The hum, set to music.
Explore Songs
Songs that are about advertising, selling, media and wanting things. Not songs used in ads. Songs about the business of it.
This Note's for You. Neil Young (1988)
A refusal to sell songs to sponsors, with a title that parodies a beer slogan. MTV initially declined to air the video, then gave it Video of the Year in 1989. It is the clearest artefact of the moment when musicians had to decide whether sponsorship was selling out.
Sell Out. Reel Big Fish (1996)
A ska-punk band signs to a major label and writes a hit about signing to a major label. The commercial bargain, sung cheerfully from inside it. It is the funniest entry in this section and the one that best describes how the argument actually ended.
Television, the Drug of the Nation. The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (1992)
Michael Franti's spoken-word indictment of broadcast media, consumption and attention, written before the feed replaced the channel. It is the most analytically serious song in this section and the one that has aged into something closer to prophecy than protest.
Money. Pink Floyd (1973)
Roger Waters on greed, written by a band about to become extremely rich from it. The irony was noted at the time, including by Waters, and the song is more interesting for that than for its argument.
Material Girl. Madonna (1984)
A song about valuing men by their money, performed by an artist who then spent four decades demonstrating control over her own commercial image. The song is slight. What happened around it is the reason it belongs here.
Advertising Space. Robbie Williams (2005)
A song about the afterlife of a famous person's image, and what happens to it once they are no longer there to object. The commercial subject is posthumous licensing, which is a real and growing industry and is almost never written about.
Don't Believe the Hype. Public Enemy (1988)
Chuck D attacking the media's account of his own group, from an album that argued the press was not a neutral narrator but a participant with interests. It is the best song ever written about media relations, which is not a crowded field.
Radio Radio. Elvis Costello (1978)
An attack on commercial radio as a gatekeeper, from an artist who then performed it on live American television after being told not to. The performance is more famous than the song and both belong here.