History TakeThat / Music

** In August of 2022, police in Ohio conducted a fruitless raid on Afroman's home, 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"]]

** In August of 2022, police in Ohio conducted a fruitless raid on Afroman's home, 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"]]

* There was a playful back-and-forth variant between Music/SteelyDan and the Music/{{Eagles}}. In the former's "Everything You Did," one lyric sarcastically states, "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening". The latter's "Hotel California" returned the favor with the lyric "They stab it with their ''steely'' knives, but they just can't kill the beast".

* Music/{{Rammstein}}[='=]s "Amerika" is a TakeThat to the USA's influence in the world. It's also the TropeNamer for WeAllLiveInAmerica.

* Music/{{Nightwish|Band}}[='=]s "Master Passion Greed" is a shot at the supposed greed of Music/TarjaTurunen's husband, Marco Cabuli, and his contribution to the process that led to Tarja's firing. "Bye Bye Beautiful" from the same album is a shot at Tarja herself, accusing her of not paying attention to the rest of the band. Tarja has since [[TakeThatTitForTat fired back]] with her new single "Enough" which is her story about... basically what it says on the tin.
* Music/TheDarkElement is fronted by Nightwish's second ex-vocalist, Anette Olzon, 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 (although the band hasn't commented on the theory).

* Music/Melvins had a track on their album Honky titled "Laughing with Lucifer at Satan's Sideshow" which was entirely comprised of a goofy backing track behind several voicemails and quotes from the suits at Atlantic during the band's tenure with them.

* Act of Defiance has several of these. "Throwback" (with lyrics by Chris Broderick) is a clear and extremely vicious shot at [[Music/{{Megadeth}} Dave Mustaine]] and accuses him of being a washed-up, jaded asshole and pathological liar whose success can largely be credited to the efforts of the people whose hard work he loudly took credit for. "Refrain and Re-Fracture" (with lyrics by Henry Derek Bonner), while more ambiguous, is more than likely a shot at [[Music/{{Slipknot}} Joey Jordison]], who screwed over Bonner during his time in Scar the Martyr; the lyrics, while less direct than "Throwback", essentially boil down to "you're a washed-up loser with no good ideas of your own who is nothing without Slipknot, and every band you form is just you circling the drain and it's telling that they don't go anywhere even with your name attached; quit sucking your own dick and pay me what you owe, you cheap fuck".

* Music/{{Nightwish|Band}}[='=]s "Master Passion Greed" is a shot at the supposed greed of Music/TarjaTurunen's husband, Marco Cabuli, and his contribution to the process that led to Tarja's firing. "Bye Bye Beautiful" from the same album is a shot at Tarja herself, accusing her of not paying attention to the rest of the band.
** Tarja has since [[TakeThatTitForTat fired back]] with her new single "Enough" which is her story about... basically what it says on the tin.
** Music/TheDarkElement is fronted by Nightwish's second ex-vocalist, Anette Olzon, 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 (although the band hasn't commented on the theory).

** "In the Name of God" is a direct call-out to [[TheFundamentalist Islamic fundamentalists]], alternately snarking at their methods and bashing them for their cowardice and hypocrisy.
-->''Chosen by God or a coward insane?''\\
'''''Stand up and show me your face!'''''

* Stone Sour's "Come What(ever) May" is a TakeThat to UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush.

** Former Genesis guitarist Anthony Philips 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.
* ChristianRock band Petra have fired two shots back at those who accused them of being evil for playing rock music. The first was a ''very'' conspicuous backmasked clip between two tracks on ''Never Say Die'' that says when you play it backwards "What are you looking for [[{{Satan}} the Devil]] for when you oughtta be looking for [[{{God}} the Lord]]?" The second was the song "Witch Hunt," sarcastically written from the perspective of their opponents and which included more backmasking in the bridge.
* Similarly ChristianRock pioneer Larry Norman'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 Music/PinkFloyd 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?]]").

** The ''entire'' album Music/TheWall is just one long TakeThat levelled at Pink Floyd fans and their stupidity, inspired by an incident where a fan climbed up on to some scaffolding during a Pink Floyd concert and bassist/cantankerous self-proclaimed band leader Roger Waters spat on his face. Hilariously, [[SpringtimeForHitler The Wall is one of Pink Floyd's most popular albums, got many a fan into them, and even has one of their most well known songs -- "Another Brick in the Wall, part 2"]].

** In a Pink Floyd related way, Music/SydBarrett sang a '''vicious''' stab at the paparazzi with his "Wolfpack", after all, surely the lines "Scowling/howling, the pack, in formation attack, information" can't be taken any other way...

* "Paint a Vulgar Picture" from ''Strangeways, Here We Come'' by Music/TheSmiths is a shot at record companies who reissue an artists' back catalogue after their death to capitalize on the DeadArtistsAreBetter effect.

** Music/SteelyDan's "Only a Fool Would Say That" is possibly a TakeThat to the same song -- at very least it's directed at rich pop singers and celebrities espousing Utopian ideals in general.

* Due to their refusing to lip sync for a TV performance, Wheatus' second album, ''Hand Over Your Loved Ones'' was poorly promoted in the UK and never saw release in the US. Once the band was free from their record contract, they self-released a revised version of the album and changed the title to [[{{Spoonerism}} Suck Fony]].
* Music/ElvisCostello's "The Other Side of Summer" has TakeThat's at John Lennon's "Imagine" ("Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine no possessions'"), Music/PinkFloyd ("A poor little schoolboy who said 'We don't need no lessons'"), Music/DavidBowie ("The rabid rebel dogs outside the shampoo shop"), Music/{{Madonna}} ("The pop princess is downtown shooting up"), and Music/NeilYoung ("Madman standing on the side of the road, saying, 'Look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes, look at my eyes.'"), alongside [[DrugsAreBad drug users]], [[BrattyTeenageDaughter shallow teenage girls]], corrupt politicians and pollutants. [[LyricalDissonance All set to a tune]] [[InTheStyleOf paying tribute to]] the 1970's [[Music/TheBeachBoys Beach Boys]].

* Collective Soul's "Smashing Young Man" is one towards an unnamed, trash-talking arrogant celebrity heavily rumored to be Billy Corgan: Aside from how the title sounds like a play on the name of Music/TheSmashingPumpkins, there's the fact that Corgan has long been critical of Collective Soul, alleging that their hit "Shine" was a Smashing Pumpkins ripoff. Collective Soul's criticism is surprisingly constructive so far as a Take That song goes: the overall point seems to be that the subject of the song should be doing more positive things with his fame.

* Music/MaddieAndTae's "Girl in a Country Song," a scathing critique of the misogynistic themes in the "bro-country" era of the the early 2010's. The song mentions at least three top 10 male artists' lyrics while dragging the entire subgenre through the the. [[DareToBeBadass It became their]] BreakthroughHit [[DareToBeBadass on country radio.]]
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* When Dave Carroll of the Sons of Maxwell got his guitar broken by United Airlines luggage handlers who were literally throwing them around and got only the stonewalling runaround from the business when he complained; he wrote and sang a song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo "United Breaks Guitars"]] and posted the video on Website/YouTube. The video became an instant media sensation and a PR nightmare for United.

** Former Genesis guitarist Anthony Philips 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" [[AluminumChristmasTrees 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.

** At least according to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], in the page documenting his 1980 ''Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)'' album:

** "Startin' Up A Posse" is a Take That at censorship and moral guardians- and is appropriately loaded to the gills with swear words.
** A change of vocalist and another Take That: "Packaged Rebellion" is their response to MTV's 'rebel' pack, which was sold at a price, and consists of 'rebel' gear- which was essentially a whole lot of T-shirts and caps that had 'rebel' on them. So you had to 'pay to rebel'.

* Music/{{GWAR}} seem to revel in this trope, each time another masked band turns up-
** When Music/{{Lordi}} became famous in the United States, GWAR began mocking them, occasionally calling them a GWAR tribute band. In some live shows, they 'kill' Mr Lordi, the band's frontman, and one of the band members has the head of Mr Lordi on the guitar headstock. Lordi responded saying they never heard of GWAR, and Lordi's expanding fan base in the US may have unsettled them- something Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) denies.

*** Dave was also very bitter about Metallica's first album ''Kill 'Em All'' coming out with the songs he wrote on it when James and Lars promised him they wouldn't include them. They did credit him, but he was angry enough to record "The Mechanix" (Metallica rewrote it as "The Four Horsemen"). Several years later, on "Captive Honour", he refers to Metallica's immense popularity in the line "Kill em all, and you're a god" - he watched Metallica get called gods of metal thanks to songs he originally played on.

* In response to Music/LimpBizkit calling their fans 'fat ugly kids' Music/{{Slipknot}}[='=]s "I Am Hated" has this line "I'm fat and I'm ugly and proud - so fuck you"

* Music/VanHalen[='=]s ''OU812'' ("Oh, You Ate One Too?") is reportedly a shot at former singer Music/DavidLeeRoth[='=]s ''Eat 'Em and Smile''. It is rumoured that the previous and following album also fit: DLR's ''Crazy From the Heat'' - VH's ''5150'' (police code for the criminally insane) and VH's ''For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge'' followed by DLR's ''Your Filthy Little Mouth''.

** A second Nickelback take that occurs in the music video for "I'm Invisible" - at one point Al finds a Nickelback CD in his car, makes a disgusted face, and throws it into the backseat.

** 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.

* Music/InsaneClownPosse parodied the concept of TakeThat with "Fuck The World", a ClusterFBomb that eventually delves into insulting ridiculously specific targets. In some live versions - specifically, their performance in Woodstock '99 - they rewrote the song for a little bit to diss Eminem. Surprised?

* Music/ElP kicked off a feud with Demigodz (largely just Esoteric) on his guest verse on Music/AesopRock's "We're Famous" after Esoteric called his music "nerd rap", basically calling him an irrelevant never-was who was stuck in the 90s and going nowhere with his music, while El-P was the head of a major underground label and managed to be relevant and successful ''because'' he dared to be unconventional. In return, Esoteric fired back with "Mercy Killing" (which also targeted Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox), the first verse of which accused El-P of making hip-hop for hipsters and not even really being part of the hip-hop scene and insinuated that he wasn't as comfortable enough in his status as he wanted to appear if he was taking the time to respond to Eso's diss. After this, El-P finished with the absolutely ''brutal'' "7700 Years to Date", pointing out that 7L & Esoteric sold less copies of ''Dangerous Connection'' in a year than Aesop Rock sold on his first day with ''Bazooka Tooth'', that El had just played a sold-out show in Boston that Eso didn't even bother showing up to, and that Eso was probably still around despite the fact that he clearly wasn't making any money off of his music solely because he had a rich dad that he could sponge off of. He did give him credit for one thing, however - introducing fellow Boston rapper Mr. Lif to El, who later signed him to Def Jux.
* [=iLOVEFRIDAY=]'s "Mia Khalifa" was a take that towards the former adult film star of the same name, in response to a supposed tweet she made about member Smoke Hajabi being "disrespectful" by smoking a joint while in traditional Muslim garb. That comment ''would'' have been hypocritical on Khalifa's part, as she controversially wore Muslim garb in adult videos, but she never actually said it - the group mistook [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BegsSWLlnkB/?taken-by=trashpump a meme]] for an actual tweet.

** ''"Tout le monde"'' (''"Everyone"'') is about people's names, from all origins. The song itself is rather simple, since the lyrics are mainly a list of names, with the title of the song as the chorus (to be accurate, the chorus is ''"Tout le monde il est beau"'', which can be roughly translated as ''"Everyone is beautiful"''). The catch? One of the line of the song is ''"Quitte à faire de la peine à Jean-Marie"'' (''"Even if it saddens Jean-Marie"''). Jean-Marie Le Pen is a french right-wing and nationalist politician well-known for his racism. Thus, the song spreads a message of tolerance and takes a jab at Jean-Marie and (his) racism. The song ends with the following lyrics: ''"Tout le monde il est grand - Assez grand pour tout le monde"'' (''"The world is big - big enough for everyone"'').

** Johnny Thunders responded to "New York" by putting down the Music/SexPistols and especially Malcolm [=McLaren=] in "London Boys" - with [[Music/SexPistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones]] in his backup band.

* "Tiny Town" by The Dead Milkmen is kind of a TakeThat in and of itself, as it's basically a VillainSong about a town of bigoted rednecks. However, there's also a somewhat obscure take that to Boston HardcorePunk band The F.U.'s - the second F.U.'s album, ''My America'', caused massive backlash against the band in the increasingly political hardcore punk scene due to lyrics with a perceived right wing conservative message. Thus explaining the following lines:

* 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.
* ''Peaches'' by Music/TheStranglers carries a disguised TakeThat! directed at Joe Jackson's hit "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", in which Jackson's nerd-persona song about not being able to get a girlfriend in the face of competition from unworthy thick sex-obsessed gorillas is subverted by the Stranglers, who use Jackson's words in the pursuit of sleazy sex rather than romance - in other words, this is the sex-obsessed gorilla's comeback.

* The Vandals' "Aging Orange" is a TakeThat to fellow California punk band Agent Orange. Agent Orange's Mike Palm had accused Music/TheOffspring of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Out_and_Play_%28song%29#Comparison_to_.22Bloodstains.22 ripping off the guitar solo from Agent Orange's "Bloodstains" for the main riff of their hit "Come Out And Play"]]. The Vandals' song ridicules him for this, pointing out that the parts only sound similar because they're in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_mode Phrygian mode]] and calling the accusations an act of a bitter has-been trying to get money and free publicity. [[note]] Though "Aging Orange" had lyrics that implied Agent Orange themselves were suing The Offspring, in reality no actual suit was ever filed - Robbie Fields, owner of Agent Orange's label Posh Boy Records and publisher of "Bloodstains", simply requested that Epitaph Records pay him a small portion of album sales for The Offspring's ''Smash'', which he would split with Mike Palm. Palm publicly agreed that this request should have been granted, but didn't personally have anything to do with making it.[[/note]]

* Government Issue had "Rock And Roll Bullshit", which entirely consisted of take that's to other artists. In the first verse there are some gibes you'd more or less expect coming from an early eighties HardcorePunk band - "Music/VanHalen gives me a pain / and Music/{{Supertramp}} gives me a cramp". The second verse is more interesting for denigrating older punk bands because TheyChangedItNowItSucks: "I used to listen to Music/TheClash / now they suck like all the trash / Music/TheRamones used to be a hit / now they're just a pile of shit". Keep in mind the song was released in 1981, when the most recent albums by the latter two artists were out-of-character - Ramones' ''Pleasant Dreams'' (1981) sounded more like PowerPop than punk [[note]]If the song was written a while before it was released, their ire could also have been directed at the previous Ramones album, ''Music/EndOfTheCentury'', which was LighterAndSofter than anything else they had released at the time[[/note]], while The Clash's ''Music/{{Sandinista}}!'' (1980) was total GenreRoulette.

*** Decades later, NOFX would release "Linewleum", a new version of "Linoleum" with lyrics about deciding to retire "Linoleum" itself from live performances - as a backhanded compliment, the lyrics mention how "it's in the best Le Tigre song".
* HardcorePunk group Poison Idea released an EP titled ''[[Music/MinorThreat Ian MacKaye]]'', where the cover image was a black and white photo of a man spreading his butt cheeks (albeit censored with black bars) - the idea being of course to depict [=MacKaye=] as a literal "asshole".

* Music/BobDylan has several of these - most notably "Just Like a Woman" from ''Music/BlondeOnBlonde'', and the very unforgiving "Positively 4th Street".

** The ''entire'' album Music/TheWall is just one long TakeThat levelled at Pink Floyd fans and their stupidity, inspired by an incident where a fan climbed up on to some scaffolding during a Pink Floyd concert and bassist/cantankerous self-proclaimed band leader Roger Waters spat on his face. Hilariously, [[SpringtimeForHitler The Wall is one of Pink Floyd's most popular albums, got many a fan into them, and even has one of their most well known songs - "Another Brick in the Wall, part 2"]].

* Music/{{Pavement}}'s "Range Life" included some slightly cryptic take that's at Stone Temple Pilots and Music/TheSmashingPumpkins - the latter had the line "I don't understand what they mean, like I could really give a fuck" directed at them, which Billy Corgan took pretty personally. Stephen Malkmus ''did'' claim the whole song was written from the perspective of a cranky old hipster and didn't reflect his own views, but still made a habit of making digs at Corgan when it came up in interviews, and in live performances of the song he occasionally updated the lyrics to include more current take that's ("Out on tour with the Music/CountingCrows / did you hear their new album blows?" for instance).

** Music/SteelyDan's "Only a Fool Would Say That" is possibly a TakeThat to the same song - at very least it's directed at rich pop singers and celebrities espousing Utopian ideals in general.

* "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).

* "Ladykillers" by Lush was written about some guys whom obnoxiously tried to hit on members of the band: one verse describes one "blondie" who was "with us for the summer" and "liked to talk about himself all day and all night": this is a confirmed reference to [[{{Music/Weezer}} Matt Sharp]] - The Rentals toured with Lush one summer and Sharp had bleached his hair at the time. Another verse is rumored to be about [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Anthony Kiedis]], and they cast an obvious lookalike for the music video. Despite this, Miki Berenyi made a guest appearance on a Rentals album after the song was released.

* In ''Music/TheHamiltonMixtape'', "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)" is an extended "fuck you" to American anti-immigration sentiment - it was released the same week that UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump was elected president as a deliberate move by Lin Manuel Miranda.

* The score album of ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'' can be considered a TakeThat in a sense to downloaders - several soundtracks of late have had additional material that's only available digitally (like ''Film/TronLegacy'' and ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''). But while the download album clocks in at 64:25, the physical one not only has several of its tracks running longer (in particular "Tunnel Chase" and "Stark Goes Green," both of which run over ''two minutes'' longer on the CD than the download), there's also one whole extra track ("Interrogation") which brings it all in at 76:17. This went down well with soundtrack fans (especially those of Music/AlanSilvestri), and as Intrada's Roger Feigelson stated that they specifically wanted the download to be shorter than the CD.

--> [[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.
* When John Addison won an Emmy in 1985 for scoring the pilot of ''Series/MurderSheWrote'', he commented in his acceptance speech it was a surprise this won because the music "was played by people." At the time, synth scores - spearheaded by ''Series/MiamiVice'' - were all the rage (and indeed ''Miami Vice'' had fielded one of the nominees that year, as did the also-electronically-scored ''Series/StElsewhere'').[[note]]The other nominated scores came from ''Series/CagneyAndLacey'', ''Series/Dynasty1981'' and ''Series/HighwayToHeaven'', if you're wondering.[[/note]]

* Acid house group The Shamen followed up their commercially successful ''Boss Drum'' album with ''Axis Mutatis'', a more experimental album that didn't quite sell as well and produced no hit singles. Derek Birket, founder of their label One Little Indian, asked that they return to making more accessible music. ''Hempton Manor'', their final album released for the label, went in an even more experimental direction and consisted entirely of {{Main/Instrumentals}} - If you read the first letter of each of the ten song titles, the track list spells out "Fuck Birket".

* Sugar's "Granny Cool" is a snarky take on an aging female hipster - the prevailing theory is that it's specifically about Music/SonicYouth's Kim Gordon.

* Creator/StanFreberg's "The Old Payola Roll Blue$" is part justifiable attack on the payola scandal of the '50s and part - well, mostly - a TakeThat to popular music which ends with a declaration that "proper" music like jazz is taking back the territory claimed by rock'n'roll (which proved to be a touch inaccurate). Freberg, by his own admission, is a huge fan of swing music and jazz... which, tellingly, he never sent up.

* The Music/{{Rush}} 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.

* A weird case: Music/TheClash's song [[Music/LondonCalling "London Calling"]] included the line ''"now don't look to us / All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust"''. At first, you'd probably think this is a dig at Music/TheBeatles. Then, you'd probably think it's actually a dig at Music/{{Wings}} (whom had just broken up). ''Then'', you may think it was about the then current Broadway stage production "Beatlemania", slogan: "Not Music/TheBeatles, But an Incredible Simulation."[[note]]It also led to a line on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', about a single named "Beatlemaniamania": "Not Beatlemania, but an incredible simulation."[[/note]] The best (or worst, depending on your POV) part? The line from ''London Calling'' was ''actually'' a comment by the band about the sudden burst of popularity of the punk scene having died down, thus being a Take That not towards The Beatles, Wings, or Beatlemania, but rather towards [[WereStillRelevantDammit the fans who just hopped onto the band's bandwagon because they were the next big thing]].

* The Music/PinkFloyd album ''Music/WishYouWereHere'' 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?]]").

* The American song ''My Country Tis of Thee'' can probably be seen as being a bit of “take that” to Britain. It was written in the 1840s, about 50 years after the American Revolution, using the tune of the de facto British anthem ''God Save The King”. The most obvious part is the final verse’s last line, “great God our king”, which can be seen as saying Americans have no king but God.

** The video for "White & Nerdy," at the line "I edit Wikipedia," has Weird Al vandalizing the Atlantic Records page on Wiki/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.

** ''"Je suis un homme"'' (''"I'm a man"'') is a song directed at humanity as whole, in which Zazie drily points out how men are destroying eachother and their environment, content with their meaningless lives and repeating over and over the same destructive behavior. This song's message is hammered by the video clip, in which people visit a museum full of always increasing numbers, showing how many people are dying every day from hunger, how many people don't have access to potable water, how many forests burned, carbon dioxyde emissions, and so on.
--> ''"You see, I'm not a man. I am the king of illusion. Really, 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..."''