One of the truisms of pop music is that in a style's early years, novelty songs are commonplace: the freshness and novelty of the musical form lends itself to giggly comic songs, and in turn new audiences attracted by the humor get exposed to the new kind of music. Jazz, R&B, country, and rock all had dozens of novelty hits in their early years. But as a form matures, it starts to be taken (and to take itself) more seriously, and the novelty hits subside. The first decade of hip-hop was filled with one-off novelty hits and comic songs, from the Sugarhill Gang's {&"Rapper's Del...[more]