This Is a Song

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 Self-Demonstrating Song and Exhort the Disc Jockey Song. Sometimes Breaking the Fourth Wall. See also Trope Name, Post Modernism and Heavy Meta.

Examples of This Is a Song include:

Anime and 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.

Film

You're watching Spy Hard.
It's the theme from Spy Hard.

  • 'The Credits Song' from the Veggie Tales movie Jonah and the Big Fish.

This is the song that comes under the credits, These are the credits, so this is where it goes.

    • And then later:

There should be a rule that the song under the credits, remotely pertains to the movie's basic plot! But that's not the case!

  • In The Sound of Music, the song Do Rei Me is about singing the song Do Rei Me. 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.

Live Action TV

This is the theme to Garry's show
 The opening theme to Garry's show
 Garry called me up and asked me to write his theme song...

Music

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.
  • 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.

And you can tell everybody
This is your song.

  • Shel Silverstein's "26 Second Song", designed as a Take That to all who thought his usual songs were too long.
  • 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 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?

    • 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

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.
  • Lagwagon's Falling Apart:

Second verse,
The same as the first.
I forgot the words again.

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.

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.

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.

This is a song about boys and girls
You hear it playing all over the world

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.
  • Anything by Fall Out Boy
  • "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.
  • George Harrison 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...

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 "Leaves That Are Green"

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

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

‍'‍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

  • 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 east to be near you

  • Chicago's "25 or 6 To 4" was about the song writer's bout with writer's block -- which was written at about 25 to six in the morning (or maybe a minute earlier).
  • "West End Musical" by Mitch Benn 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...

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 !

  • "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

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Endemic in the Gaita Zuliana genre, where a good percentage of songs are about gaita itself and how the genre must remain pure. An example lyric from the song "Las Cabras" by Gran Coquivacoa [1]:

Esta es la gaita zuliana (This is the Zulian gaita)
 La auténtica y verdadera (The true and authentic one)
 Nuestra alegría pascuera (our christmastime joy)
 Folklórica y soberana (folkloric and sovereign)
 Esta es la gaita zuliana (This is the Zulian gaita)
 Y no una cabra gaitera (and not a poser gaita)

Theatre

The first line of the blues is always sung a second time
 Yeah, the 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.

  • "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

Web Comics

  • this is a ringtone song... ringing all the--*

Web Original

Western Animation

This is the theme song for Jimmy Neutron.

This is the Fireside Girls song!
And it's not too terribly long.

  1. ↑ the title and the song aren't about Gaita-playing goats, in gaitero slang "Cabra" stands for "song that tries to be a gaita but fails because it deviates from traditional style and instrumentation"
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