Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

This Is a Song

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ThisIsASong_1325.png
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

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 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 and contrast "How I Wrote This Article" Article, which is writing about not knowing what to write anymore. Compare Self-Demonstrating Song. Sometimes Breaking the Fourth Wall. See also [Trope Name], Postmodernism, and Heavy Meta.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & 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.

    Asian Animation 
  • The full version of the English-dubbed GG Bond theme song contains a short rap section that has the lyrics "GG's always going strong/That's why he's got his own theme song".

    Comedy 
  • "The Chicken Parmigiana Song" on The D-Generation's The Satanic Sketches album, about a singer in a crowded hotel:
    I'm just a singer in a crowded hotel
    I only work here 'cause the money's steady
    Sometimes I think no one's listening to my song
    (over PA, drowning out singer) Number 26! Your chicken parmigiana is ready!
  • Comedy duo Shortis & Simpson have an Audience Participation Song called "Don't You hate It When They Make You Sing Along?"
  • Morris Minor and the Majors: "This is the Chorus" is a parody of Stock Aitken Waterman that describes how formulaic it is.
    And this is the chorus, yeah, this is the chorus,
    It goes around and around and gets into your brain.
    This is the chorus, the fabulous chorus,
    And thirty seconds from now, you're gonna hear it again.

    Films — Animation 
  • The Little Mermaid: Shalalala float along, and listen to the song, the song say "Kiss the Girl!"
  • Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie:
    • "The Credits Song":
      This is the song that comes under the credits, These are the credits, so this is where it goes. Has nothing to do with the movie, so we'll say: Hey, hey, hey-hey hey hey hey hey!
    • And then later:
      There should be a rule that the song under the credits, remotely pertains to the movie's basic plot! That rule has not been made, so for now we'll have to say: Hey, hey, hey-hey hey hey hey hey!
  • The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part: "Catchy Song", a song which tells you as the chorus it's going to get stuck inside your head.
    This song is now in your brain
    And even if you go insane
    In your brain it will REMAIN!

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The Title Theme Tune from Spy Hard. Of course, given the artist who wrote it and the type of film it is...
    You're watching Spy Hard.
    It's the theme from Spy Hard.
  • In The Sound of Music, the song "Do Re Mi" is about singing the song "Do Re Mi". 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.
  • Elf: Buddy improvises one to demonstrate how easy it is to sing in public.
    I'm singing... I'm in a store, and I'm singing...
  • Woodstock: Richie Havens, "Handsome Johnny"
    Hey, what's the use of singing this song
    Some of you are not even listening
  • The Beau Brummels: The silly song that Shaw and Lee sing at the end of the routine.
    The guy who wrote this song was deaf
    He couldn't hear a note...
    This is the verse
    This is the verse
    The bird who wrote the words was crazy as a loon
    There's nothing to this song but the tune
    This is the chorus to the song
    This is the chorus, you're hearing now.
  • In Fury (2014), the SS battalion is heard at distance singing Teufelslied (The Devil's Song)
    SS marsciert im Feindesland
    und singt das Teufelslied
    (SS marches in the enemy country
    and sings the Devil's song)

    Live-Action TV 

    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 message about how he shouldn't bother because they can just record one later.
  • "Just a Song About Ping Pong" by Operator Please.
  • Tim Minchin's "Dark Side".
    • Also, his song "The Fence".
    • And "Three Minute Song", his (mostly) clean song written for TV spots which details why and how he wrote a (mostly) clean song for TV spots. And which is exactly three minutes long.
  • Jon Lajoie's "Radio Friendly Song".
    • Also, "Pop 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
  • Leonard Cohen did a fair amount of this:
    • "Hallelujah" spells out its own chord progression.
    It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift...
    • "Take This Waltz" is, in fact, a waltz.
  • Molly and the Tinker's "The Anti-Singalong Song" is a song about the act of singing "The Anti-Singalong Song". Or rather, about refusing to sing it.
  • "So Far, So Bad" by Five Iron Frenzy.
    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.
    • Subverted with "See The Flames Begin To Crawl", which describes the band Trashing The Set, but the tone of the song doesn't match the lyrics at all, and they don't actually do any of the things they're describing.
  • "Please Play This Song On The Radio" by NOFX.
  • Britney Spears - "Everytime"
    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.
  • Microdisney's "Bullwhip Road" uses it twice, in a bitter and cynical way:
    I am no good for you; I can do no wrong
    I've written you this song
    • And later on:
    I hate the world
    I hate my life and this song
    Now run along
  • 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.
  • Naturally, "Your Song" by Elton John:
    And you can tell everybody
    This is your song.
    • As well as "Step into Christmas"
    Welcome to my Christmas song
  • Lampshaded to hell and back in the self-explanatory "This Song's Just Six Words Long"note  by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It's a send-up of George Harrison's "I've Got My Mind Set On You."
    • In fact, Weird Al does this all the time, throughout his repertoire. Another example would be "Don't Download This Song".
    • "Achy Breaky Song" is a meta-example, as it's not about itself, but rather about the song it's parodying:
    Don't play that song
    That "Achy Breaky" song
    You know I hate that song a bunch
    And if you play that song
    That nauseating song
    It might just make me lose my lunch.
    • "Smells Like Nirvana" is another classic example about how hard it is to understand the lyrics of the titular grunge band.
  • Shel Silverstein's "26 Second Song", designed as a Take That! to all who thought his usual songs were too long.
    • Kenny Price had a novelty song that topped this. The lyrics, in their entirety:
    This is the shortest song in the world.
  • DaVinci's Notebook's song "Title of the Song" is made of this trope.
  • Dave Soroka pushes this to another level in "Thief Of Hearts":
    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 The 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?
  • "Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes
    Now she's even got her own song (But movin' on)
    • 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.
    • "Tribute" is not the greatest song in the world. Rather, as the lyrics state, it is just a tribute to the greatest song in the world.
  • Lagwagon's "Falling Apart":
    Second verse,
    The same as the first.
    I forgot the words again.
  • Lemon Demon's "Holy Bison Breaks" is about songwriters block.
    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.
  • Let's not forget Bowling for Soup's song "A Really Cool Dance Song".
    This song sounds like a dance song
    Because dance songs are cool now
    So get up and shake what your mama gave you
    It's our attempt at a dance song
    A really cool dance song
    It's gonna be a great big hit!
    • And then there's: "You want it? You got it! Here's your freakin' song!"
    • Almost ends with a line about how the singer almost wrote the song he just sang, but didn't.
    I almost wrote a song, about you today,
    But I tore it all up and then I threw it away!
  • Frank Sinatra, "I Sing the Songs"
    • Sinatra also sang the original version of "The Christmas Waltz", written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, which features the lyric, "And this song of mine, in three-quarter time..."
  • They Might Be Giants, "Number Three" (which is the third track on their debut album):
    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.
  • Ringo Starr, "This Be Called a Song".
  • Pet Shop Boys' "All Over The World":
    This is a song about boys and girls
    You hear it playing all over the world
  • Pulp's "The Fear":
    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.
  • "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles is all about how she was asked to write a love song, but she's not going to write one just because someone else wanted one.
  • Similarly, Aly & A.J.'s "Potential Breakup Song", which states that this is their potential breakup song because their album needed one.
  • "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.
    • The lyrics mention the dissonance, but what the song is actually about is Harrison's dissatisfaction with his contract with the music publisher "Northern Songs". The lyrics basically amount to "it doesn't matter if this song is any good or not, because it's only a Northern song" (and therefore Harrison will only receive a pittance in royalties compared to what he would have gotten had he published it with his own company Harrisongs).
  • George Harrison, who wrote "Only a Northern Song" (see above), used this trope again as a solo artist. He 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...
  • Simon & Garfunkel's "Song for the Asking"
    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 the first two lines of "Leaves That Are Green," which were reused by Billy Bragg for his hit "A New England":
    I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song
    I'm twenty-two 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
  • Trace Adkins' "This Ain't No Love Song" is somewhere between this and Suspiciously Specific Denial:
    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
  • 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 easy to be near you
  • Chicago's "25 Or 6 To 4" was about the song writer's bout with writer's block.
  • Mitch Benn
    • "West End Musical" 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...
    • And in The Now Show Pantomime (2010), he completed things with "The Very Happy Ending Song"
      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 !
    • "Steal This Song" is about how he doesn't care if you copy it, distribute it or "change half the words and claim you wrote it".
    • "Everything Sounds Like Coldplay Now" is a kind of meta-example; it's about a class of songs that includes itself.
    • Similarly, "Never Mind the Song (Look at the Stage Set)" is a big metal number describing the extravagant special effects at the concert.
  • "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
    • The completely unrelated "Song About Nothing", by Andy Corwin, which even goes so far as to say that "the very idea for this song isn't even original".
      • Meanwhile, "Nothing to Say", written a couple years earlier by Carla Ulbrich, has most of the same thoughts as Corwin's song, up to and including hoping that, despite saying nothing, it'll become a hit due to its catchiness.
  • Dragon Road song — not Akira Kushida's, Dungeons & 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.
    • "Battle For Someone" goes into this territory slightly. The first verse is deeply cynical and bitter, the second verse is hopeful and optimistic. The third verse is about how the singer (and by extension most people) have to deal with both positive and negative attitudes. A line in the third verse spells it out: "The preceding verses are the two halves of my soul."
  • "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.
  • Charlie McDonnell has a few:
    • "A Song About A Song"
    Welcome to this song, which I wrote all myself
    It's all about this song, which I did write
    • "The Birthday Song"
    This is a song that I wrote you for your birthday
    • "A Song About Love"
    This is a song about love!
  • Alice Cooper plays with this trope in "School's Out":
    Well we got no class
    And we got no principles
    And we got no innocence
    We can't even think of a word that rhymes
  • Monty Python's "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio". Which is only kind of about itself, as it actually could be played on the radio due to all the self-censorship.
    You can't say [airhorn] on the radio/Or [gunshot] or [twang] or [splat] ...
  • fun.'s "Some Nights"
    When I hear songs, they sound like this one...
  • When this trope is applied to a whole genre, we get the Gaita Zuliana. There is a lot of songs about how itself is a traditional gaita song, how the song is more authentic and in a traditional style than others, and so on. Not that they doesn't hit other themes, but still a good third of all Gaita songs are or have some form of this trope.
  • The Shins' "Simple Song"
    This is a simple song/To say what you'd done
  • "Julia" by The Beatles states that it's a song of love. It's not a "Love Song" per se, as it's about John Lennon's late mother.
  • "Silly Love Songs" by Wings. It's basically Paul McCartney going "there's a lot of silly love songs, I got no problem with that, I'm gonna sing one right now... IIIIII looooooove yooooooou..."
  • "This is Just a Modern Rock Song" by Belle and Sebastian.
  • As you might anticipate from the title, "A Song For Worm Quartet To Sing With TV's Kyle" by Worm Quartet featuring TV's Kyle. Which breaks the fourth wall even more than you might expect, since it also has Kyle singing about how he refuses to appear on the song because it's repetitive and lazily written... And pointing out that Shoebox must have realized he'd feel that way to begin with, because he was the one who wrote all of the lyrics.
  • Jonathan Coulton uses this trope in "Not About You":
    This song is not about you
    You can put that in your pipe and smoke it
  • Paul Williams wrote "An Old Fashioned Love Song" along these lines. You might know the Three Dog Night version best.
    Just an old fashioned love song / Comin' down in three part harmony
    Just an old fashioned love song / One I'm sure they wrote for you and me
    • He also wrote "Sad Song": "That's a sad song, that used to be our song."
    • Arguably the opening line of "Rainbow Connection"; "Why are there so many songs about rainbows / And what's on the other side?"
  • The Pixies gave us "Tony's Theme":
    This is a song about a superhero named Tony! It's called Tony's Theme!
  • "One Of Those Songs" (also called "One of Those Wonderful Songs"), by Jimmy Durante
    Well, this is one of those songs that you hear now and then...
  • In "New Orleans" by Silver Jews, David Berman and Stephen Malkmus become "trapped inside the song".
  • The Frank And Walters' "This Is Not A Song", which arrives at its chorus ("This is a song I wrote especially for you...") after first telling us a whole list of things the song is not.
    This is not a song about politics
    This is not a song about sex...
  • Foo Fighters' "The Last Song" even opens with "This is a song". In that case, the last "that I will dedicate to you."
  • Common for Scatman John. The majority of his songs is about some message, some call themselves a song with a message explicitly.
    I betcha really glad we're near the end on the song
    Popstar
    Scatman John: Hey Louis!
    Ghost of Louis Armstrong: Yeah...?
    SJ: Is that you?
    LA: Yes, yes.
    SJ: Oh, I'm Scatman John! Would you like to sing a song, man?
    LA: Well, sure could! Look out...
    Everybody Jam!
    This is my song for you
    Happiness will see you through
    Listen to what I say
    We can make a happy day
    Pripri Scat
    Just listen to the song,
    That's as close as you'll get
    To any sense of hope
    To get your soul out of debt.
    Shut your mouth and open your mind
  • Relient K's "Crayons Can Melt on Us For All I Care" is ten seconds long. The lyrics go like this:
    I
    Just wasted
    Ten seconds of your life.
  • Randy Newman does this in the first verse of "Rednecks":
    Well, he may be a fool but he's our fool
    If they think they're better than him they're wrong
    So I went to the park and I took some paper along
    And that's where I made this song.
  • Thomas Rhett, "It Goes Like This":
    Hey girl, you make me wanna write a song
    Sit you down, I'll sing it to you all night long
    I've had a melody in my head since she walked in here and knocked me dead
    Yeah girl, you make me wanna write a song
    And it goes like ooh, what I wouldn't do
    To write my name on your heart, get you wrapped in my arms baby all around you
    And it goes like hey, girl I'm blown away
    Yeah, it starts with a smile and it ends with an all night long slow kiss
    Yeah, it goes like this
  • "Partners, Brothers, and Friends" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band does this on the last verse:
    The band says it can't stand
    My latest song, it's too personal
    But my first wife's second marriage blew up
    They had to get the dang thing annulled
    Well, if that ain't something to sing about
    You tell me what is
    And we'll give it a beat and put it on the street
    And we'll just might have another hit
  • "This Song" by Paul and Storm is a commercial pitching the song as perfect for a commercial.
    This song could be in a commercial
    It's simple and acoustic so it's utterly non-threatening
    And it's pretty and sincere, and there's not too many words
    You can talk about insurance or a car *Beat*
    In all the spaces in between
  • Porcupine Tree's "Hatesong":
    This is a hate song just meant for you
    I thought that I'd write it down while I still could
    I hope when you hear this you'll want to sue
  • "One Million Views" by Goldfish is a variation on this, being a song about the music video for the song
  • The first track of Alphaville's Catching Rays on Giant is "Song For No One."
    This is the song for no one but myself, for myself, for myself
  • A ditty similar to "The Song That Never Ends."
    I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
    And this is how it goes
  • "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor
    I walked out this morning, and I wrote down this song
    I just can't remember who to send it to
  • "The Last Cowboy Song" by Ed Bruce
    This is the last cowboy song
    The end of a hundred year waltz
    The voices sound sad as they're singing along
    Another piece of America's lost
  • "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten:
    This is my fight song
    Take back my life song
    Prove I'm alright song
  • "Heartbeat Song" by Kelly Clarkson:
    This is my heartbeat song and I'm gonna play it
    Been so long I forgot how to turn it up up up up all night long
  • "Them Old Song Writin' Blues" by Eric Bogle is a song about how hard it was to write the song. May also counts as a Sanity Slippage Song.
    And why do I write all my songs in the key of G?
    Be easier usin' another one like — umm-err-umm
  • "Ask Me How I Know" by Garth Brooks has the line "Go on and shake your head and tell me that I'm wrong / Say, 'I'm just another fool and this is just another song'." Later on, Garth sings "And you best put this song on repeat / Maybe then you won't end up like me"
  • U2:
    • Bono does this in "Song For Someone" by saying "This is a song...a song for someone".
    • Earlier, they asked "How long must we sing this song?" several times in "Sunday Bloody Sunday". Although the "song" in question might have been The Troubles.
  • Afroman did an entire verse of this in "Because I Got High":
    I'mma stop singing this song because I'm high.
    I'm singing this whole thing wrong because I'm high.
    And if I don't sell one copy, I know why.
    'Cause I'm high, 'Cause I'm high, 'Cause I'm high.
  • Chilliwack's song "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)" has the singer lament the loss of his girl and the fact that he has no way of getting in touch with her. However, he claims there's a chance if "she hears this song, hear it on the radio."
  • Axis Of Awesome has a few songs like this, including "How To Write A Love Song" and "We Are So Young".
  • "Pop 101" by Marianas Trench is a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how to write a catchy pop song.
    The chords are 1-4-6-4
    Now I'm talking familiar
    Harmony in thirds not fourths
    Will take you into the pre-chorus
  • One Direction's "Don't Forget Where You Belong":
    Don't forget where you belong, home
    Don't forget where you belong, home
    If you ever feel alone, don't
    You were never on your own
    And the proof is in this song
  • The Coodabeen Champions' "If It's Not Country (What is it?)"
    "Sing this song that I'm singing
    It's not too complicated, is it?
    No fancy stuff, no tricky bits.
    You might say there's not much in it.
    Well they say there's someone for everyone,
    And one born every minute.
    Well they say my music's not country,
    But if it's not country
    What is it?
    It's only got three or four chords and it's four on the floor.
    Well, if it gets too fancy, it's not country anymore.
  • "The Song Is The Single" by BARR - the verses do go off on tangents but are mainly about the song itself or the nature of pop songs in general. The chorus is simply:
    The song is the single
    And the single sucks
    It never sounded good
    It always sounded bad
  • Howard Jones' "New Song":
    I've been waiting for so long
    To come here now and sing this song
    Don't be fooled by what you see
    Don't be fooled by what you hear, whoa

    This is a song to all of my friends
    They take the challenge to their hearts
    Challenging preconceived ideas
    Saying goodbye to long standing fears
  • Bing and Gary Crosby's "Sam's Song":
    Here's a happy tune you'll love to croon
    They call it Sam's Song
    It's catchy as can be, the melody
    They call it Sam's Song
    Nothing on your mind
    And then you'll find you're humming Sam's Song
    Why, it makes you grin
    Gets under your skin as only a song can do
  • The Mills Brothers' "Opus One":
    Oh, baby, I'm a-rackin' my brain, to think of a name
    To give to this tune, so Perry can croon
    And maybe old Bing will give it a fling
    And that'll start everyone hummin' the thing

    The melody's dumb, repeat and repeat
    But if you can swing, it's got a good beat
    And that's the main thing, to make it complete
    'Cause everyone's swingin' today
  • A version appears in the chorus to the AJR song "Bang!"
    So put your best face on, everybody
    Pretend you know this song, everybody
  • The final song Boys Will Be Boys in Dua Lipa second album Future Nostalgia includes this
    If you're offended by this song
    You're clearly doing something wrong
    If you're offended by this song
    Then you're probably saying
    Boys will be, boys will be Boys will be, boys will be boys
    But girls will be women
  • Al Green's "L-O-V-E":
    I started to write this song about you
    And then I decided that I would write it all about love
  • Labi Siffre's "My Song":
    This is my song
    And no one can take it away
  • Radio Active's album Never Mind the Originals Here's the Heebeegeebees, contains parodies of Status Quo ("We have to play the same refrain/And the same refrain again/Of this boring song") and Paul McCartney ("And now we come to the second verse/Which I'm singing now/I wonder what I'll say in it/Oh well, it's over anyhow").
  • The group Yachts had a ditty love song, "Suffice to Say" that started:
    I'm just an old romantic fool
    I wrote this specially for you
    Although the rhyming's not that hot
    It's quite a catchy little tune
    • The second verse makes things perfectly clear:
      So what d'you think of it so far?
      You know I'm feeling rather proud
      My words have never been that strong
      Things really are improving now
      I never wrote a middle eight
      So we'll just have to do without
      But there's an instrumental break
      Just after this...
Suffice to say it was released on Stiff Records.
  • Insane Ian's "Shortest Song" and "Second Shortest Song" have as their entire lyrics "This is the shortest song that I have ever written" and "This is the second shortest song that I have ever written", respectively.
  • Tally Hall:
    • "Good Day", the Album Intro Track to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum. The song welcomes its listeners and suggests things they can do together, only to veer off with describing some mysterious creature that has no name and yet insists it exists. It then suggests that the listener come up with the own interpretation as to what the song means as a whole.
    • "The Whole World and You" is a sarcasm-laden song that's supposedly written to someone (presumably the ruler of a kingdom), while not actually saying anything about what they do and praising everybody else instead. The singer passive-aggressively suggests that "I've even written this whole song about you, and not about me. And not about me."
  • "Leider geil" by German rap group Deichkind. The last lines of the last verse translate to this:
    In this song
    Nothing rhymed at all
    Nobody noticed

    Puppet Shows 

    Theatre 
  • Something Rotten! does this a lot in "A Musical".
    Nick Bottom [speaking]: So an actor is just saying his lines, and then out of nowhere he just starts singing?— Well, that's the [singing] stupidest thing that I have ever heard!
  • Several songs in Spamalot fall under this, most notably "The Song That Goes Like This".
  • "Poppa's Blues" from Starlight Express.
    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.
  • Similarly, the reworked-with-vocals version of the Overture for Groovelily's Striking 12, with such lines as "Welcome to the overture..." and "This is an important theme / You will hear it later on..."
  • "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
  • The dancing portion of the Yule Ball scene in Puffs the Play has "A Really Short Slow Dance Song", which consists of a few seconds of music and the title words being sung once before it ends. Oliver Title Drops it, mildly surprised at its briefness.
  • Mischa Bachinski's first number in Ride the Cyclone, "This Song is Awesome," which stylistically parodies the AutoTune-heavy "self-aggrandizing commercialized hiphop" of the 2000's. The chorus includes such lines as "this hook is awesome," "this beat is awesome," and of course "this song is awesome."

    Web Animation 

    Web Comics 

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 

 
Feedback

Video Example(s):

That's Our Kinda Song

Mom and Dad are apparently aware that they are randomly bursting into song when it's their turn to sing.

Alternative Title(s): A Song About Itself

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder You Know That Show... Trope Launch Pad Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top

That's Our Kinda Song

Mom and Dad are apparently aware that they are randomly bursting into song when it's their turn to sing.

How well does it match the trope?

3.29 (7 votes)

Example of:

Main / ThisIsASong

Media sources:

Report