It’s been asserted, if not quite proven, that Memphis is referenced in more songs than any other city. 

Given how much music the city has produced, it’s not much of a surprise that the more than reasonably self-proclaimed home of the blues and the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll punches well above its weight as a music subject, too.

There are standards: W.C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues,” Chuck Berry’s “Memphis,” Tom T. Hall’s “That’s How I Got to Memphis” and, sure, Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis.”

There are cult favorites: Joni Mitchell’s “Furry Sings the Blues,” Mott the Hoople’s “All the Way from Memphis” and the Replacements’ “Alex Chilton.”

There are celebrations from hometown artists: Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Memphis Beat,” Rufus Thomas’ “The Memphis Train” and Jesse Winchester’s “Talk Memphis.”

But if the rate of new “Memphis” songs has slowed — another assertion not quite proven — it hasn’t stopped, and 2024 has been a good reminder. 

On July 4, Oklahoma country singer Zach Bryan released one of the year’s most talked about albums, “The Great American Bar Scene,” and tucked away on it was a song titled, “Memphis; the Blues.”

This spring, a less talked about major album led with, less surprisingly, a song titled “Memphis.” That album was Justin Timberlake’s “Everything I Thought I Was,” a title derived from a lyric to “Memphis,” where Timberlake’s flat, studio-altered, after-the-goldrush vocal sings, “Put on for your city/For your state ... whatever you do just make us proud/And ain’t gonna be no crying from the crowd.”

Amid these, in a popular corner of the local hip-hop scene perhaps increasingly forbidding to outsiders, one of this year’s bangers is “M.N.E.I.G.,” from rappers idontknowjeffrey, Duke Deuce and Marcus 901. The acronym: “Memphis n---- everywhere I go.”

In honor of this recent eruption of “Memphis” songs, here’s one listener’s list of the 21 best “Memphis” songs — songs about Memphis or that reference the city — of the 21st century so far. 

Which of those make the list? Find out.