2009 was the year of women … in pop music at least. Caryn Ganz, from Rolling Stone, tells us which female artists dominated our iPods this year, and why.

Music producer and talent show host Simon Cowell is used to dominating the pop charts at Christmastime. His hit British television show, the X Factor, (roughly speaking, the U.K. version of American Idol), churns out chart-topper after chart-topper annually as the winners are chosen at the end of each year. But music fan Tracy Mortar has started a grassroots campaign to take a few potshots at the Cowell's dominance of manufactured pop music. She's formed the Facebook group Rage Against the Machine for Christmas No. 1, and nearly 60,000 fans of that group are pushing to push RAtM's 1992 song, "Killing in the Name," to the top of the charts. Chris Hawkins, DJ for the BBC's 6Music, joins us to play some tracks and handicap the outcome.

Taylor Swift was the top-selling recording artist of 2008. According to Forbes, she’s the 69^th most powerful celebrity in America. She was recently nominated for more American Music Awards than any other artist this year. And, she’s only 19 years old. We talk to Swift about what it means to be a young star, her upcoming Saturday Night Live hosting gig, and how she feels about her high-profile awards show appearances.

If you're not familiar with her work, here is her chart-topping hit "Love Story":

The Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" hit the disco and pop charts 30 years ago this week, transforming hip-hop from live street perfomance to a mainstream moneymaker. We look at the impact of 30 years of "Rapper's Delight" on music and culture with Mark Anthony Neal, professor of black pop culture at Duke University, and Paul Miller (better known as DJ Spooky). And for a firsthand account of the phenomenon that was the Sugar Hill Gang, we talk to Keith Shocklee of The Bomb Squad, and a producer for Public Enemy.

(Celeste continued the conversation with Miller and Shocklee in an After-Air conversation: Check it out below.)

In honor of John Hughes, the quintessential 80s director who passed away yesterday, The Takeaway's John Hockenberry presents a remembrance of life as The Breakfast Club.

The words “comic convention” can conjure up images of full grown men dressed as Jedi knights angling for a chance to get an autograph from William Shatner. While that might have been the case a dozen years ago, now Comic Con is the pop culture event of the year. Next week The 'Con opens in San Diego, but it's been sold out for weeks. Luckily, Jeff Yang, the Asian Pop columnist for the SF Chronicle and Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology found himself a ticket. Also joining the conversation is Elisabeth Rappe, blogger for Cinematical.com.

Here's the trailer for Astro Boy:

Comic books have always been a place to explore brave new worlds. Be that out outer space, inner space, or the frontiers of race and gender. Yeah, we're talking about Wolverine, but we're also talking about Dora the Explorer. That compact, bobble-headed, bilingual tot boldly went where no cartoon had gone before and actually changed the world of pop culture by introducing her life, her adventures, and her abuela to the under three feet set. So what's next? To help us explore the expanding multicultural pop culture world is Jeff Yang. He writes the Asian Pop column at SFGate.com and is the editor of a new book, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology.

Since we won't go so far as to put Dora the Explorer on the site, let's see how Disney has done on race before. Here's their journey to China in Mulan:



And here is Pocahontas:

Trouble viewing this video? Check out the YouTube version (click "watch in high quality" for best quality).

Jimmy Fallon now sits in the throne of late-night giants Conan O'Brien and David Letterman, but it's been a tough week for the former Saturday Night Live star. Troy Patterson, the TV critic for Slate, reviews the first week of NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."

At this moment in time, we’re going to interface with someone who will hopefully tell us why words adversely impact so many people. Are we annoying you yet? Jeremy Butterfield might know why. He’s the author of a new book called "A Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare," which features the most annoying words and phrases in the English language