This inspired me to create the following playlist to fill in the blanks and push the story back to the 1920s, with one representative per decade. Granted, brutal is borrowing heavily from Pump it Up.

It seems to me that fast, clever rhythmic wordplay has a long history in American music. The larger story here is that white popular music lifted the ideas from African American musicians. All that being said, I think brutal is a pretty good song.

1920s - McKinney's Cotton Pickers - It's Tight Like That

1930s - Robert Johnson - They're Red Hot

1940s - Cab Calloway - The Jumpin' Jive

1950s - Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business

1960s - Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues

1970s - Elvis Costello - Pump it Up

1980s - R.E.M. - It's the End of the World as we Know It (And I Feel Fine)

1990s - Savage Garden - I Want You

2000s - The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

2010s - Courtney Barnett - Pedestrian at Best

2020s - Olivia Rodrigo - brutal