In a recent column about Oasis' Wonderwall, I pointed out that “really huge hits tend to be conventional in their broad strokes but weird and a little annoying in their details.” I started thinking a little deeper about this phenomenon, and decided that it warranted further investigation.
So here is my proposition: There are pop hits, and then there are songs that transcend genres and eras and persist for generations. I’m talking about the songs you hear at bar mitzvahs, in roller rinks, coming out of random car windows. These are the songs that my kids know, that my students know, that my aunts and uncles know, songs that you never need to seek out because they’re just there, like features of the landscape.
