Answer song

An answer song, response song or answer record, is a song (usually a recorded track) made in answer to a previous song, normally by another artist. The concept became widespread in blues and R&B recorded music in the 1930s to the 1950s. Answer songs were also extremely popular in country music in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, sometimes as female responses to an original hit by a male artist or male responses to a hit by a female artist.

The original "Hound Dog" song sung by Big Mama Thornton reached number 1 in 1953, and there were six answer songs in response; the most successful of these was "Bear Cat", by Rufus Thomas which reached number 3. That led to a successful copyright lawsuit for $35,000, which is said to have led Sam Phillips of Sun Records to sell Elvis Presley's recording contract to RCA.

In Rock Eras: Interpretations of Music and Society ISBN 0-87972-368-8, Jim Curtis says that "the series of answer songs which were hits in 1960 ... indicates the dissociation of the singer from the song ... Answer songs rode on the coattails, as it were, of the popularity of the first song, and resembled parodies in that their success depended on a knowledge of the original ... Answer songs were usually one-hit flukes by unknown singers whose lack of identity did not detract from the success of the record since only the song, and not the performer, mattered."

Today, this practice is most common in hip hop music and filk, especially as the continuation of a feud between performers; the Roxanne Wars was a notable example that resulted in over a hundred answer songs. Answer songs also played a part in the battle over turf in The Bridge Wars. Sometimes, an answer record imitated the original very closely and occasionally, a hit song would be followed up by the same artist.

Examples

Pre-1950s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

  • "Devil Comes Back to Georgia" by Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, Mark O'Connor, and Travis Tritt in 2010 responds to the Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (1979).
  • Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now! released an album titled Fixin' The Charts, Vol. 1. As its title suggests, the album contains nothing but answer songs to pop hits. "G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I've Got A)", an answer song to Avril Lavigne's hit "Girlfriend", is one example.
  • "California Gurls" (2010) by Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg was a response to "Empire State of Mind" (2009) by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys. It was the first time both the original song and the answer song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
  • Taylor Swift's "Better than Revenge" (2010) is an answer to The Jonas Brothers' "Much Better" (2009) which may have been an answer Swift's "Forever & Always" (2008).
  • Marina and the Diamonds' cover of Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" (2012) is an answer song to the original tune, the lyrics adapted to give it a female perspective.
  • Lecrae made the song "No Regrets" (2012) in response to "The Motto" (2011) by Drake. Which itself is a response to "If Today Was Your Last Day" (2008) by Nickelback.
  • Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) released "Niggas in Poorest", (2012) in response to "Niggas in Paris" (2011) by Jay-Z and Kanye West, chastising them for parading their wealth while so many are suffering with poverty, violence, crime, and exploitation.
  • Mary Lambert's "She Keeps Me Warm" (2013) is an extension of the chorus she sang on Macklemore's "Same Love" (2012). Where "Same Love" has a message of gay acceptance, "She Keeps Me Warm" is about a woman who falls in love with another woman and grows to accept her own sexuality.
  • Ewert and the Two Dragons wrote their song "Jolene" on the album Good Man Down in response to Dolly Parton's 1973 single "Jolene" from the male perspective. Additionally, the 2017 song "Diane" performed by Cam sings from the perspective of Jolene.
  • "Big Girls Cry" on Sia's 2014 album 1000 Forms of Fear is an answer song to Fergie's hit "Big Girls Don't Cry" (2007).
  • "Anaconda" by Nicki Minaj (2014) is viewed as an answer to Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" (1992), which is heavily sampled in the song. Whereas Sir Mix-a-Lot focuses on a woman's body and the pleasure it gives him, Minaj raps from the perspective of the unnamed woman, and shows how she uses her callipygian physique to profit and empower herself.
  • Ellie Goulding's song "On My Mind" is seen as answer to Ed Sheeran's "Don't" by many critics, although Goulding herself has denied it.
  • Christine and the Queens rewrote Beyoncé's "Sorry" from a male perspective.
  • Esmé Patterson published Woman to Woman (2014), an album of seven answer songs from the perspective of famous women in pop songs, including "Eleanor Rigby", "Billie Jean" and The Kinks' "Lola".
  • "The Quantum Enigma (Kingdom of Heaven Part II)" popularized by Epica is a response to "Kingdom of Heaven"
  • Eels' 2018 single "Bone Dry" is an answer to their 2010 single "Fresh Blood". Fresh Blood was itself a sequel to their song "I Want to Protect You".
  • "Paper Doll" (2013) by John Mayer is viewed as a response to Taylor Swift's "Dear John" (2010), and also mentions her song "22".
  • In 2013, Kay One released his diss track "Nichts als die Wahrheit" against his former label mates Bushido and Shindy, as a response to Shindy's song "Alkoholisierte Pädophile", making fun of Kay One and his stepfather Olliwood. Bushido in return released the 11 minute storytelling diss track "Leben und Tod des Kenneth Glöckler", chronicling the rise and career of Kay One from his perspective, depicting him as an opportunist who only makes friends that get him further in the music business just to drop them when he finds someone more prestigious. One year later, Kay One released the 25 minute response song "Tag des jüngsten Gerichts", depicting his career from his own point of view, including attacks against many of his former friends on the way who turned their back on him, most prominently Bushido who he claims to have abused his power as a label boss and his ties to the Abou-Chaker clan to make Kay work lots for little money, as well as being a greedy man who rips off his fellow collaborators as well as his own fans. Numerous of the rappers mentioned in the song released their own diss tracks against Kay One as a response, however they received less media coverage and attention than those of Kay One and Bushido.

2020s

  • Coheed and Cambria's 2020 song "Jessie's Girl 2" is a sequel to Rick Springfield's 1981 song "Jessie's Girl". Featuring Springfield himself on the track, the song imagines what would have happened had Springfield succeeded in winning Jessie's girl.
  • Sabrina Carpenter's 2021 single "Skin" and song "Because I Liked a Boy" from her 2022 album "Emails I Can't Send" is speculated to be responses to Olivia Rodrigo's "Drivers License", although Carpenter denies this. "Skin" mentions a line used in "Drivers License" about Carpenter's appearance, while "Because I Liked a Boy" recalls all the threats she received after Rodrigo's song was released.
  • Roselia's 2022 song "Rozen Horizon" is a sequel to their 2019 song "Fire Bird", according the mini-album's page.
  • Country trio Chapel Hart's 2022 song "You Can Have Him Jolene" answers Dolly Parton's classic "Jolene" almost 50 years later.
  • Miley Cyrus's 2023 song "Flowers" paraphrases "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars, in lyrics as well as in chord progression (Cyrus uses a simplified version of Mars' verse chords in her chorus) and even in some melodic patterns. While Mars sings about what "he" could have done better in the now broken relationship, Cyrus sings about how "she" is better now that she is alone. Cyrus also takes some melodic figures from "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.

See also


This page was last updated at 2023-11-16 01:02 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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