Pop-Rock Music
Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Late Modernity

Pop music and rock music are often treated as separate genres but the distinction has always been blurred.  Motti Regev argues that pop-rock is best understood as a single musical form defined by the use of electric and electronic instruments, amplification and related techniques. The history of pop-rock extends from the emergence of rock'n'roll in the 1950s to a variety of contemporary fashions and trends ? rock, punk, soul, funk, techno, hip hop, indie, metal, pop and many more.

This book offers a highly original account of the emergence of pop-rock music as a global phenomenon in which Anglo-American and many other national and ethnic variants interact in complex ways.  Pop-rock is analysed as a prime instance of 'aesthetic cosmopolitanism' ? that is, the gradual formation, in late modernity, of world culture as a single interconnected entity in which different social groupings around the world increasingly share common ground in their aesthetic perceptions, expressive forms and cultural practices.

Drawing on a wide array of examples, this path-breaking book will be of great interest to students and scholars in cultural sociology, media and cultural studies as well as the study of popular music.

Preface vii

1 Theories and Concepts 1

Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism: A Theoretical Framework 4

Characterizing Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism 6

Theoretical Framework 9

Rock, Pop, and Popular Music 17

Structure of the Book 23

Methodological Note 26

2 Expressive Isomorphism 28

Pop-Rock Styles and Genres 32

Pop-Rock Divas 33

Rock Auteurs 35

Progressive Rock 37

Punk and Metal 38

Electronic Dance Music 40

Hip-Hop 41

Ethnic Rock/New Folk 43

Dominance of the Musical Public Sphere 46

Legitimation Discourse 50

Ritual Classification: Tradition vs. Pop-Rock 52

Ritual Periodization: The “Birth of Rock” 54

3 A Field of Cultural Production 57

Working of the Field 59

Production of Meaning 61

Pop-Rock’s Ideology of Art 65

Mechanisms of Change and Innovation 75

Avant-Gardism 76

Commercialism 78

The Spiral of Expansion 80

Structure of the Field 83

National (Sub-) Fields of Pop-Rock Music 87

4 Long-Term Event of Pop-Rockization 91

Events 93

The Musical Event 95

The Historical Musical Event of Pop-Rock 96

Agency 97

Early “Pre-History” 106

Consecrated Beginning 108

Consolidation and Rise to Dominance 113

Diversification, Internationalization, Glorification 117

5 Aesthetic Cultures 123

Subcultural Scenes to Aesthetic Cultures 126

Aesthetic Cultures 129

Forms of Pop-Rock Knowledge 131

Early Participation 133

Global Microstructures 136

Internet Platforms 138

The Pop-Rock Intelligentsia 142

Indie/Alternative Pop-Rock 142

Alternative Pop-Rock on the Web 146

An Extended Case: Israeli Cognoscenti 148

6 Sonic Vocabularies, Spaces, and Bodies 158

Sonic Vocabularies 161

Tones and Timbres 162

Museme Stacks and Strings 165

Global Electro-Amplified Soundscapes 168

Aesthetic Cosmopolitan Bodies 172

Actants of Intercultural Phenomenological Proximity 177

References 180

Index 195