Rock: The Primary Text - Developing a Musicology of Rock

Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001: Revised to respond to developments within the discipline and with new material added to reflect the author's and others' further work in this field, this book's focus remains British rock. Its aims are: to establish analytic criteria for rock as a whole; to provide a historicized discussion of British rock; and to enable a critical re-evaluation of progressive rock itself. This book has been written in the conviction that, with "rock" criticism and commentary in general, insufficient attention is paid to what the author calls the "primary text" - that constituted by the sounds themselves, as opposed to commentaries on them. In the first chapter, Allan Moore argues for the development of a musicology particular to rock, which may share aspects of established musicology, but which acknowledges that rock differs in its purposes, publics and aims. The primary elements of such a musicology are then laid out in Chapter 2. Next, there are critiques of rock myths of authenticity and unmediated expression. These are centred on the ideological appropriation of the ethos and techniques of the "blues", and extend to discussions of a range of more recent rock styles. The crucial role played by authenticity in the reception of rock is considered at more length in Chapter 5.