Pop Music Friday

It's Friday, and the new academic term starts on Monday (I'll be teaching at 8am-- shoot me now), so it seems like a good time to try to forget about our troubles with pop music:

• The Onion's AV Club has a list of great story songs, topped by "A Boy Named Sue." I was amazed to discover a year or two ago that this was actually written by Shel "Where the Sidewalk Ends" Silverstein, who also wrote a sequel. the world is a very strange place.
• Also on the list is Dylan's "Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts" off Blood on the Tracks. "Tangled up in Blue," from the same record, doesn't make the list, probably because nobody can figure out the story. There are some entertaining suggestions over there, though, and more are always welcome.
• Inside Higher Ed offers a reflection on the role of music in academic writing which is kind of interesting. It's not as dead-on as the third part of Eric Neel's tribute to the Rocky soundtrack, though, which contains one of the best descriptions ever of a thesis defense.
• When it comes to pop nostalgia, it's hard to beat Jason Hare's weekly Chart Attack! feature, this week guest-hosted by jefito. It covers the top ten from March 31, 1990, which is right about the point where the Billboard charts ceased to be relevant to me. I only recognize a handful of the songs, but they're, um... interesting.

And there's some pop music to lighten your day...