From a Wall Street Journal story by James R. Hagerty and Anne Steele headlined “Moon, June Left Marooned: Pop Songs Embrace Imperfect Rhymes.'”:
In her recent hit song “Brutal,” the pop star Olivia Rodrigo confesses:
And I’m not cool and I’m not smart
And I can’t even parallel park
Wait. Does “smart” rhyme with “park?”
Not exactly, but both words contain an “ar” sound, creating an ear-pleasing echo. “I would give her great marks for that,” said Erin Chase, who teaches songwriting at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
