[Ads-l] Quotes from 21st-Century Popular Music

[Shapiro, Fred]

I realize that this list may not be populated by the right demographic for the question I am about to ask.  But I will try nonetheless.


In preparing the second edition of the Yale Book of Quotations, one of my greatest challenges is to collect famous quotations from contemporary popular music.  While I was pretty conversant with popular music of the 1960s and 1970s, and somewhat conversant with the 1980s and 1990s, my ignorance of popular music after that is near-total.  Below are some of the most popular songs of the 21st century.  I would welcome any suggestions of famous quotations from these songs (in some cases the song title may be the famous quote), or for that matter from other 21st-century songs.


American Idiot - Green Day

Beautiful Day - U2

Bootylicious - Destiny's Child

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Crazy in Love - Beyonce

Empire State of Mind - Alicia Keys

Gold Digger - Kanye West

Hey Ya! - OutKast

I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas

In Da Club - 50 Cent

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO

Poker Face - Lady Gaga

Radioactive - Imagine Dragons

Rolling in the Deep - Adele

SexyBack - Justin Timberlake

Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) - Beyonce

We Belong Together - Mariah Carey

Yeah! - Usher


Fred Shapiro


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