To save taking up tons of space on my friend's Facebook wall, here's a conversation that can continue in peace on my blog. It began thus, with a link to this video about Pachacuti:
Ren Kinley: Yesterday they had an episode just of songs, including this one. I learnt a lot.
Jenifer Toksvig: Oh!!! Bad scansion AND prosody!
Ren Kinley: And if it was in a musical theatre show, that might be a problem.
Jenifer Toksvig: Nah, bad writing is bad writing, period. Not quite so bad in pop, where listening to the lyrics isn't the point, but in this, the lyrics are the point. It's one more step down the slippery slope of people not caring about craft, whether they realise that or not.
Ren Kinley: I object to your objection. I understood every lyric. The song made me laugh, and I found the juxtaposition of chirpy music and grisly details witty. It also contained some nice factual historical details. It was about 100 times better than some of the dreadful MT songs I've heard that scan well and rhyme perfectly and all that cal, but are tedious and unimaginative. There has to be more to caring about craft than making sure things scan well.
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