Always Showing Up Late to the Wrong Party: Criminology’s Posthumous Dalliance with Rock Music

Among the etymological legacies of the 1960s is the once ubiquitous family of musical categories distinguished by the word ‘rock’ somewhere within a compound name. Today one seldom hears such terms as ‘jazz rock’ or ‘symphonic rock’, but on Broadway the term ‘rock musical’ has retained currency, either as a show's formal subtitle or as an appellation casually used by critics and others to describe a particular work. Yet despite widespread use of the term over the past four decades, no scholarly or even semi-formal definition of the ‘rock musical’ has ever appeared in print. Instead, the ‘rock musical’ has remained an extremely pliable category, capable of embracing a wide range of characteristics. Despite the lack of rigour with which the term has been used through the years, a number of common features identify ‘rock musicals’. Virtually anyone who has written on the history of the musical has remarked – positively or negatively – on the first appearances of rock-influenced music on Broadway in the mid-1960s. Hair , subtitled ‘An American Tribal Love-Rock Musical’, has been universally accepted as the first example of the genre. Almost immediately after that landmark show, other works appeared with similar subtitles, but there were also shows with rock scores that were never identified as such by their producers. In fact the latter case soon predominated, and consequently, many New York critics began to employ the term ‘rock musical’ to identify any stage work with even the slightest hint of popular styles.

Rock musicians are known to have an increased prevalence of hearing loss and tinnitus. The aims of the present study were to examine the distribution of anxiety and depression symptoms among rock musicians with or without tinnitus and how these mental health indicators and internal locus of control influenced upon their tinnitus symptom concerns and the degree to which the tinnitus affected their lives. The study was a questionnairebased cross-sectional survey of subjects selected from a cohort of rock musicians. We recruited 111 active musicians from the Oslo region, and a control group of 40 non-musicians from the student population at the University of Tromso. Among the rock musicians 19.8% reported permanent tinnitus vs. 0% among the controls. Musicians more often reported anxiety symptoms than controls (35.1% vs. 17.5%), however this prevalence was not different in musicians with and without tinnitus. Tinnitus-affected musicians reported depressive symptoms, significantly more than controls (13.6% vs. 5%). Rock musicians consumed more alcohol than controls, but alcohol consumption was unrelated to severity of tinnitus. Drug abuse was not more prevalent in rock musicians than in controls. Duration of tinnitus, internal locus of control, sleep disturbance and anxiety were significant predictors of how affected and how concerned musicians were about their tinnitus. Rock musicians are at risk for the development of chronic tinnitus, and they have an increased prevalence of anxiety. There is an association between chronic tinnitus and depressive symptoms in rock musicians, but our results are ambiguous. Although rock musicians have a chronic exposure to noise, noise-induced hearing loss is not the sole causative agent for the development of tinnitus.

Can rock music help us understand literature? Rock Music in American Fiction Writing, 1966-2011 argues that a close analysis of the rock music incorporated into a literary text–an investigation of the lyrics, a musicological exploration of the sounds and rhythms, a cultural-historical inquiry into the production and reception of a song–may yield exciting new insight into and expand our understanding of American literary production from the mid-20th century onwards. Reading major works by Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Walker, Don DeLillo, Jeffrey Eugenides, Sherman Alexie and Jennifer Egan from such a rock-musicological vantage point, Rock Music in American Fiction Writing adds a new dimension to recent work in American literary criticism by seeking to establish rock music as an analytical tool for literary investigation. The book concentrates on the way these literary artists have struggled to come to terms with the dichotomies inherent in rock music–its liberating and revolutionary impulses as well as its adherence to the bleakest laws of consumer capitalism–in their work. By combining a musicological with a literary analysis, Rock Music in American Fiction Writing highlights the crucial and complex role rock music has played in shaping the artistic outlook and cultural sensibilities of literary artists since the 1960s in America and beyond.

This article uncovers an untold story of how rock music came to the big stages and national broadcasting studios of a country transitioning from the European sphere and a socialist ethos to the American sphere and a market-oriented culture. In demonstrating how the rock musical preceded, anticipated, and likely enabled rock music in Israel, this article will focus on five rock musicals from the early 1970s. We argue that the rock musical introduced a friendly and commercially oriented version of rock and rock’n’roll music and its antics, and thus enabled wide crowds to adopt a foreign-born culture such as rock. By the end of that process in the mid-1970s, the broad acceptance of American rock music and particularly a socially involved rock aesthetic had emerged through the overlooked and unlikely genre of the rock musical.

The challenge that rock music has historically faced in achieving widespread acceptance within American music education can be attributed to six common arguments: 1) Rock music is aesthetically inferior; 2) Rock music is damaging to the health of youth; 3) School time cannot be spent on the vernacular; 4) Music teachers are not trained in rock; 5) Rock music encourages rebelliousness and anti-educational behavior; and 6) Rock music curriculum is difficult to acquire. The strengths and weaknesses of each of these six claims is herein analyzed, and the authors’ conclusions discuss the potential benefits of rock music studies. Popular music as such need not, must not be taught in the public classrooms. This music will carry itself. The music educator's job is to perpetuate Western art music and to open doors to its perception in the minds of the children of the nation (Anderson 1968, p. 87).

Background The newly introduced 'Elective programme', a voluntary special study module in the final phase of the undergraduate medical curriculum, offers scope for new immersive, self-directed learning opportunities. We describe a programme of study for learning 'medical sociology' through the innovative use of humanities in medicine. Methods Our elective module, called 'Community Health and Rock Music' (CHaRM), was a 2-week programme, merging the curricular subject of community health with 'rock music' as an exposure to the 'counter-culture' outside of the medical world. The half-day sessions consisted of: (i) watching/listening to a rock song-video without reading its lyrics; (ii) listening to the same song again but with lyrics; (iii) undertaking an emotionally stimulating activity (watching a movie, making a site-visit, etc.); and (iv) debriefing, to identify/discuss the underlying social determinants of health and their relevance in the grooming of a socially aware medical student. Formative assessment was intended to gauge levels of expression of the affective domain (attitude/emotions). Results Seven of 143 students volunteered for this programme. Key learnings were a clear appreciation of the societal determinants of health (such as deprivation/discrimination/social structures); multi-level causation of diseases; social issues not addressed in traditional medical curriculum; personal growth; teamwork; and the role of empathy in medical practice. Additional learning was the exposure to the 'counter-culture of arts'. All 7 student assessments 'met expectation', with 4 of them 'exceeding expectation'. Conclusion An 'elective programme' combining humanities with medicine is potentially an innovative, student-centric and replicable model of learning that impacts the affective domain critical for doctors-in-training.

The purpose of the paper is to highlight the peculiarities of vocal improvisation in rock music. The historical and theoretical aspects of the research problem are characterised, the works of famous rock singers whose vocal improvisation has become an integral part of their musical activity are analysed. Research methodology. To achieve this goal, a set of methods was used, namely: general scientific methods – analysis, synthesis, generalisation, systematisation – were used to develop the problem; specific scientific methods: historical-genetic and retrospective analysis, which clarified the formation and development of rock music; comparative and contrastive analysis, which was used to outline vocal improvisation in rock music; biographical method, which was used to analyse vocal improvisation in the activities of famous rock singers. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time the features of vocal improvisation in rock music are presented. Conclusions. The article focuses on the concept of “vocal improvisation” (the process of creating music with the voice without pre-prepared musical or textual materials), reveals its essential aspects in rock music, which are hidden in a special tension, energy, emotional load, melody, smooth transitions between notes, the use of a rough voice, special effects such as echo, reverb, vocal filters. The features of vocal improvisation are analysed on the example of the works of Freddie Mercury (rock band “Queen”), Robert Plant (rock band “Led Zeppelin”), Steven Tyler (rock band “Aerosmith”). It has been found that a wide vocal range, the use of high notes, spontaneous vocal phrases and sounds are characteristic of Freddie Mercury (“Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Galileo”, “Someone to Love”). Whereas strong, expressive vocals and the ability to vary vocal riffs characterize Robert Plant (“Whole Lotta Love”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Black Dog”) and Steven Tyler (“Dream”, “Sweet Emotions”, “Mama Kin”). The focus is on vocal improvisation in rock music of the early XXI century, which is characterized by eclectic styles, the use of technology, and variations in lyrics. Keywords: vocals, improvisation, music, rock, vocal improvisation, rock music, rock band.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of gender and listener preference on magnitude-estimation scaling of rock music. Four groups of young adults were tested: 14 women who liked rock music, 14 women who disliked rock music, 14 men who liked rock music, and 14 men who disliked rock music. Subjects were instructed to assign numerical values to a random series of nine suprathreshold intensity levels of a 10-sec. sample of rock music. Analysis indicated that there was no difference in scaling performance between women and men. There was a difference in scaling performance between the group of women who liked rock music and the group of women who disliked rock music. There was no difference in the way the two groups of men performed the scaling task. These results suggest that men and women perform magnitude-estimation scaling of rock music similarly. Women, however, allow preference to influence how they choose numbers during magnitude-estimation scaling tasks whereas men do not.

The author focuses on the most significant documentaries and TV-movies employing rock music of the 1960s-1970s, and highlights the aesthetic modes of their social correlation with mass culture. Special attention is drawn to the creative synthesis of the aesthetics of direct cinema, exemplified by the group R. Drew (B. Leacock, D. Pennebaker, A. Maizels, D. Maizels, etc.) as well as individual filmmakers and rock music in the intense socio-cultural context associated with it. Rock music greatly differs in its interaction of a performer and audience: there is often a systematic violation of the boundaries between audience space and scene. Direct cinema uses different strategies for presenting the character in the frame. Long-term observation, usage of atypical size and angles in the established television and cinematic tradition of documentary in many ways made the traditional essays and reports specifically spectacular. Within this strategy fans become being represented and perceived as a collective character, that is, public with all the features of its ethos becomes an integral part of the image of the artist, inseparable from it. The general decline of the artistic diversity of documentaries about rock music is largely the result of the active integration of this subgenre into the commercial sphere of TV and film industry, characteristic for the style emerged within the television. Creative pursuits of the group drew were directed not so much against the revolution in screen arts, but for modernization of the outdated artistic approaches to documentary filmmaking. Anyhow rock music as well as rock culture expressed through the means of direct cinema testify to the efficiency of the basic methodological goals.

Music has proven to play a vital role in social and emotional development in teenagers and young adults. From contemplation, developing self-identity, understanding interpersonal relationships, and providing possibilities of experience mastery, agency, and self-control with the help of self-directed activities, music helps its audience develop in all aspects of life. In specific, Rock music, since its existence has been more than entertainment, artists expressed themselves and shared their opinions through their musical pieces. Infamous for promoting drugs and alcohol, Rock Music used its platform to enlighten the audience about taboo topics like racism, inequality, and other social issues. This research paper uses a qualitative methodology approach to understand Rock Music listeners’ points of view. Data was collected through ‘in-depth interviews’ of 15 participants hailing from different parts of the country. Rock Music has several positive effects on the listeners. Rock can elevate moods, induce emotions, helps the listeners be more productive and creative with their everyday work, and constantly motivate them to do better in every aspect of life. Rock provides a platform to express feelings and vent out all the angst, especially for those who otherwise do not voice their opinions because of their nature in general. Rock Music has been able to shape personalities, characteristics, and thought processes. Moreover, majorly, Rock Music helps people with anger management.

ObjectiveContralateral suppression of oto acoustic emission (OAE) is referred as activation of efferent system. Previous literature mentioned about the importance of contralateral suppression of OAEs as a tool to assess efferent system in different groups of population. There is dearth of literature to explore the efferent system function in experienced musicians exposed to rock music using TEOAEs and DPOAEs.MethodsTwo groups of participant (14 rock musicians and 14 non-musicians) in the age range of 18–25 years were involved in the study. Contralateral suppression of TEOAEs and DPOAEs were measured using ILO (Version 6) in both groups.ResultsDescriptive statistics showed higher suppression of TEOAEs and DPOAEs in rock-musicians at most of the frequencies in comparison to non-musicians. For DPOAE measures, Mann Whitney U test results revealed significantly greater DPOAE suppression only at 1 kHz and 3 kHz in rock-musicians compared to non-musicians. For within group comparison, Kruskal Wallis test results revealed there were significant difference observed across most of the frequencies i.e. at 1 kHz, 3 kHz and 6 kHz. For TEOAE measures, Mann Whitney U test results revealed that only at 2 kHz, TEOAE suppression in rock-musician was significantly greater compared to non-musicians. Similarly, Kuskal Wallis test results revealed that within group there were no significant differences observed for most of the frequencies except 2 kHz.ConclusionsBased on the above finding, present study concludes that rock musicians are having better efferent system compared to non-musicians. No suppression effect at few frequencies probably indicates more vulnerability at those frequencies. Contralateral suppression of DPOAE shows more significant finding in comparison to contralateral suppression of TEOAEs in present study.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss some of the possibilities and risks that one can encounter in the process of doing ethnographic organization research with an at-home approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on self-reflexive analyses of a four-year research process, where the author – a rock musician – investigated how rock bands within the author’s social networks organize their activities. The materials used for analysis were notes and diaries, as well as reflections on memories.FindingsThe findings illustrate aspects of the researcher’s “breaking out” process, which involved the researcher’s initial impulse to leave his practitioner-self, a subsequent lack of interest and eventually a return to what felt genuinely intriguing for him to study. The paper argues that one important aspect of the at-home researcher’s breaking out process may involve an active recognition of his/her practitioner-self as a resource – not least to avoid losing interest or getting lost in abstractions.Originality/valueThis paper conceptualizes and builds further upon previous discussions on at-home research, adding insights into the “breaking out” process and the curious paradox of the proposed necessity for the researcher to leave and utilize his/her at-home experience and familiarity.

Data on the lifespan and some causes of death in musicians of the 20th century are presented in this article. The mean age of death (MAD) in 20 218 male musicians was 67.8 years, whereas the MAD in 4363 female musicians was 71.5 years. Among both men and women, “classical” musicians lived longer than musicians performing jazz, pop, and variety music (6.3 and 9.7 years longer, respectively) and much longer than rock musicians (21.7 and 30.7 years longer, respectively). Among interpreters of classical music, 10.8% of men and 21.5% of women survived to the age of 90 years old, these proportions among male and female jazz and variety musicians were 5.4 and 9.2%, respectively; rock musicians rarely survived to 90 years of age (0.4% in men and women). Male musicians of the classical genre (9100 persons) lived 3.5 years less then female musicians of the same genre (2339 persons). The MAD of jazz and variety musicians did not differ in men (7974) and women (1770), and the MAD in female rock musicians (254) was 5.5 years less than that of male rock musicians (3144). The frequency of suicides, deaths by misadventure, murders, and malignant tumors was maximal in rock musicians and minimal in classical musicians. The onset of all of these events also depended on the music genre. The article also presents data on musicians of the 20th century who reached the age of 101 years.

When compared with individuals without explicit training in music, adult musicians have facilitated neural functions in several modalities. They also display structural changes in various brain areas, these changes corresponding to the intensity and duration of their musical training. Previous studies have focused on investigating musicians with training in Western classical music. However, musicians involved in different musical genres may display highly differentiated auditory profiles according to the demands set by their genre, i.e., varying importance of different musical sound features. This hypothesis was tested in a novel melody paradigm including deviants in tuning, timbre, rhythm, melody transpositions, and melody contour. Using this paradigm while the participants were watching a silent video and instructed to ignore the sounds, we compared classical, jazz, and rock musicians' and non-musicians' accuracy of neural encoding of the melody. In all groups of participants, all deviants elicited an MMN response, which is a cortical index of deviance discrimination. The strength of the MMN and the subsequent attentional P3a responses reflected the importance of various sound features in each music genre: these automatic brain responses were selectively enhanced to deviants in tuning (classical musicians), timing (classical and jazz musicians), transposition (jazz musicians), and melody contour (jazz and rock musicians). Taken together, these results indicate that musicians with different training history have highly specialized cortical reactivity to sounds which violate the neural template for melody content.

This article examines the role of music theory in rock musicians’ discourses about creative and other work processes. With a focus on Anglo-American and German-speaking contexts, this study analyzes various statements, descriptions, and recollections extracted from a diverse range of media sources. The findings highlight the broad variety of perspectives on the ambivalent relationship between music making and the idea of theoretical reflection. While often assessed as a hindrance or something to be neglected, music theory is sometimes considered helpful and valuable. The study also reveals alternative concepts to conventional frameworks of creating or remembering music.