Shout out to...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

In the canteen just now the Miley song was on (and the Miley song was on, and the Miley song was oooooon etc), and it got me thinking...

...Do pop songs intentionally name drop other artists anymore? Did this use to be more of a common occurrence? Obviously this is a big thing in hiphop where shout-outs to your mates (especially dead ones) or ruthless disses are very common. Also, tediously-long lists of dudes who have influenced the artist seem to be mostly confined to dance music (Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax, er Scooter), though feel free to correct me on that. Does the same thing happen in country or rock at all?

Off the top of my head I can think of the following pop tracks that reference other artists not directly involved in the making of the track:

Miley Cyrus - Party In The USA (Jay-Z and Britney)
Robbie Williams - She's Madonna
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag (Iron Maiden)
CSS - Meeting Paris Hilton (who is technically a pop star I guess)

There must be more! Who would you say is name-dropped the most? Does it tend to be in the context of Artist 1 actually in the act of listening to Artist 2, like Miley is doing? Or swooning over them, like Robbie?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It happens a bit in country I think. Erm well I dunno, but anyway it happens in "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" where Big (or Rich) sings the girl every Willie Nelson song he can think of (and they made LUVVVVVV)

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

See also Taylor Swift, "Tim McGraw."

[daisychain-xx.livejournal.com]

I don't know the artist's name, but the song is called "Oopsy Daisy" and he name checks The Saturdays in it.
I think the line goes something like "I'm like the Saturdays every day because me and my heart have issues"
Something like that anyway.
It's an awful song, and the Saturdays are awful, but I had to listen to the radio in a friend's car on Sunday and it was on.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ah - that would be Chipmunk.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

um american pie being both buddy holly and mentioning the stones.

buddy holly by weezer
like dylan in the movies by smell and sebastian

I'D RATHER JACK by the reynolds girls, HOW SOON WE FORGET etc

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

all the young dudes: i need tv when i've got t-rex
i know where syd barret lives by tvps

almost the entire career of HELEN LOVE, partic LONG LIVE THE UK MUSIC SCENE (although that's about the only one that *isn't* about joey ramone)

i think there is a Certain Type Of Indie where this is massively prevelant

the singer out of slipknot went to rome to see the pope...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

there is not enough time to list all of the HMHB references to other bands, let me give you perhaps my favourite:

inspired by no one, other bands bore us
how can you say we sound like frazier chorus

[demiabeille.livejournal.com]

Rock tend to do it in visual ways, having cameos in the music videos rather than singing about it. Sometimes an artist will develop an obsession with an old rocker, such as in the case of Tenacious D, who go on about dio a fair bit in their songs. This is because Jack Black's style is motly taken entirely from Ronnie James Dio!

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

I like this sort of project. So much that I made a collaborative playlist - reference to recording artiste not directly involved in the song (http://open.spotify.com/user/vincennes/playlist/4cDNL6v5AcpMy8CeHgaeUS). Also added Ask Her For Adderall by The Hold Steady - "If she asks, just tell her that we opened for the Stones / They're her favourite band, except for the Ramones".

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Hold Steady (and maybe Lifter Puller before them) have a ton of these, right?

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Let's Make Love (and listen to Death From Above)!

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

I Love You But I've Chosen the Darkness

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

The New Radicals!

something something Beck and HANSON, Courtney Love and Marilyn MANSON

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Come round here we'll kick yer ASSES!

Oh there was crossness about that in the 6th form believe you me.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

out on tour with the smashing pumpkins

stone temple pilots, they're elegant bachelors

both from Range Life.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

As well as being about teenage abortion, Amanda Palmer's 'Oasis' references two Britpop legends:

"and so now we're not talking, except we have tickets to see Blur in October and i think were still going"

"Oasis sent a photograph, it's autographed and everything, Melissa's gonna wet herself, I swear"

[edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com]

How far back are we going? Eurythmics used to do it a bit -- "I believed in you / like Elvis Presley" in "Angel," the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in "Shame" -- before they just started referencing themselves.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha, HOW COULD I FORGET:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkMnp187K0Y

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

wood beez!
when smokey sings!
black man ray!

does Rip It Up count? "and my favourite song's entitled 'boredom'"

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I can't help but go into a vocal approximation of the guitar solo after reading that Orange Juice lyric.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

"Turn up The Eagles, the neighbours are listening"
Steely Dan's Everything You Did

"She sang about angels, Kurt Cobain
I thought 'what a shame
It wasn't about Tom Verlaine"
The Go Betweens' She Sang About Angels

David Bowie's Song for Bob Dylan is an obvious one, spinning off Dylan's Song for Woody (Guthrie)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I thought Dylan would crop up a few times.

Current front runners then are Beatles & Rolling Stones, followed by Blur/Oasis/Madonna I think (just remembered Androids' 'Do It With Madonna').

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Frank Black's I Heard Ramona Sing compares the mighty Ramones to Menudo.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Don't forget artists who name-drop THEMSELVES: Lady GaGa (ooh la la ga ga blah blah), Miley ("she's just being Miley"), Britney ("It's Britney, bitch)...different subject I suppose

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Surely nearly all pop artists do this (or at least have a 'featured' someone to do it for them)?

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

Bowling for Soup do it all the time.

"Kylie's Got a Crush On Us" by Teenage Fanclub was always a favourite.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I'm mildly shocked to be the first to mention Saint Etienne - you know "To the sound of the World of Twist..." et cet.

Who would you say is name-dropped the most?
(Frank) Sinatra or Elvis

If we're talking celebs in general, however, the clear winner is Halle Berry - cited in more hip hop records than Jay-Z's bigged himself up in.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

"Twisting" by They Might Be Giants mentions The dB's and Young Fresh Fellows.

"Fourth of July" by Shooter Jennings contains extensive reference to George Jones

Eminem is his own category. "My Name Is" references Usher, and "The Real Slim Shady" references Fred Durst and Christina Aguilera, off the top of my head.

"We dig Marvel & DC, we dig Run-DMC....

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

....we dig Renegade Soundwave and AC-DC!"

Pop Will Eat Itself did this more than once, IIRC, but "Can U Dig It" is the obvious one. Does "Cicciolina" count - she *has* released music, but I suspect that's not why they name-checked her.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, can't believe no one's mentioned The-Dream yet! "Kelly's 12-Play" is basically a love song to R. Kelly, and he also name-drops Usher, Chris Brown, Mariah Carey...

[corianderstem.livejournal.com]

Snow Patrol:

"Put Sufjan Stevens on ... something something about her favorite song is Chicago!"

[koganbot]

Then there's "Rock and Roll Heaven" which I'm not even going to bother to quote but it refs Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and Jim Croce and Otis Redding and Bobby Darin and Jim Morrison.

[chuckeddy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Musicians In Heaven is also maybe a whole 'nother subgenre of these, for instance "Nightshift" by the Commodores from the mid '80s, which pays tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson.

There's a Southern Soul song this year (not sure who does it) that also fits this bill (and btw, current Southern soul songs turn out to namedrop Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis like current county songs namedrop Willie and Merle). Wrote this on ILM earlier this year, first time I heard the soul heaven song in question on the radio: "They also played another song that mentioned Johnny Taylor and Tyrone Davis, this one about a lot of singers who'd 'gone home' by dying (tons of soul guys, not all Southern, plus Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls)."

[koganbot]

At this point I don't know what's been mentioned and what not, with all the threads nested, but I don't think anyone's mentioned Pink yet:

L.A. told me, "You'll be a pop star,
All you have to change is everything you are."
Tired of being compared to damn Britney Spears
She's so pretty, that just ain't me
Pink "Don't Let Me Get Me"