Tuesday, January 27, 2009

ISN'T IT ICONIC, DON'T YOU THINK: Reader and frequent commenter Carmichael Harold alerted us to a wicked interesting item on pop music on Joe Posnanski's blog. Joe Posnanski is best known as a baseball writer. Both I and Carmichael Harold would suggest that his blog is well worth reading regularly.

In the item that caught Carmichael's eye, Posnanski starts by discussing how the inductions of artists into Rock and Roll HOF do not make a ton of sense, a position I agree with wholeheartedly. Posnanski notes that enshrining a form of music meant to be rebellious is rather an odd undertaking. He suggests that the Hall would work better as a repository of "iconic" songs rather than artists.

Posnanski writes:
I see an iconic song as meaning: “a song that represents a set of beliefs or a way of life.” So, I see these songs being the ones that best represent the times we live in, and the emotions of our time.

He and a few of his compatriots (including Bill James) put together a list of about 50 of the most iconic songs in their view. Posnanski is encouraging his readers to discuss those songs and to vote for a slate of the ten most iconic songs. The only major limitation to the rules is that there can only be 1 song per artist. He updates his original list here.

Posnanski's group went with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" as the Beatles' most iconic song, a song which was number 114 on the other list we discussed recently.

I'm not a wild fan of all of Posnanski's group's choices, but it's at least a decent list. So, bearing in mind Posnanski's definition of the term "iconic," what are your choices for the most iconic pop songs?

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