About

Metasongs are songs about songs. This may take the form of a song that references itself or other songs, artists, or albums. The reference can be nominal, lyrical, melodic, or some combination. Examples range from obvious namechecks to the subtlest of nods to the listener.

This site is a lovingly compiled collection of these auditory easter eggs nestled throughout the popular music canon, interlinked with the underlying source material they draw from. It is also a public playground for building out a classification system of these kinds of songs within songs, and a continual work in progress.

Curatorial note

Songs that feature sampling (taking part of an existing sound recording and incorporating it into a new work) are largely omitted from this collection for the preservation of our sanity and because WhoSampled has that category pretty well covered.

However, many of the songs featured here include examples of interpolation. This involves taking part of an existing musical work and incorporating it into a new work. Unlike sampling, new audio is recorded rather than using any of the actual audio from the preexisting recording.

Contact

This site was created by Eileen Ruberto, a researcher and amateur musicologist in Buffalo, NY.