oh i would love to talk about music choice here. you're totally right, a lot of my reticence to get original music made is that i really just didn't have a lot of vectors for that at the time the comic started. but i also think a lot about pop music needledrops in general, when it works, when it doesn't, what grey area exists between the two, and the power of the jukebox musical. i love mamma mia and i love baz luhrmann's moulin rouge, both jukebox musicals that get really blunt with their music choices. mamma mia is written around justifying the needledrops, since mamma mia is a big excuse for a bunch of movie stars to get together and sing abba songs. it's a delight.

but more than that, one of my favorite needledrops in any story is the something stupid montage from better call saul season 4. breaking bad and better call saul have a real tendency to pick really blunt needledrops. (crystal blue persuasion, big rock candy mountain, dlz, something stupid, smoke on the water) and i think this really works in their favor, but on the other side of that line, there's also the risk of suicide squadding yourself, where you're needledropping in lieu of having something interesting to do there instead.

and a lot of my specific pop music needledrops are with this same very blunt intent, this sense of muddying the facetious/sincerity waters with the feeling of "oh my god, she really went for it". it's like picking don't stop believing for karaoke to me.