The latest issue (April 7) of The Chronicle of Higher Education has an essay titled "The Empathy Of Rock 'N' Roll", by Kevin J.H. Dettmar, professor and chair of English at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to read it online, but here's the quote:

"Of what possible value are all of these weepy songs, as well as the others that everyone carries around in their own private jukebox? The Smiths, in 'Rubber Ring,' suggest one reason: 'But don't forget the songs [you know the words]. . . they were the only ones who ever stood by you.' In this version, sad songs are the old friends who've seen you through rough times. That kind of sentimental association with a song is undeniably powerful, but it's not quite what I'm thinking of.

In part, I would argue that alongside the flattering lies that rock both whispers and shouts--that we're invulnerable, that 'We are stardust/We are golden'--musicians recognize also a responsibility to remind us of our vulnerability, a paradox nicely summed up in the tile of the Smashing Pumpkins' song 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings'."