The song " Montreal ", by Ariane Moffatt, has achieved a great success in the Summer of 2006. This thesis scrutinizes the causes of this popularity. After a review of the diverse existing methods in popular music research, three modes of analysis are presented. First, the study shown here describes the song through a music-theoretical approach; it observes the rules governing the voice, the melody, the rhythm, the phrases, the bass, the tonality, the chords, and the instruments used, supported by a precise transcription of the song. Then, this paper studies the musical codes that are found in "Montreal". In this section, the musical message of the piece is analyzed, while taking in consideration the sociohistorical context of the Summer of 2006, the national history that preceded the release of this piece, and the lyrics of the song. Finally, this study investigates the issue of national identity in Quebec, the place of "Montreal" into the collective imagination of Quebeckers, and the popular music tradition of the province.

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In 1995, fiddler Ashley MacIsaac released the album Hi, How Are You Today? that featured MacIsaac performing traditional Celtic tunes accompanied by modern rock instruments. The musical genre transformation on the album (notable because people who were not fans of Celtic music bought this album, tracks were released for airplay, and music videos accompanied the singles) can be studied according to the types of genre transformation outlined by Alastair Fowler in Kinds of Literature. If MacIsaac's goal was to offer a popular rock album while playing traditional tunes on the fiddle, critics and members of his audience inevitably questioned his motivation, from which charges of pandering and exploitation followed. Alternate interpretations stressed that MacIsaac was merely adapting traditional music to reflect a changing musical climate. This thesis examines such perspectives, along with the global phenomenon of modernizing folk music amidst the ambiguous boundary between popular and folk musical genres.

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Childhood friends Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal founded the band Tears for Fears, and were the two primary members from 1982-1990. Their songs describe the struggle of coping with childhood abuse. This thesis analyzes the rhetorical aspects of their lyrics, emphasizing how the words of their songs express the fundamental human response to abuse, and the painful process of recovery. It explores how the songwriters use the psychological theories of Arthur Janov and Carl Jung to scaffold their experience of working through emotional trauma; and how they combine those theories with astrological symbolism to explore the idea of destiny. This thesis uses a combined rhetorical and psychological approach to analyze the manner in which the ethos and pathos inherent in the lyrics generated recognition, understanding, and sympathy in the listener.