Rock-Star Song seems to attract zero-context examples, many which just seem to list the name of the song. This wick check is to identify the extent of the issue.
Correct: 16/50 32%
ZCE: 34/50 68%
Wicks: 50/50 (not including the "Other" folder)
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Correct 16
- Disturbed: "Monster" is a subversion. It's more along the lines of a rant about how being a rockstar kind of sucks.
- Jackson Browne: Running on Empty was basically a "rock star album," but the last two songs, "The Load-out" and "Stay," which are meant be played as one song, most exemplify the main point of the album, which is that underneath all the fame, traveling, and Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, what the rock star really lives for is playing on stage in front of a loving audience.
- The Mamas & the Papas: "Creeque Alley" is a musical memoir about the band's struggle for success and commercial breakthrough.note
- James Durbin: "Stand Up" is a song about how awesome it feels to perform on stage.
- Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One: "Top of the Pops" is an intentionally naïve and starstruck-sounding song about first experience with rock stardom.
- Dire Straits (Album): Subverted by their debut single "Sultans of Swing", a song about a band that's never going to make it big and doesn't really mind.
- Garth Brooks: "The Old Stuff" has him reminiscing about the smaller scale of his early pre-fame gigs, when he didn't have a bus and a touring crew, and "the old stuff" (his most famous songs) were new.
- Shel Silverstein: "The Cover of the Rolling Stone," as performed most famously by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, is a parody of this trope; the narrators complain that, despite living the rockstar lifestyle and making money hand over fist, they're not famous enough yet.
- Kamen Rider Girls: "Girls Anthem ~with our BIG LUV~" is about the ups and downs of being a famous singer and how they wouldn't trade it for the world.
- Puddle of Mudd: "Famous" is about the singer's wanting to be what the title says, for the perks of such lifestyle like money and chicks.
- Steven Universe S2E20 "Sadie's Song": "Haven't You Noticed (I'm a Star)" is about how great it is to be a celebrity. It has a slight satirical element that may or may not have been intended by the in-universe writer, as the singer doesn't seems to appreciate the difference between friends who know her and fans of her music and seems fast-tracked to burn out.
- Yelle: "Mon beau chagrin" is about the exhaustion brought by constant touring, but also the joy received during concerts from the fans, the "beautiful grief" of the title.
- Okkervil River: Several from the Stage Names/Stand-Ins era.
- "Unless It's Kicks" celebrates the power of rock music, even from a "mid-level band."
- "Lost Coastlines" portrays a band spiritually adrift on tour.
- "Singer/Songwriter" presents the lack of originality inherent in pop music.
- "Pop Lie" suggests that rock and roll is an inherently false medium.
- "A Girl in Port," "Blue Tulip," and "On Tour with Zykos" are all about female fans' relationships with band members.
- "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" continues that theme but adds some angst about the music industry and its executives.
- "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979" finds the glam-rock singer Jobriath sick of his lifestyle and his music.
- Van Halen: A few of them, with "As Is" dealing with what fame does:Yesterday I was a bum and broke.
Today I am a star and broke.
In this town that's called progress,
That's how we do biz. - Madness: "Rockin' in A-flat" from the first album is about a would-be rock 'n' roller getting a band together and "making all the geezers in the flats complain."
- Pablo Honey: Satirized on "Anyone Can Play Guitar", which mocks the "rock star" image and mythos; particular ire is given towards the lingering influence of The Doors and the constant pressure for rock musicians to draw from frontman Jim Morrison. Unlike most of Pablo Honey's stylistic trademarks, the distaste towards rock idolization would stick throughout Radiohead's lifetime, and it would serve as an influence on the electronic direction of Kid A in 2000.
ZCE 34
- The Who: "Success Story," "How Many Friends" (most of The Who By Numbers really), "New Song", "Put the Money Down"... "Long Live Rock", be it dead or alive!
- Richard Marx: "Superstar".
- Superchic[k]: Inverted with "Karaoke Superstars" and "Rock Stars".
- Bob Dylan: "Like A Rolling Stone" from Highway 61 Revisited.
- System of a Down: "Radio/Video". Inverted by "Lost in Hollywood."
- Next to Normal: Parodied by Diana's hallucinations about Doctor Madden, and in Madden's cut song "Feeling Electric."
- The Alan Parsons Project: "Limelight" seems to be this.
- Spock's Beard: "Rearranged", written by Nick D'Virgilio.
- Taiji Sawada: "Easy Fight Rambling" for X Japan, "So What" for D.T.R.
- The Grateful Dead: “Truckin’”, "Playing in the Band", "Uncle John's Band".
- Johnny Yong Bosch: "Let's Play Our Way".
- Foreigner (Band): "Juke Box Hero"
- Megadeth: "Rattlehead", "The Killing Road", "Bodies".
- The Jonas Brothers: Hollywood, natch.
- Ashley Tisdale: "Suddenly"
- Rogue Traders: "Way To Go!", "Speak and Destroy", "Fashion."
- Asia: "Rock and Roll Dream".
- King of Rock: King Of Rock
- The Pussycat Dolls: "When I Grow Up".
- The Rolling Stones (Band): "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll". Keith's "Before They Make Me Run" kind of qualifies as well.
- Slippery When Wet: "Wanted Dead Or Alive."
- Rihanna: "Rockstar 101".
- reputation: The Album
- Cookie Run S Rank Cookies: Rock-Star Song: The BGM when you play with him.
- Grand Funk Railroad: "We're An American Band".
- Hole: The original version of "Awful", which was several pages long, included things like this.
- Electra Heart: "Teen Idle," "Primadonna," etc.
- Insane Clown Posse: "Radio Stars."
- Saltatio Mortis: Spielmannskrone and Gossenpoet
- Missy Higgins: "Everybody's Waiting", "Tricks", "Hidden Ones",. "Unashamed Desire"
- Dope: Inverted, with "Debonaire".
- Fishbone: "Rock Star".
- Muse: "Sunburn," "Muscle Museum," "Cave," "Showbiz," and "Hate This and I'll Love You," all from Showbiz.
- The Fun Boy Three: "The Telephone Always Rings".
Other 4
- Older Than Cable TV: Rock Star Song — "Johnny B. Goode", 1958. For the first-person autobiographical variant, "Teen Age Idol", 1962.
- Radio Song: Listed as a sister trope.
- Ricky Nelson: He also didn't like the proto-Rock Star Song "Teen Age Idol", feeling like the lyrics came off as egotistical, but Ozzie insisted he release it as a single.
- 1977:The Comic: —>We're the worst band in the world, and we don't give a...
