Would that be covered under fair use, or not because the article wasn't about those songs themselves (as in, the author could have picked any song, not necessarily a commercial one?)
This is a textbook example of fair use! A 5-second clip would have sufficed. it wouldn't have reproduced a large part of the work. it certainly wouldn't have affected the market for that work. it was for educational or criticism purposes, etc.
OTOH I can see why the author would have wanted to steer a million miles of reproducing ANYTHING (including so much as mentioning the title of any work, which obviously isn't copyright infringement.)
in this case it's not so much copyright infringement as steering very very clear of reference to anything.
Fair use would seem to apply under most interpretations regardless (excerpts and quotations for the purposes of illustration are generally held to be covered), but you really can't say that for sure until the courts decide. There's nothing you can do to keep a rights holder from dragging you through court.
Just see the headings here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
OTOH I can see why the author would have wanted to steer a million miles of reproducing ANYTHING (including so much as mentioning the title of any work, which obviously isn't copyright infringement.)
in this case it's not so much copyright infringement as steering very very clear of reference to anything.