Results for “cultural namedropping”

Songs

R.E.M.

A rapid-fire torrent of apocalyptic imagery, media static, and cultural namedropping that never lets the listener settle into a…

information overload media saturation apocalypse as cliché

The Clash

The Clash build a mock-Orientalist fable in which a ruler bans music and the population -- eventually even his own military --…

censorship and authority cultural resistance satire of power

Jethro Tull

This is a sardonic protest against the commercial and violent hijacking of Christian imagery in American culture, pairing…

religious hypocrisy American mythology and violence commercialization of faith

The Beach Boys

"409" is an early Beach Boys car song that treats a Chevrolet muscle car like a lover and a racehorse at once, celebrating…

car culture youthful aspiration/consumerism masculinity and status

Thin Lizzy

This is Thin Lizzy's suite-like tribute to Irish identity, stitching together folk balladry, mythic invocation, and a rapid-fire…

Irish cultural inheritance myth and storytelling exile and longing for home

Buzzcocks

An early punk anthem that turns tedium itself into the subject and the method, with a narrator who insists on his own flatness…

boredom and nihilism alienation from self and culture anti-ambition as rebellion

Prince

"Batdance" is less a song than a sound collage built to promote the 1989 Batman film, splicing dance-funk grooves with dialogue…

media spectacle identity/duality commercialism and tie-in culture

Ethan Whitney

This is a straightforward pop declaration of devotion that borrows superhero mythology to dress up a fairly conventional promise…

devotion and support escapism fantasy of destiny

John Prine

Prine elegizes a real Kentucky town erased by strip mining, using a child's plea to his father as the frame for a broader story…

environmental destruction loss of home/place industrial 'progress' vs. nature

Public Enemy

A protest anthem built as a dance record: Chuck D argues that political consciousness and Black pride are things you build in…

Black pride and self-definition institutional racism who gets to be a national hero