Gee, how soon we have forgotten those "worst songs" threads. They certainly lend an element of credibility to the defecation metaphor. "It's A Small World" still tops my list in that area. On a more serious level, I believe that the function of songs has changed through time. In an earlier period, a major function of songs in "the great bardic tradition" was to preserve and convey the oral history of a people. The "entertainment value" was a part of it, but the "learning" aspect was probably more important. In our contemporary, mass-market world, the functions seem to have been reordered, with entertainment probably the primary function, and "teaching" (with the exception of children's songs) much reduced in importance.