Give Black Friday The Middle Finger with These Anti-Consumerism Songs

Several years ago I began to notice that Australian retail businesses were starting to get in on America’s Black Friday day of shopping bonanza by offering sales and discounts and promoting them constantly on social media, annoying me greatly in the process.

I began receiving email marketing specifically about Black Friday promotions, even from ‘sustainable’ brands. Disgusted and disappointed, I launched into a full-blown defence strategy, unsubscribing from the e-newsletters of retailers who dared to email me about this silly shopping day. It’s bad enough I get freakishly followed around on Facebook and Google by ads from businesses, the last thing I want is for my precious inbox being flooded with this sort of crap. Life is too short to keep deleting, junking and blocking rubbish emails.

'I began receiving email marketing specifically about Black Friday promotions so I launched into a full-blown defence strategy, unsubscribing from the e-newsletters of retailers who dared to email me about this silly shopping day.'Click To Tweet

So this year I’m taking my defence strategy a step further, compiling a list of songs to help remind people that Black Friday promotes the wrong sets of values in our society such as consumerism, materialism and greedism (that’s a word, I swear haha) and is a day that’s best ignored. Trust me, your bank account and the planet will thank you.

Anyway without further ado, here is a list of anti-consumerist, anti-materialist songs to get you in the mood for NOT participating in Black Friday. Enjoy!

1. “Gone Going” by Black Eyes Peas (original by Jack Johnson)

“Johnny wanna be a big star
Get on stage and play the guitar
Make a little money, buy a fancy car
Big old house and an alligator
Just to match with them alligator shoes
He’s a rich man so he’s no longer singing the blues
He’s singing songs about material things
And platinum rings and watches that go bling
But, diamonds don’t bling in the dark
He a star now, but he ain’t singing it from the heart
Sooner or later, he’s just gonna fall apart
‘Cause his fans can’t relate to his new found art
He ain’t doin’ what he did from the start
And that’s putting in some feeling and thought
He decided to live his life shallow
Cash in his love for material
And it’s gone”

2. “Royals” by Lorde

“I’ve never seen a diamond in the flesh
I cut my teeth on wedding rings in the movies
And I’m not proud of my address
In a torn-up town, no post code envy

[Pre-Chorus]
But every song’s like gold teeth, Grey Goose, trippin’ in the bathroom
Bloodstains, ball gowns, trashin’ the hotel room
We don’t care; we’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams
But everybody’s like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece
Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash
We don’t care; we aren’t caught up in your love affair”

3. “Price Tag” by Jessie J

“Seems like everybody’s got a price
I wonder how they sleep at night
When the sale comes first and the truth comes second
Just stop for a minute and smile
Why is everybody so serious?
Acting so damn mysterious
Got shades on your eyes
And your heels so high that you can’t even have a good time

It’s not about the money, money, money
We don’t need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance
Forget about the price tag
Ain’t about the, uh, cha-ching, cha-ching
Ain’t about the, yeah, ba-bling, ba-bling
Wanna make the world dance
Forget about the price tag”

4. “Video” by India Arie

“I’m not the average girl from your video
And I ain’t built like a supermodel
But I learned to love myselfunconditionally
Because I am a queen
I not the average girl from your video
My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes
No matter what I’m wearing I will always be
India.Arie”

5. “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve

“‘Cause it’s a bitter sweet symphony, that’s life
Trying to make ends meet
You’re a slave to money then you die
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
Where all the veins meet, yeah”

6. “Wings” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

“We want what we can’t have
Commodity makes us want it
So expensive, damn
I just got to flaunt it
Got to show em
So exclusive, this that new shit
A hundred dollars for a pair of shoes
I would never hoop in
Look at me, look at me
I’m a cool kid
I’m an individual, yeah
But I’m part of a movement
My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it”

7. “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan

“Aw, princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They’re all drinkin’, thinkin’ that they got it made
Exchangin’ all precious gifts
But you’d better take your diamond ring, ya’ better pawn it, babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls ya’, ya’ can’t refuse
When ya’ ain’t got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose
You’re invisible now, ya’ got no secrets to conceal

How does it feel?
Aw, how does it feel?
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?”

8. “What’s Up” by 4 Non Blondes

“And so I wake in the morning and I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high, and I
Scream from the top of my lungs
What’s going on?

And I say, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah
I said hey, what’s going on?

And I say, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah
I said hey, what’s going on?”

9. “All Falls Down” by Kanye West

“Man, I promise, I’m so self-conscious
That’s why you always see me with at least one of my watches
Rollie’s and Pasha’s done drove me crazy
I can’t even pronounce nothin’, pass that Ver-say-see!
Then I spent four hundred bucks on this
Just to be like, “Nigga, you ain’t up on this.”
And I can’t even go to the grocery store
Without some Ones that’s clean and a shirt with a team
It seem we livin’ the American Dream
But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings
We shine because they hate us, floss ’cause they degrade us
We tryna buy back our 40 acres
And for that paper, look how low we’ll stoop
Even if you in a Benz, you still a nigga in a coupe”

10. “Feel Good Inc” by Gorillaz

“City’s breaking down on a camel’s back
They just have to go, ’cause they don’t know wack
So while you fill the streets, it’s appealing to see
You won’t get undercounted ’cause you’re damned and free
You got a new horizon, it’s ephemeral style
A melancholy town where we never smile
And all I wanna hear is the message beep
My dreams, they got her kissing, ’cause I don’t get sleep, no
*Beep*”

11. “The Fear” by Lily Allen

“Life’s about film stars and less about mothers
It’s all about fast cars and cussing each other
But it doesn’t matter ’cause I’m packing plastic
And that’s what makes my life so fucking fantastic
And I am a weapon of massive consumption
And it’s not my fault, it’s how I’m programmed to function
I’ll look at the sun and I’ll look in the mirror
I’m on the right track, yeah, we’re on to a winner

I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore
And I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore
And when do you think it will all become clear?
‘Cause I’m being taken over by the fear”