PC04: Self-Referential Musicians

Today, in the car, for no reason I can recall, I began listing all the solo artists and bands I could think of that named themselves in at least one of their songs. Scott is fairly tolerant and appeared amused, but for his sake, I eventually stopped and decided I should blog about it because HEY, why not?

Here are a handful of self-referential musicians, musicians that would conceivably reference himself/herself/themselves, musicians that would likely never reference himself/herself/themselves, and some hypothetical possibilities. All these lists could be much, much longer, but I don't want to bore you. I write this assuming you aren't bored already.

Also, you may notice I'm leaving rap artists off this list, due to how frequently this kind of thing occurs in rap music. Sorry, Kris Kross.

SELF-REFERENTIAL

Mika. In "Lollipop," Mika gives himself a shoutout ("Yo, Mika!"). Why? NO ONE KNOWS.

*NSYNC. "Here We Go" includes the lyrics "*NSYNC is here to make you people scream" and "Yes, yes, yes, here we go! *NSYNC has got the flow!" To this day, I'm not quite sure what that means.

Backstreet Boys. "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," perhaps the strongest song on BSB's self-titled debut, seems to be about how Brian, Nick, Howie, Kevin and AJ returned from obscurity, which doesn't really make sense, considering it's the group's debut album. Millions of 12-year-old girls let it slide.

Cursive. "Art is Hard," a truly great song, includes the (presumably) sarcastic line, "Oh, Cursive is so cool!" This is probably the most ironic instance of self-reference listed here. What does that say about Cursive? I don't know. Let me know when you figure it out.

Aaron Carter. Half of Aaron Carter's songs I can remember (all four of them) mentioned him in their titles. That's right, their titles: "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" and "Oh Aaron." "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" is a trenchant commentary on the dilemmas pre-pubescent males face when left alone. Or something.

Jason Mraz. "Curbside Prophet," my favorite song on Mraz's debut album, asked the question, "What's up with M-R-A-Z?" The question remains unanswered.

CONCEIVABLY SELF-REFERENTIAL

Post-Pinkerton era Weezer. I used to love Weezer. Today, I love the idea of Weezer, but not the execution. And after hearing "Pork and Beans," I am convinced that Rivers Cuomo would have no qualms releasing a song that spelled "Weezer" at some point. And this is the only entry on this particular list, simply because it seems depressing to go on.

NO POSSIBILITY OF SELF-REFERENCE

Anything involving Ben Gibbard. Let's think about this: in "Styrofoam Plates," Gibbard sings, "There's a saltwater film on the jar of your ashes, Death Cab for Cutie put it there!" Yeah, I just can't see it happening. Same goes for "I kissed you in a style Jimmy Tamborelli would've admired, both us members of the Postal Service thought it classic" in "Clark Gable."

The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd. Actually, if you play "Black Dog" backwards, all you hear is Robert Plant repeating the same thing he says to his mirror every morning: "Led Zeppelin is the greatest, best rock band that God has ever created on the face of this earth." (That's not true.) Jim Morrison was self-absorbed, but not to the extent of mentioning Ray Manzurek and himself during that WAY TOO LONG instrumental portion of "Light My Fire," and Pink Floyd is Pink Floyd. No need to elaborate there.

Billy Joel. I'd almost argue that "The Entertainer" is close enough to self-referential for Mr. Joel to jump up a couple lists. At the same time, I feel like he dislikes himself too much to use his actual name in a song. So that's that.

Hanson. I mention Hanson here because I find them to be genuinely talented musicians, and above self-reference. Great job, pseudo-boyband I still listen to!

HYPOTHETICALS

Bright Eyes covering "Total Eclipse of the Heart." That said, I really hope Conor Oberst sees this while drunk and decides it's an excellent idea.

Snoop Dogg covering Reel Big Fish's "Snoop Doggy Dogg." Meta!

Fin.