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

[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]

There's that Teena Marie song on Naked To The World where she pays tribute to Minnie Riperton and Marvin Gaye.