Abstract

This article draws on Slavoj Žižek’s engagement with Lacanian conceptions of desire, sublimity, fantasy and enjoyment in order to “look awry” on the lyrics of rock anthems including Bryan Adams’s “Summer of 69” and John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”—songs that “rock out” to the idea of irretrievable loss . A key focus is the complex temporal circuits that emerge through a listener’s relationship to these songs over time. The article argues that these seemingly simple yet incredibly popular songs—about which so little academic writing exists—have significant lessons to teach about the dynamics of desire and enjoyment in daily experience