[/note]]
--> Yo que nunca compartí tu pose [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Stone]][[note]]I, who never shared your Stone pose[[/note]]
--> voy a deschavarte el juego[[note]]I'm going to ruin your game[[/note]]
--> Sos veleta de la moda y no me asombra[[note]]You're a fanboy of fashion, and I'm not surprised[[/note]]
--> que mañana amanezcas metalero.[[note]]that tomorrow, you'll wake up as a metalhead.[[/note]]

-->Integrity will free our soul from...
-->'''E'''nslavement! '''P'''athetic '''I'''gnorant '''C'''orporations!

-->"I've got super producers and fans that play me, you've got a Grandad's moustache and a Ukelele."
-->"Sold out to Coca-cola, used for a trend, that means you're banned from using a pen."

--> '''Opening narration:''' In life, we hide the parts of ourselves we don't want the world to see. We lock them away; we tell them no. We banish them. But here, [[BeYourself we don't]]. Welcome to Montero.

-->Well, they showed you a statue, told you to pray
-->They built you a temple and locked you away
-->But they never told you the price that you pay
-->The things that you might have done.

--> ''"J'étais là, et je n'ai rien fait."'' (''"I was there, and I did nothing."'')

--> ''"You see, I'm not a man. I am the king of illusion. At heart, may I be forgiven. I am the king, the king of fools. It is I, the master of fire, the game master, the world's master and see what I've done with it! A frozen Earth, a scorched Earth, men's Earth than men have forsaken! I am a man backed into a corner, like a freak of nature. On this Earth, with no reason, I'm running in circles, running in circles. I am a man, fully aware of the horror of my condition. For my sentence, my punishment, I'm running in circles, running in circles..."''

-->We know you stole our song
-->You'll regret ever touching them
-->You'll regret fucking with our band
-->You'll regret everything you've done

-->'Cause we hate blacks, and we hate Jews
-->We hate punks, but we love the F.U.'s

--> You'll dance to anything by any bunch of stupid Europeans who come over here
--> with their big hairdos intent on taking our money instead of giving your
--> cash, where it belongs, to a decent American artist like myself!

--->You bought a new van
--->The first year of your band
--->You're cool and
--->I hardly want to say
--->"Not" because I'm so bored
--->That I'd be entertained even by a stupid fucking
--->Linoleum floor, linoleum floor,
--->Your lyrics are dumb like a linoleum floor
--->I'll walk on it
--->I'll walk all over you

-->In "Teenage Wildlife", against a musical backdrop that owed much to his song "Heroes", Bowie was variously thought to be taking aim squarely at new wave artists such as Music/GaryNuman, or reflecting on his younger self:

---> '''[[https://twitter.com/wettbutt/status/407377931363565569 @wetbutt on Twitter:]]''' ugh rappers are so fucking egotistical. [[SarcasmMode miss the days when Pink Floyd erected a wall onstage & sang songs about how stupid their fans were]]

-->[[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward Best Rock Vocalist]]... compared to ''WHAT?!?''

-->I sat through the song, as he droned on and on,
-->Like some pale, intellectual outlaw.
-->And when he was done, I thought "That wasn't much fun,
-->That fella needs to get out more."

-->Because it's ''on''-ly two notes,
-->They just ''go'' up and down,
-->And they ''don't'' have a tune,
-->They just ''sound'' like they do.

-->This could be Embrace, Keane or Snow Patrol,
-->Thirteen Senses sound like this as well, I'm told.
-->It could be anyone, it's so hard to say,
-->Maybe this is actually Coldplay.

--> [[Music/TheSmiths Smiths, The]]: Seminal 1980s band whose music was born out of the chemistry between its two central figures, Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke. The union of Joyce -- quiet, tidy -- with Rourke -- captain of his local pub team -- produced a series of songs more memorable for their drum and bass lines than for their intrusive guitar parts and sometimes silly lyrics.

-->Well, it's been such a long time coming
-->I thought you'd understand.

-->That's over
-->Ahead all the lines
-->You've been drawing in the sand.

-->'Cause it's simple:
-->You were wrong.
-->You must have known that we did not belong.

-->I know you thought I'd sold my soul,
-->But you never told me to my face.

-->I just had to leave you cold,
-->And blow this shit away!

* {{Filk}} singer Music/TomSmith's song "And They Say I've Got Talent" is a ''very'' pointed TakeThat aimed at Brittany Spears (or rather, the sort of corporate pop music she was a prime example of at the time), with lines such as

-->And they say I've got talent,
-->Maybe it'll show someday,
-->I've got a big-ass contract,
-->Songs the radio will play
-->And play and play and play

and:

-->I've got a whole bunch of
-->Press releases, smiles, and evening gowns
-->To hide the fact that my
-->Songs are Tori Amos hand-me-downs.
-->To make me seem as if I
-->Understand that music's from the soul,
-->To make me feel as if I'm
-->Not a product, carefully controlled.

And perhaps most telling, at least about Smith's view of Spears:

-->Try not to think about the
-->Truer, deeper, better singer-
-->Songwriters you've never heard of
-->Working hard and starving while I
-->Tour the country, do the talk shows,
-->Sell the albums, get on M.T.V.,
-->I only hope that someday
-->Someone hears the songs I wrote for me....

** The video for "White & Nerdy," at the line "I edit Wikipedia," has Weird Al vandalizing the Atlantic Records page on Website/ThatOtherWiki, replacing the article with "'''YOU SUCK!'''" WebVideo/AMVHell noticed. In Number 4, there is a clip for "White & Nerdy", where a character edits the Wikipedia page on Obesity, changing it to "'''YOU'RE FAT!!!'''" This shot at Atlantic Records was actually the ''end'' of an extended TakeThat. See below.

** In August of 2022, police in Ohio conducted a fruitless raid on Afroman's home while he was away, damaging some of his property and allegedly stealing 400 dollars. Afroman responded with a series of songs mocking the incident, using footage of the raid captured by security cameras in the music videos: the tongue-in-cheek folk/blues ProtestSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oponIfu5L3Y "Will You Help Me Repair My Door"]], the decidedly harsher [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_f9R_UYrDc "Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera"]], and the "Under The Boardwalk" SongParody [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK5yyecRo "Lemon Pound Cake"]]