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

Shapiro, Fred fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU
Tue Sep 19 01:58:22 UTC 2017


I should add that "famous quotations" from such songs can include not only longer passages but also short sayings or phrases that have "passed into the language" or become catchphrases or memes.


Fred Shapiro



________________________________
From: Shapiro, Fred
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2017 9:53 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: ? Quotes from 21st-Century Popular Music (Quotation Query #783)


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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