68 Songs About Music and Singing

I'm convinced that there are songs—and often whole playlists—for any situation. Music has the power to incite and entertain entire stadiums of people. It can also provide soothing comfort.

But why would songwriters write about music itself? That seems a little redundant. Are they so overcome with love for song and singing that those are the topics they turn to first? Or did their well of inspiration well run dry? I'd argue that both are possible.

There are a surprising number of pop, rock, and country songs dedicated to music, songs, songwriting, and singing. Many of them are classics. Others lament the direction that popular music is taking.

Celebrate the special place that music has in our lives by compiling a playlist of songs about songs. We have a long list to start you out. See how many you know.

This Grammy Award-winning song is brimming with energy and topped the charts in 2014. It was a nod to James Brown, who first popularized the distinctive sound of funk music in the 1960s, as well as artists who came after. Funk originated among African American musicians as a danceable genre with a strong rhythm and often improvised or risque lyrics.

In this 2007 pop song, Rihanna finds herself in a nightclub dancing with some guy she's just met. The music is mesmerizing, they're acting naughty, and somebody might be about to get lucky. That must be some song.

This 2014 song takes country music to task for the way it portrays women. Today's cliché is that women are silent ride alongs who wear skin tight cut-off jeans and bikini tops and prefer to go bare footed.

Maddie & Tae complain that whereas women used to be more respected by county music, we are now considered just decorations for men's trucks and their lives. The song references favorite country artists of yesterday and makes mention of the lyrics of several chauvanistic songs from today, including the following.

• Redneck Crazy (2013) by Tyler Farr
• Hey Girl (2013) by Billy Currington
• My Kinda Party (2010)
• Make Me Wanna (2013) by Thomas Rhett
• Get Me Some of That (2013) by Thomas Rhett, and
• Honky Tonk Badonkadonk (2005) by Trace Adkins.

If you're a country fan, listen to the lyrics and see if you can pick up the references.

Who doesn't love this 1975 classic rock song? It's one of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and harks back to a time when there were jukeboxes in bars and pizza joints, and a dime could buy you a couple minutes of bliss in the form of a shared song:

I love rock n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby.
I love rock n' roll
So come an' take your time an' dance with me.

A creative depiction of his stint as a piano player at the Executive Room bar in Los Angeles, this 1973 Billy Joel pop song focuses on the establishment's regulars. There's a bartender named John who gives the singer his drinks for free, a real estate agent named Paul who is a struggling novelist, a career Navy guy named Davy, and other characters. All were actual people. Each had broken dreams and came to the bar to forget about their troubles for awhile with the help of alcohol and the piano man.

The guy in this pop song from 1974 has tried to utter those three simple words to the one he loves, but the words just come out wrong. Feeling the compelling urge to express himself, he wakes his honey from a deep sleep and sings it to her. At least he got the words out this time, right?

Since his lover left him, the heartbroken guy in this 2016 country song has turned to his own brand of music therapy to get over her. It's a three foot stack of vinyl records, which he's been working through as he downs the bourbon, scotch and beer.

He has pretty good taste in music, too. This song references George Jones, Waylon Jennings. Hank Williams Jr., Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson, James Brown, and New Grass Revival. The narrator claims

I'm either gonna get over you
Or I'm gonna blow out my ears.

Who cares if your voice has a nasal New York quality to it? Or it makes nails on a blackboard sound sweet? This 1973 pop song encourages you to just belt it out. Just sing out loud with wild abandon.

The key message in this 1970 pop song is one of the most sincere and endearing I've heard in music—that the world is a better place because you're in it. The narrator explains that he doesn't have much money, so instead he has written this song as a gift for his loved one.

They say they "belong to da music" (don't we all?) and are ready to party. In this 2009 rock song, Miley says she has a brand new hairdo and brand new attitude. Is this where her personal troubles and that twerking stuff started? Just like Miley, there's little else substantive to this song. But hey, we didn't expect much.

Get out the crime scene tape. This 2000 country song laments the death of traditional country music. Fiddles and the twang of drinking and cheating songs like the ones George Jones made famous have been replaced by steel guitars and drums. Any diehard country music fan knows precisely what the problem is.

Today's country sounds so much like rock that crossover music is common. And that's what's leading these old boys to claim that country music as we once knew is gone:

The almighty dollar and the lust for worldwide fame
Slowly killed tradition, and for that someone should hang.

Although not an immediate hit, this 1973 song saved Aerosmith from being dropped by their label. It celebrates one's individual quest to be somebody:

Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tear
Sing with me if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away.

"I wanna rock and roll all night ... and party every day." Now just repeat this over and over. That's most of KISS' 1975 signature song, but it works. In 2008, VH1 named this song the 16th greatest hard rock songs of all time.

Arriving in Hollywood for the first time, Miley sees everyone wearing the stilettos and realizes she's not in Nashville anymore. In this pop song from 2009, turns to Jay-Z and Britney songs to help her feel more confident.

This song was originally intended for Jessie J, however she passed on it, considering the lyrics not edgy enough for her. Interestingly, at the time Miley Cyrus recorded the song, she had never even heard Jay-Z's music.

Today's country music looks back on the previous couple of decades with nostalgia and expresses sadness about its recent transformation. However, yesteryear's country music registered similar complaints. It mourned country music's straying from its classic roots.

This 1975 chart-topper is a country music classic. Waylon Jennings honors Hank Williams Sr. and takes a swipe at the interlopers and upstarts who wear rhinestone suits and drive big, fancy cars.

This 2004 rock song was intended as irony. It saluted indie music and hipster culture, but many people took the song literally.

Hipsters represent an alternative culture and livestyle. They are typically middle to upper middle class and live in gentrified urban neighborhoods, embracing liberal arts, social causes, and trends outside of the mainstream.

The narrator personifies music in this 1975 soft rock classic. He points out that songs bring people together, celebrate love, inspire song and dance, and more. Music lies within us all and unites us.

I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs.

Some people have trouble expressing what they feel and have to rely on written letters or songs rather than the spoken word. Others leave their loved ones guessing.

This 1979 disco song features a woman who broke up with the man she still longs. The sad lady believes that he penned a heartfelt letter expressing his emotions for her and it has been read on the radio. Their song makes her miss him so much that you wonder whether she's imagining the whole thing.

This 1994 song befuddles me. The lyrics are simply a dumb description of Gloria Estefan (or others who recorded this hit song before her) saying that she loves to hear percussion (okay, got it). She encourages the horn players to play their pretty sounds and the violin players to keep playing "nitty gritty" (whatever that means).

But then things go really wrong when she turns to the flute player:

Flute player, play your flute 'cause
I know that you want to get your thing off.

That's where she loses me. I'm like, "What are you talking about, Gloria?!?" People liked the song because it was very danceable rather than for its lyrics.

This 1979 hit expresses concerns about the impact of technology, particularly upon the arts. As one form of technology gives way to another, our culture is transformed and new problems emerge alongside the shiny new opportunities.