When Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature last October, it produced a bonanza of debate over questions that had long dominated late-night dorm-room and barstool conversations. Is pop music poetry? Are pop songs poems? For some of us, the controversy harkened back to what was once a staple of the American classroom, the with-it prof who proved his subversive bona fides by treating rock lyrics — “Mister Tambourine Man” was a favorite subject, if my memories of my undergraduate days are correct — as legitimate objects of critical analysis. The result was usually just embarrassing, for everyone concerned.
