Songs about the music industry

[Don Corleone]

i was just listening to porcupine tree's fantastic "four chords that made a million" from "lightbulb sun."

Six of one a half a dozen
Black guitars and plastic blues
Hide behind a wall of nothing
Nothing said and nothing new

4 Chords that made a million

You belong there on the cover
You are the emperor in new clothes
A man who thinks he owns the future
Will sell your vacuum with his prose

4 Chords that made a million

And then a moron with a cheque book
Will take you out to lunch who knows ?
He will tell you you're a saviour
And then he'll drop you like a stone

4 Chords that made a million

And I have tried and I have died
Trying to get through
But in the end I can't defend you.

4 Chords that made a million

another PT track about the same topic:

"the sound of muzak"

great song. check it out. and lets see which ones you come up with.

 

[Bambi]

johnny b goode

tennesee flat top box

icon

jumping someone elses train

loads of songs from pink floyd giving out about how rich their bosses made them

 

[EdenKriss]

This is just as much about "rock stardom" as about the music industry, but i think it fits this thread anyhow:

paint a vulgar picture

At the record company meeting
On their hands - a dead star
and ooh, the plans that they weave
and ooh, the sickening greed
At the record company party
on their hands - a dead star
the sycophantic slags all say:
"I knew him first, and I knew him well"
Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs
double pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)
A-list, playlist
"Please them, please them!"
"please them, please them!"
(sadly, THIS was your life)
but you could have said no
if you'd wanted to
BPI, MTV, BBC
"Please them!, Please them!"
(sadly, this was your life)
but you could have said no
if you'd wanted to
you could have walked away
...couldn't you?
I touched you at the soundcheck
you had no real way of knowing
in my heart I begged "please, take me with you...
I don't care where you're going..."
But to you I was faceless
I was fawning, I was boring
just a child from those ugly new houses
who could never begin to know
who could never really know
Best of! Most of!
Satiate the need
slip them into different sleeves!
Buy both, and be deceived
climber - new entry, re-entry
World tour! ("media whore")
"Please the Press in Belgium!"
(THIS was your life...)
and when it fails to recoup?
Well, maybe:
You just haven't earned it yet, baby
I walked a pace behind you at the soundcheck
you're just the same as I am
what makes most people feel happy
leads us headlong into harm
so, in my legs down to the knees
but me and my `true love'
we will never meet again...
At the record company meeting
on their hands - at last! - a dead star!
but they cannot taint you in my eyes
no, they cannot touch you now
No, they cannot hurt you my darling
they cannot touch you now
but me and my `true love'
will never meet again

 

[breaklose]

I never woulda dreamed in a million years id see
so many mutha fuckin people who feel like me
Who share the same views?
And the same exact beliefs
It’s like a fuckin army marchin in back of me
So many lives I touched
So much anger aimed at no particular direction
Just sprays and sprays
Straight through your radio waves
It plays and plays
Till it stays stuck in your head
For days and days
who woulda thought standin in this mirror
Bleachin my hair wit some Peroxide
Reachin for a T shirt to wear
That I would catapult to the fore-front of rap like this
How can I predict my words
And have an impact like this
I musta struck a chord wit somebody up in the office
Cuz congress keeps tellin me
I ain't causin nuttin but problems
And now they sayin im in trouble wit the government
I'm lovin it
I shovelled shit all my life
And now i'm dumpin it on

WHITE AMERICA
I could be one of your kids
WHITE AMERICA
Little Erik looks just like this
WHITE AMERICA
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL
Look how many hugs I get

Look at these eyes baby blue baby just like yourself
If they were brown
Shady knew shady sits on the shelf
But Shadys cute
Shady knew Shady's dimples would help
Make ladies swoon baby
(ooo baby)
Look at myself!
Lets do the math
If I was black I woulda sold half
I ain’t have to graduate
From Lincoln High School to know that
But I can rap so fuck school
I’m too cool to go back
Gimme the mic
Show me where the fuckin studio's at
When I was underground
No one gave a fuck I was white
No labels wanted to sign me
Almost gave up, I was like "Fuck it"
Until I met Dre
The only one who looked past
Gave me a chance
And I lit a fire up under his ass
Helped him get back to the top
Every fan black that I got
Was probably his
In exchange for every white fan that he's got
Like damn we just swapped
Sittin back look at this shit wow
I’m like "My skin, is it startin to work for my benefit now?"

WHITE AMERICA
I could be one of your kids
WHITE AMERICA
Little Erik looks just like this
WHITE AMERICA
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL
Look how many hugs I get

See the problem is I speak to suburban kids
Who otherwise
Woulda never knew these words exist
These moms probably woulda never gave 2 squirts of piss
Till I created so much mutha fuckin turbulence
Straight out the tube right into ya livin rooms I came
And kids Flipped
When they knew I was produced by Dre
That’s all it took
And they were instantly hooked right in
And they connected wit me too cuz I looked like them
That’s why they put my lyrics up under this microscope
Searchin wit a fine toothed comb
It’s like this rope waitin to choke
Tightenin around my throat
Watchin me while I write this like "I don’t like this, NO!"
All I hear is
Lyrics lyrics constant controversy
Sponsors workin round the clock
To try to stop my concerts early
Surely hip hop is never a problem
In Harlem only In Boston
After it bothered ya fathers
of daughters startin to blossom
Now i’m catchin the flack from these activists
When they raggin
Actin like im the 1st rapper to smack a bitch and say faggot
Shit
Just look at me like im ya closest pal
A poster child
the mutha fuckin spokesman now!

WHITE AMERICA
I could be one of your kids
WHITE AMERICA
Little Erik looks just like this
WHITE AMERICA
Erica loves my shit
I go to TRL
Look how many hugs I get

So to the parents of America
I am the damager aimed at little Erica
To attack her character
The ring leader of the circus of worthless pawns
Sent to lead the march right up to the steps of Congress
And piss on the lawns of the Whitehouse
To burn the casket and replace it with a parental advisory sticker
To spit liquor in the faces of this democracy of hypocrisy
Fuck you Ms Cheney
Fuck you Tipper Gore
Fuck you with the free-este of space this divided state of embarrassment will allow me to have
Fuck You

 

[Maqus]

I'm fed up, I'va had it up to here
Tell me what is good for me and my career
Fuck you and your selfish advice
You've never been loyal to the same things twice
In your sheltered little lives, you don't know the scene
Doing as you're told, puppets of the big machine
Changing faces, revolving door hypocrisy
Who do you work for now, yeah, I see

Music's for you and me
Not the fucking industry
You fucking tell us what is cool
You see we come from different schools

You got no crowd but you got a big push
Kissing asses till your pride turns inti mush
You might change your style for the record company
Fingers down your throat, you heave your integrity

You're weak, give it up, throw the towel and the flag in
And get your pussy ass off the motherfuckin' bandwagon
Never for a minute were you real in the first place
So far up someone's ass you got shit on your face

Music's for you and me
Not the fucking industry
You fucking tell us what is cool
You see we come from different schools
To us it matters what you say
Not the fucking games you play
You're full of shit, it's plain to see
The whole damn fucking industry

If you think for a minute this song's about you
Step the fuck back, cuz it's probably true
The message in the music is the reason that we're in this
That's what matters to us, not business
Music is for you and me, not the fucking industry
Try to tell us what is cool, we come from different schools
It only matters what you say, not the fuckin' games you play
Full of shit, it's plain to see, the whole damn fuckin' industry

 

[Don Corleone]

is korn's "wake up" about the same stuff? does anyone else know this song?

oh and two others i remembered:

dj shadow - "why hip hop sucks in '96"

and

u.n.k.l.e. - "getting ahead in the lucrative field of artist management "

 

[Maqus]

So why does hip-hop suck in 96?

 

[Bambi]

sex pistols emi

slf - rough trade

black sabbath - the writ

 

[Don Corleone]

So why does hip-hop suck in 96?

haha not really strange that you ask this, 'cause everyone thinks the same thing when they see the title.

well the answer is in the song's lyrics...which is basically one line (which is, like the whole album, a sample from somewhere else):

"it's the money"

hehe, funny eh?

unkle's track is funnier

 

[zupi_clone]

*yawns* im not fucking reading all of that

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[bleed_black_orchid]

er... Nofx - Dinosaurs will die

thats the only one I can think of okay.

 

[Strangelight]

Moves so slowly
Grows so smoothly
Takes so neatly
It's as if they belong and they've been here all along
Grows so smoothly
Moves so slowly
Takes completely
It's as if they belong and they've been here all along
This one's ours let's take another
Check the math here check in ten years
Clusterfuck theory buy them up and shut them down
Then repeat in every town
Every town will be the same
This one's ours let's take another
Five corporations there is a pattern

 

[Strangelight]

It's cold outside and my hands are dry
Skin is cracked and I realize
That I hate the sound of guitars
A thousand grudging young millionaires
Forcing silence sucking sound
Forced into this conversation
So i say shine let their planets collide
This is the darkening down of my mind
We could be making it oiling like crime
We could be making it staking last dimes
If you want to sieze the sound you don't need a reservation
The torch is pased it's yours to return
Lay at their feet now use it to burn
For marketing the use of the word generation
A false alliance of money persuading
Forcing silence sound sucking
Forced into this conversation
Now if you want to sieze the sound you don't need a reservation
So open so young so target I can smell your heart you're a target

 

[Don Corleone]

tool - "hooker with a penis"