rfmcdonald | [MUSIC] Three links on popular music. (Reply)

Wired's Douglas Wouk defended Beyoncé's controversial use of a sample from NASA's reaction to the Challenger disaster in 1986 in her song "XO", on the grounds that others have done it before and that her sample works.

“XO” is a love song, but it’s a love song with the threat of mortality hovering over it; if you didn’t know the title, you might well guess from the song’s lyrical refrain that it was called “Lights Out.” In that context, the six-second clip of Nesbitt that begins it isn’t a non-sequitur or a trivialization. It’s a memento mori: a swift, understated and brutal reminder that everything can go horribly wrong before anyone understands what’s happening, and that the light could be extinguished at any moment.

Why is Sweden so good at pop music, The Atlantic's Nolan Feeney asks? A variety of reasons are responsible, from universal education in music to an efficient and effective media industry to the fluency in English.

Sweden’s knack for high-quality pop songs isn’t a genetic trait that gets passed along from generation to generation alongside like blond hair and blue eyes. [Swedish academic Ola] Johansson argues that it’s the result of the fact that no other small country has the right combination of language skills, cultural values, tight-knit industry, and supportive public policy to transform itself into the music-exporting phenomenon that Sweden has become. So the next time you find yourself humming along to “The Sign,” don’t write it off as simple, reggae-lite relic of decades past. Get into the light and accept the song for what it really is: a triumph of some complex geopolitical systems.

NPR's Chris Molanphy argues, meanwhile, that in the age of memes popular music is very erratic and doesn't necessarily produce enduring acts.

Here's a list of a dozen chart-topping songs from across the 55-year history of Billboard's Hot 100. Each wound up as Billboard's No. 1 song of the year. Which song, arguably, has the strongest legacy?

1958: Domenico Modugno, "Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu)"
1961: Bobby Lewis, "Tossin' and Turnin'"
1967: Lulu, "To Sir with Love"
1979: The Knack, "My Sharona"
1981: Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes"
1986: Dionne Warwick (& Friends), "That's What Friends Are For"
1994: Ace of Base, "The Sign"
1997: Elton John, "Candle in the Wind 1997"
1999: Cher, "Believe"
2006: Daniel Powter, "Bad Day"
2012: Gotye (featuring Kimbra), "Somebody That I Used to Know"
2013: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (featuring Wanz), "Thrift Shop"

Depending on your age, you can probably sing half or more of the songs on this list. At least a couple, including Lulu's '67 smash, Warwick's '80s AIDS-charity single and Sir Elton's '97 elegy for Princess Diana, are considered pop standards.

But for this thought experiment, the correct answer is 2013's No. 1 single, "Thrift Shop." Why? Because it wasn't Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's final No. 1 hit.

I'm not seriously arguing that the Seattle rap-pop duo, less than two years into their career as stars, have a stronger legacy than Elton John. But if there's one thing the Billboard charts reinforce over and over again, it's that — to borrow a term from Wall Street — past performance is definitely no guarantee of future results. In the age of YouTube, iTunes and Spotify, the machinery that allows acts to rocket out of nowhere and top the charts has expanded and accelerated; it's never been easier to become a flash in the pan.