Rock and Roll, Social Protest, and Authenticity

Download or read book Rock and Roll, Social Protest, and Authenticity written by Kurt Torell and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-03-17 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the relationships between rock and roll, social protest, and authenticity to consider how rock and roll could function as social protest music. The author begins by discussing the nature and origins of rock and roll and the nature of social protest and social protest music within the wider context of the evolution of the commercial music industry and the social and technological infrastructure developed for the mass dissemination of popular music. This discussion is followed by an examination of the causes of the public disapproval originally expressed toward rock and roll, and how they illuminate its social protest and subversive quality. By further investigating the nature of authenticity and its relationship to social protest and to commercialization, the author considers how social protest and commercialization are antithetical. This conclusion, if correct, has broad implications for human culture in advanced industrial society.