IntroductionGermaine to the effort of integrating the study of the popular music industry into academia is a need for academic models and methods derived from supporting disciplines. The current triad of disciplines to which the study of the recording industry is appended includes mass communication, music, and business. Whereas the academic study of business is interested in effective models of management, marketing, and finance, schools of music offer a complementary viewpoint typically treating the creative aspect of the music business from a fine arts or arts administration perspective. Approaching the music business from the perspective of mass communication is an effective median given that it often focuses on both production and promotional skills-those required to capture the creative performance and package it for commercial exploitation. Mass communication also offers an effective lens for looking at the deliberate establishment of music business studies within the academy. It was only within the last fifty years that mass communication itself was forging the boundaries of its own academic territory.1 This process required the formulation of a theoretical corpus as well as a research methodology. Just as that discipline borrowed from established disciplines like literary criticism and sociology among others, the study of the popular music industry is likewise in need of research models. Unlike mass communication however, this emerging discipline requires a very wide set of such models and theories due to the breadth of its endeavor (including composition, performance, production, and promotion among others). The current paper responds to this need in part, by demonstrating how music industry scholars and students may perform lyrical analysis. The model we will reveal supplements traditional literary analysis with a quantitative component helpful for increasing accuracy and reducing speculative arguments.As an example of this research procedure, which I am calling insistency-based analysis, I will offer as an academic point of access the notoriously prolific and often slippery lyrical corpus of Tom Waits.Tom Waits' status among the upper echelon of American singer songwriters is evident on many levels of evaluation. His list of awards, major label contracts, sales figures, longevity, international appeal, and continued relevance are a few indicators used to fete his artistic prowess. Waits is also a deeply unique artist with a chameleon-like style that is as unpredictable as it is hard to define. In comparison to his fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, we might refer to Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, and still fall short in an effort to effectively describe Waits' style. Rock critics and scholars of contemporary popular music (cf. Steve Huey, Barney Hoskyns, and David Yaffe) use terms like experimental, avant-garde, and abstract to describe his relationship to convention, yet many of his other releases coincide beautifully with their record label billing as jazz, rock, blues, or other codified genres. There is something deeply puzzling about his work that compels listeners to pay attention in a way that few other artists can achieve. Perhaps this ability to move in and out of popular musical form speaks to Waits' longevity and relevance. As a result, the question of what fundamental messages lay at the heart of Tom Waits' oeuvre may seem like an intimidating one. This study will demonstrate an approach to this artistic body of work by way of lyrical analysis that enables researchers to locate core issues addressed by Waits and to assess his particular articulation and evaluation of those issues.The conceptual framework chosen for this study is based on the idea that artistic media, such as music or poetry, are media of communication. The ability to derive any message or messages from such media depends heavily on the level of specificity or vagueness endemic to its own signifying system. …