In this article I analyse the Scottish songwriter Justin Currie and his lyrics as an example of rock and pop lyrics that are ambivalent in relation to what could be called the depiction of everyday life. The lyrics of rock music have often been characterized by a kind of negative dialectics, which often is rebellious toward the normality of the established society. Those artists who does not fit in this negative aesthetics have often been labelled mainstream or middle-of-the road. In this aspect, Justin Currie represents a more ambivalent aesthetics which veers between rebellion and the everyday, between the position of an outsider and normality. Initially I tried to analyse Justin Currie’s lyrics as an example of a “post-postmodern” trend in rock music, eventually I realized that the best way I as a scholar in comparative literature can deal with rock and pop lyrics is to treat them as independent study objects. I also note that rock and pop lyrics represent a clearly under-researched field in literature studies.