Songs about Corporate Oppression

good question. hard to answer.

System of a Down "Deer Dance" ("beyond the staples center you can see America with it's tired poor avenging disgrace/peaceful loving youth against the brutality of plastic existence")

(this question is hard cuz I want to avoid songs about gubmint/military oppression but corporations & gubmint are so intertwined it's almost impossible)

Sonic Youth - "Kool Thing" ("Are you gonna liberate us girls from male white corporate oppression?")

Midnight Oil - "When the Generals Talk" ("General Motors, General Credit Corporation, General Insurance... They're the worst generals of all, you know.")

"Age of Greed" by Killing Joke
"Corporate Protopop" by Cop $hoot Cop

Loverboy - "Working for the Weekend" (estrangement in action!)
Gang of Four - "Damaged Goods" (and, like, everything else they ever wrote)

Subquestion, are anti-corporate-oppression songs that do name companies/brands better or worse than ones that don't?

Well, there's that new Boston album called "Corporate America" or something like that, and the theme song is about corporations taking over our lives and all that noise. Although I sympathize with their sentiments, the song is so hopelessly heavy-handed that it's very near parody. It used to be available on their website, but it doesn't look like it's there anymore.

Mr. Lif "Live From the Plantation" on that The-Man-vs.-our-precious-few-moments-of-life tip.

"Cheeseburger" by Gang of Four.....and, like Ess said, a whole buncha their other stuff.

Bob Wiseman to thread...

The Art Bears may actually have a song called "Song About Corporate Oppression" or something like that anyway. Damn, it's been a long time since I even thought about the Art Bears.

"Paper and Iron" -- XTC
"The Song of the Dignity of Labour Under Capital", "Song of the Monopolists", "Song of Investment Capital Overseas" -- Art Bears

Brecht/Eisler - "Supply and Demand"

Also, Billy Bragg must have something lying around on this topic....

atari teenage riot, propagandhi, and consolidated to thread.

Grand Buffet - Americus ("I've got a shirt made by little girl hands / in a little warehouse on a little island / I bet she's even got herself a little boyfriend / but she'd drop him on the spot for an American man")

Tom's post reminded me of Lindsay Cooper's "Rags", which is the soundtrack to a film about conditions in the garment industry.

Actually, just delve around long enough in the output of anyone conneceted with Henry Cow and you'll probably pull up a bunch more.

Most of Herbert's The Mechanics of Destruction?

also Warsawpack, new album is called Stocks and Bombs

Ani DiFranco to thread.

I can only think of Primal Scream's 'Kill All Hippies' and I ain't even sure it counts.

Midnight Oil - "When the Generals Talk"
also "Beds are Burning": "Mining Companies/ Pastoral Companies/ Uranium Companies/ They've got more rights than the people do/ They've got more rights than the people do"

Shit yeah Jeanne!

Ani D's "Serpentine" lyrics (which I seriously just happened to be listening to when Jeanne brought 'er up):

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and I just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

yeah the goons have gone global
and the CEO's are shredding files
and the democrans and the republicrats
are flashing their toothy smiles

and Uncle Tom is posing for a photo-op with the oval office klan
and Uncle Sam is riggin' cockfights in the promised land
and that knife you stuck in my back is still there
it pinches a little when I sigh and moan
and these days I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

cause all the wrong people have the power of suggestion
and the freedom of the press is meaningless if nobody asks the question
I mean causation by definition is such a complex compilation of factors
that to even try to say why is to oversimplify
that's a far cry, isn't it dear, from acting like you're the only one there
unrepentantly self-centered and unfair

enter all suckers scrambling for the truth
exit mr. eye-contact who took his flirt and flew the coup
but whatever, no matter, no fishin trips, no fishin
cause momma's officially out of commission

and did I mention in there somewhere
did I mention somewhere in there
that I traded Babe Ruth,
yes I traded the only player
that was bigger than the game
and I can't even tell you why,
cause you'd think I'm insane.
and that's the truth

and the music industry mafia is pimping girl power
sniping off sharp-shooter singles from their styrofoam towers,
and hip-hop is tied up in the back room with a logo stuffed in its mouth
cause the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house

but then, I'm getting away from myself
as I get closer and closer home
and the difference between you and me baby
is I get fucked up when I'm alone

and I must admit today
that my inner pessimist seems to have gotten the best of me
we start out sugared up on kool aid and manifest destiny
and then we memorize all the presidents names like little trained monkeys
and we spit into the world so many spinny-eyed TV junkies

incapable of unraveling the military-industrial mystery
pre-emptively passified with history book history
and I've been around the world now and I can see this about America

the mind control is deep here, man
the myopia is steep here, man

and behold those who try to expose the reality
really try to realize democracy
are shot with rubber bullets and gassed off the streets
while the global power brokers are kept clean and discreet
behind a wall
behind a moat
and that is all
that's all
that's all she wrote

and my heart beats an s-s-s o-o-o s-s-s
cause folks just really couldn't care-care-care less-less-less
as long as every day is superbowl sunday
and larger than life women in lingerie are pouting at us from every bus stop
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not
she loves me, she loves me not

and "big government should not stand between a man and his money"
i mean, "what's good for business is good for the country"
our children still take that lie like communion,
the same old line the Confederacy used on the Union

conjugate liberty into libertarian
and medicated associated with deregulation privitization
we won't even know we're slaves on a corporate plantation

somebody say hallelujah,
somebody say damnation,
cause the profit system follows the path of least resistance
and the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked
makes it serpentine
capitalism is the devil's wet dream

so just give me my Judy garland drugs and let me get back to work
cause the empire state building is the tallest building in New York
and I have always got the feeling
you just like to hear it fall off your tongue

but I remember my name in your mouth
and I don't think I was done hearing it close to my ear
on a whisper's way to a moan

Pavlov hits me with more bad news every time I answer the phone
so I play and I sing and just let it ring,
all day when I'm at home

a defacto choice of
macro-microcosmic melancholy
but baby any way you slice it,
I'm thinkin I could just as soon use the time alone

That's "Dead Heart", not "Beds Are Burning."

Ooops. Had a brain fart. Hadn't listened to that record in a year or so.
Guess its time to dust it off and play it again.

Corporation Enema - Royal Crescent Mob
16 Years - Jazz Butcher fave lyrics about corporate sleaze ever:
Privatised businesses have shareholders
who expect to make personal gain
from their stake in essential public services
infested with junior-rat management...
and people wonder where
all the fucking money's gone.

I hate you

(liars)
(cowards)
(fools)
(wankers)

Napalm Death - "Multinational Corporations"

"We're All Prostitutes", Pop Group

Damn, Stephen beat me to that one.

Wow...the RC Mob! That must be the first time I've read their name here.

"Laws Against Laughing" the Crucifucks

Fugazi to thread.

'the company man', sugar

MTV is a corporation, innit?

"MTV Get Off the Air" Dead Kennedys
"MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack" Beck

I think the Beck one actually fits in to other thread, because smoking crack, and wanting to smoke crack is a good thing, no?

The chorus goes: "mtv makes me wanna smoke crack/fall out the window I ain't never comin' back" so I'm gonna keep it over here on this thread.

Oh, and 'Blood' by Sarah Jones:

The feet that slip and slide in spilled lakes of black blood
on back roads marked with rusted dead end signs
They don't fit into any shoes
Not Nikes, and not Reeboks, though they
make 'em across the sea and sell 'em to you and me
for fifty times their value
...
Fast forward to Calvin Klein
and modern ownership tags for black behinds, courtesy of Ralph Lauren
AKA low, low, well how low can you go?
Call on black consumers if you want the cash flow
Cause they quick to flip and spend up all they dough
and don't front money, act like you know

There is a God - Hamell on Trial

Into the hallways reporters spilled
Multinational corporation boardroom filled
Apologizing for the people they killed
To make amends, the schools they'd build
And they burned their suits and they did vow
To only be working in hospitals now
Those that prey on the weak as if on cue
Killed themselves - it was the least they could do

There is a God.
Don't doubt it - You gotta shout it.
There is a God.

..Eagerly anticipating new record...

.. And "How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?" - Pretenders

Quasi - "The Happy Prole"

the clash - koka kola

yeah, Fugazi - "Five Corporations"
The Fall - "Disney's Dream Debased"
Pavement - "Serpentine Pad"
Cows - "The Man"

Dog Faced Hermans - "Volkswagen"

The Sisters of Mercy - "Lucretia My Reflection"

Not the entire song but a memorable verse from "Check the Rhyme" by A Tribe Called Quest:

Industry rule number four thousand and eighty,
record company people are shady.
So kids watch your back 'cause I think they smoke crack,
I don't doubt it. Look at how they act.

most of the McCarthy catalogue to thread

Brave Captain - Corporation Man

If Pavement songs were ever about anything then "Cut Your Hair"

"Advertising looks and chops a must
No big hair!!
Songs mean a lot
When songs are bought
And so are you-
Bitch, rant down to the practice room
Attention and fame so
Career, career, career...."

Nickalicious, I *really* dislike Serpentine (too whiny!) - surely "Your Next Bold Move" is a much better version of the same thing?

(...And the mighty multinationals
have monopolised the oxygen
So it's as easy as breathing for us all to participate
Yeah, they're buying and selling off shares of air
And it's all around you, but it's hard to point and say "there"
So you just sit on your hands and quietly contemplate...)

... but even then I think generally Ani should give up on political lyrics.