9. Washington Social Club, "New Jersey Malls" (available on Catching Looks)
Can ritual shopping lead to a state of higher enlightenment? That's the theory forwarded by this snappy piece of underheard mid-'00s pop-punk, which describes how singer Martin Royle met God at the strip mall and received a vision of togetherness, to be effected by commercialism and powerhouse rock entertainment. "I can tell by your expression you don't believe me at all," Royle yelps. "But stranger things have happened in New Jersey malls."
10. Billy Bragg, "The Busy Girl Buys Beauty" (available on Between The Wars)
It's only to be expected that rock's most outspoken socialist would view shopping with a skeptical eye. In this song from Billy Bragg's fiery 1983 debut EP, he mocks the notion at the heart of the modern advertising industry—namely, that a person can simply buy happiness as long as she "buys what she's told to buy." But he isn't being a grinch: His proletarian anger isn't directed at the girls trying to buy their way into better lives, but the lies they're fed that try to get them to hand over cash for a chance at a mostly illusory "mail-order paradise."
11. The Handsome Family, "24-Hour Store" (available on Singing Bones)
Where Billy Bragg worries that the world of commerce damages people by making them see things that aren't real, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family is troubled instead by lonely, isolated people who might be happy if only they could see the miraculous world that's hidden from them. "24-Hour Store" is a typically Sparks-esque combination of ghostly mysticism and detached observation of mundane life. It's easy to imagine Sparks off in a corner at her neighborhood Wal-Mart at midnight, watching the insomniacs pushing broken carts down the aisle in a mild, sad stupor, while invisible angels "fly through lights… in particles of light that fall from the sun." Whether she's talking about God, art, or some other spiritual lack is, well, immaterial.
12. Pet Shop Boys, "Shopping" (available on Actually)
In spite of the catchy chanted chorus—"We're S-H-O-PP-I-N-G, we're shopping"—Pet Shop Boys' 1987 techno-pop tune "Shopping" is more about political corruption than a day at the mall. Their not-so-veiled critique of Margaret Thatcher's regime implies that politics itself has become a series of commercial transactions, at least for those with enough money to afford their own politicians. Or, more baldly, "we're buying and selling your history," and "I heard it in the House Of Commons: Everything's for sale." Are the fat cats shopping for political support, or are the politicians out shopping for bribes and power? Answer: yes.
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