Pop-Rock Music
Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Late Modernity
1. Edition May 2013
224 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
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.
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
perspectives that use music as a prism for understanding cultural
politics and cross-border impact on traditional art forms."
The Hindu
"A very fine piece of work, which makes an original contribution
both to our understanding of popular music and to our understanding
of the global cultural order. It provides a new perspective on how
sounds are produced, circulated and experienced."
John Street, University of East Anglia
"In this highly original book, Professor Regev considers how
exploring pop-rock both taps and enriches sociological theory.
Regev s study is both empirically nuanced and theoretically
sophisticated. It illuminates music as a fundamental and dynamic
material of social life. As Regev shows, pop-rock s emergence
is nothing less than the re-figuration of world culture."
Tia DeNora, Exeter University
"Motti Regev expertly provides a much needed take on pop-rock,
the field(s) in which it is produced and enjoyed, and its global
diffusion. He uses the case of pop-rock to cast empirical light on
aesthetic cosmopolitanism and artistic legitimation. The result is
a book that is highly informative and refreshingly engaging."
Professor Timothy Dowd, Emory University
"This is an exceedingly important book. It really does move the fields of music and sociology on by showing how the figurative musical world we live in today is literally a musical world."
Journal of World Popular Music
