song for theme #26A: Consumerism

“What I Buy” by Stephen P. Cook

to be sung to the tune of “Sharp Dressed Man” by Beard, Hill and Gibbons / ZZ Top¹

Arby’s, Bud Light

Gonna have a good time tonight

Chevron, Dodge Ram

Making payments² the best I can

Shopping’s American³ like apple pie

Just expressing who I am through what I buy

E Trade, Fed Ex

Never know what I’m doing next

GE, HP

Filling my home with quality

Shopping’s my religion⁴, that’s no lie

Meeting important needs with what I buy

I phone, J Lo

Shopping online’s the way to go

Kindle, Lego

On Amazon prices are low

I can’t stop shopping⁵, that’s no lie

Hope to be shopping on the day I die

Mac Pro, Nike

Buying top brands, that’s for me

Omni, Pepsi

What they see when they look at me

Shopping’s American like apple pie

Just expressing who I am through what I buy

QVC, REI

Indoors, outdoors freedom to fly

Sitcom, TV

Soap got your shirts white I envy⁶

Shopping’s my religion, that’s no lie

Meeting important needs with what I buy

U Haul, Walmart

I’m still shopping as an old fart

Exxon, Zillow

Money’s the life blood making it go

I can’t stop shopping, that’s no lie

Hope to be shopping on the day I die

SONG—NOTES / COMMENTS

1—On the day in the early 1990s the author closed the sale of his property in the Arkansas Ozarks his realtor directed his attention

    to ZZ Top band members driving off to property nearby they’d just purchased.

2—Making payments or buying on credit spread to millions of consumers with the invention of buying things on "the installment

    plan" in the early 20th century. A greater push came years later with plastic credit cards given their ease of use and convenience.  

3—After the national tragedy of September 11, 2001, many feel USA President George W. Bush seemed to suggest you could not

    only help the country recover by shopping, but that it was your patriotic duty!

4— On the topic of shopping as a religion, various books have argued that consumerism is a culture that increasingly meets or

    replaces religious needs of affluent Western shoppers.  The Christmas holiday season, and the parallels between religious and

    consumerist aspects, is typically a key part of such arguments.    

5—Cynics charge that many have succumbed to pervasive advertising messages and adopted a consumerist lifestyle based on

    wanting, valuing, and continually spending money on things that they don’t really need.  

6—The Rolling Stones’ 1965 classic “Satisfaction” poked fun at advertisers: “how white my shirts can be.”

 Comment: this theme has value as emotional armor. Many people go shopping when emotionally upset! And, according to Northwestern University researchers D. Rucker and A. Galinsky, “people use consumer purchases to compensate for psychological states of insecurity” including feeling powerless.