This American Songwriter feature highlights three songs from the 1980s that, beneath their surface meanings, are actually commentaries on the music industry itself. The piece notes that artists often draw on their real-life experiences, and these examples show musicians channelling frustration with management, record labels and the commercialisation of music into their work. It matters as a reminder that some familiar hits carry pointed critiques of the business that produced them.

The three tracks are Daryl Hall & John Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", which Hall told The Guardian was partly about feeling manipulated by management and the record business, like a "pawn"; Richard Marx's debut single "Don't Mean Nothing", written at 22 about the difficulty of trusting people in entertainment after years of rejection and unreturned calls; and Neil Young's "This Note's For You", a satirical swipe at stars who took corporate advertising money. Young's song proved so controversial that MTV initially refused to air its music video, though it later won Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards.