Prolegomena to Any Aesthetics of Rock Music

Abstract

In this chapter, the author tries to get at the nature of those differences, and in so doing, if only in a negative way, the route that aesthetics of rock music might take. He initially make the contrast between rock and European concert music as strong and sharp as possible, which will lead to some one-sided and simplistic distinctions between the two genres. The materiality of tone, or more accurately, of the performance of tones, is only one important material element of rock music. Classical aesthetics of music explicitly excludes questions concerning how music feels or sounds, and the emotional reactions music provokes, from considerations of musical beauty. Part of the intensity of rock performance has to do with an aspect of rock that is often held against it: the sheer volume or loudness of the music. In rock music, the voice had always been the main vehicle of expression, and the factor that could make or break a song.