Rock music began as "racing music"; the middle-class white teenager's middle finger to his conservative parents while listening to music composed by African Americans. It later became a key player in the American countercultural revolution of the 1960s, where then-adolescent Baby Boomers once again used it to express their discontent with mainstream society and the effort to recover their own identity separately from that of their parents. . We've moved on to nihilistic punk rock, breezy grunge, plaintive pop punk, everything a teenager might use to abandon and complain about traditional values ​​and attempt to develop values ​​of their own. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Rock music has always been about rebellion, delinquency, transition, and heartache. It has always been the music of youth. However, some rock musicians and their fans are no longer young. They are getting older. This article is not intended to claim that these aging fans cannot still be fans of rock music, however this article serves to question the value and meaning that rock music has in their lives, while also demonstrating that although fans and musicians they age, music doesn't. The cultural significance of rock is exclusive to young people. To explain the cultural significance of rock music, I first had to ask what rock music is. What makes rock music, rock music? It's about energy. It's about the energetic youth who complains about not being able to get satisfaction while being sick and tired of privileged white adults. The cultural significance of rock is what prompted the FCC to detect Elvis Presley's lower half. It's what caused the angry teenagers to riot outside Moondog's coronation ball. It's what drove Sid Vicious to cut himself on stage with beer bottles. The cultural significance of rock music comes from people's ability to identify with the music and let it shape and change them, as described by a 44-year-old male self-identified as a punk. It kind of dictates the rest of your life. because the phenomenon, no matter what, has such a fundamental effect on you that it actually changes the course of your life. So while it might be if punk had never existed or if, you know, I was ten years older, maybe I might have missed something, or I would have been taken down different paths. But, because, you know, it seemed like, yeah, punk rock was a life-changing thing for him. Rock music changed his life. It was life changing because as a teenager your life is in a constant state of change. The teenage years are years of growth and transition, of forming an identity. The interviewee said he might have been led down different paths if it weren't for punk music. I'm not arguing that adults can't change their lives, but they should. Teenagers don't have a stable life yet, so they have the ability to shape themselves, which is what rock music tends to do. To understand the significance of rock music on specifically Western culture and why it is reserved exclusively for young people, it is necessary to explore the concept of youth (young people are mostly teenagers and possibly in their early twenties). I first examined characteristics of adolescents that may be determining factors in their historically consistent consumption of rock music. I also examined the characteristics that allow young people to be susceptible to the meaning of rock, which meansidentify with rock in a broader sense than just music and allow it to help shape their identity. Psychologist Erik Erikson is known for his theory on psychosocial development in which he divided life into eight stages; each phase has an accompanying crisis. During adolescence the crisis is identity vs role confusion. The American psychologist and professor Richard Stevens defined this phase as "a moment of radical change... the ability of the mind to search for its own intentions and those of others, the sudden greater awareness of the roles that society has offered for future life". Adolescents are pushed to dissociate from the identity that their parents have given them, to find their own identity but also to accept or reject the identity that society gives them. According to Erikson, adolescents are tormented by the existential question “Who am I? Who can I be?” Along with the cognitive transitions that adolescents go through, there are also biological, particularly neurological, aspects that explain why rock music affects young people more than adults. During adolescence, the brain reaches its maximum volume of gray matter, or bundle of neuronal bodies. Although the cortex's basic functions, such as interpreting information from the senses, are formed during adolescence, the areas responsible for impulse control and future planning have not fully matured. However, what is heightened (compared to children and adults) are the emotional responses as the brain circuits responsible for such emotional responses are also changing in the brain. Teenagers are at a very vulnerable, unstable but crucial stage in their lives. The need to find an identity combined with strong emotions and poor decision-making skills has teenagers as their target to accept and embrace rock music. So, after delving into the concept of youth, I had to look at rock music as a concept to understand how both were connected. Rock music was created through the influence of black jazz and gospel. The improvisational nature of jazz music and the energy that the organ player specifically conveys in black Pentecostal churches is emotionally and spiritually charged. However, it is not only the nature of music, but also the idea of ​​it. In the 1950s, before rock and roll was born, blacks had their own music, their own music magazines, and their own radio stations. It's not that black music wasn't popular among white people, they still listened to it as long as it was a cleaner, simpler version sung by a white artist. For example, Little Richard's 1955 song "Tutti Frutti" is known for his raunchy lyrics and the artistic freedom he used with his voice and piano while performing it. Although the song was consistently named one of the best rock songs by Rolling Stone and Mojo Music Magazine, it peaked at number 17 behind Pat Boone's toned-down cover which peaked at number 12. It wasn't until the mid-1950s when DJ Alan " Moondog” Freed began playing racial music and white music on this radio show which made rock and roll (a term coined by Freed himself) take off. The knowledge that their children were listening to raucous music played by African Americans frightened white, middle-class parents. Thus, from an act of white kids who rebelled against traditional society by listening to black music, rock and roll was born. Rock and roll was responsible for the widespread fear of juvenile delinquency. 1950s parents thought their post-World War II children were lazy, spoiled, and disrespectful. These teenagers no longer had to work and they all had some money in their pockets and free time. So, theseteenagers, who by their nature were already going through an identity crisis, were now bored of money and had no choice but to go buy rock and roll records. This was the beginning of rock's cultural significance and it began with teenagers. It started with young people and was for young people. The adults felt attacked and afraid because they couldn't relate. Because teenagers are so focused on finding an identity, they are relatively open to new things. Middle-class white youth were open to black music, they were open to a new way of spending time, a new attitude. Adults, on the other hand, are generally not open to new attitudes. In Erikson's adult phase of psychosocial development, the crisis is that between generativity and stagnation. They care about guiding the next generation and expressing it through socially valued work and discipline. They want to contribute to the common good and feel like productive members of society. They feel as if their life means something bigger than themselves. According to Erikson, “A person is better off at this time to put aside thoughts of death and balance one's certainty with the one happiness that endures: increasing, with whatever one has to give, good will and the higher order in one's own area of ​​life." world". While teenagers try to be selfish and figure out themselves, adults try to be altruistic and figure out how to help the next generation. Does the cultural significance of rock music have to do with whether it is selfish or altruistic? Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates said, "The whole point of rock and roll is the celebration of oneself." There are countless rock song lyrics that are along the lines of "do what you want." However, these are just texts. The cultural significance of rock music must be explored by going beyond simply how it began and by going beyond simply understanding why teenagers loved it so much. The next question then becomes: why is it exclusive to young people? I'll stress it again: adults can love rock music. I interviewed adult rock music fans. However, Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls explains it best when he says, "rock and roll is simply an attitude." The cultural significance of rock music is that aforementioned attitude and energy. What increases attitude and energy is physical contact and being together. Live music plays an extremely important role because it explains the cultural meaning of rock music by describing the way people use music. It all started in Cleveland, Ohio. March 21, 1952. Moondog's Coronation Ball had sold 20,000 tickets in a venue that could barely hold 10,000. The lineup was racially mixed, as was the audience. Audience members were actually surprised to see that Alan Freed, who hosted the event, was white. Black and white teenagers crowded into the club and those who couldn't fit in rioted. The police have arrived. A man was stabbed. The world saw its first rock and roll concert. The teenagers who attended wanted something more from what they had heard on their records and on Alan Freed's radio show. They wanted to feel the energy of live music and feel it with other people; even those outside their race. Although the French sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote The Elementary Forms of Religious Life about religion and primitive religious rituals, these ideas can easily be placed in the context of rock concerts. In fact, the Jefferson Airplane guitarist once said: “Rock concerts are today's churches. Music puts [himspectators] on a spiritual level.” The energy that concertgoers experience on that “spiritual plane” is what Durkheim called “collective effervescence.” Durkheim explains how individuals who participated in religious rituals (which in this case would be a rock concert) forgot their individuality because the group provided them with an identity. Collective effervescence is the energy that flows through those who attend rock concerts. It is a shared experience that elicits strong emotions, usually euphoria. I have already underlined how the search for an identity is specific to young people, so the component of arousing strong emotions in a group context (again, a rock concert) must be examined. I spoke with an eighteen-year-old African American who says she has attended more than fifty concerts since she was "about twelve" about her experiences with rock concerts and why she continues to go to so many. many of those concerts alone... but I never feel truly alone. I'm with a lot of different people and we have different lives but we sing the same song. They just remind me that I'm not alone and that everyone is young and I don't know what I'm doing and I don't think anyone else does either... I saw this band called Catfish and the Bottlemen on February 1 I think and their songs aren't very heavy, like they're pissed off about certain things and girls drive them crazy but they like them anyway, they're still trying to fuck and they're drinking and getting high and I guess I really identify with it Like guys drive me crazy and I'm not really trying to fall in love yet but I like liking people, being distressed and just playing jokes... I remember this guy, he was English and drunk as hell... he was shouting: "Catfish and bottle men!" and he wrapped his arm around me and started to wobble so I joined him and we were just screaming and holding each other and when Catfish and the Bottlemen finally came we were screaming the lyrics together and his friends had come sic and we all danced and jumped together it was really stupid... I mean, that's why I go to concerts I feel like it's okay to be stupid because everyone around me is stupid... especially at rock concerts because the lyrics aren't serious and it's easy to head bang or jump to the beat. It's just everything, it feels easy like everyone is your friend and that's why I go to so many concerts like that, it's the best feeling in the world, just where nothing matters , but the moment that guy held me close while we both waited for our favorite band, like THAT, mattered to me as the feeling of being understood matters a lot to me. This interview reiterates what I said earlier about teenagers and about their identity crises, as well as their heightened responses to emotional situations. The collective effervescence of concerts would affect adolescents emotionally more than it would adults. This interview also explains the meaning of rock through music and beyond music. Generally, rock music has a 4/4 drum beat, which emphasizes the “on” beat, and is centered around the electric guitar. It's simple and energetic, something my interviewee acknowledged when saying how easy it is to jump on. He also commented on the lyrics and how relatable they were. However, he was referring to something more. She felt understood not only by the lyrics and the band, but also by the people around her. Since this article is about aging and cultural significance, I had to interview an older generation. Information from both interviews would not only show the differences between young fans and older fans, but when rock music has similar effects on people of different generations, that historical consistencyprovides a clue as to what the cultural significance of rock music is and why it is exclusive to youth. So, I also interviewed a sixty-nine-year-old African American male growing up in Detroit, Michigan about his experiences with live music. We would go to concerts and uh, man. You liked the records and you saw the entertainers. It was a lot of fun. When I was starting out I liked The Temptations… Good solid harmony. Nice smooth rhythms. The songs told a story… I probably went to about five Temptations concerts. I grew up in the Motown era and Motown had a lot of good artists. We saw all those artists perform. It was a lot of fun and it was a lot of fun. Every time there was a Motown Revue I went. Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Marvelettes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas… People got carried away by the music and danced. Everyone was just relaxing. Nothing really wild. Everyone really enjoyed themselves. You didn't know the person next to you but they knew the songs. They were like your brother or sister, you know?" Although this interviewee is more than fifty years older than my last one, his concert experience is relatively the same. He liked the music but there was something more to it. He felt like his family were complete strangers because of music. This interviewee hasn't been to a concert in forty years, yet he still remembers the feeling of being together. Although my eighteen-year-old interviewee may have been an extreme case having seen more than fifty concerts, all the teenagers I interviewed mentioned the rock music live performance of an artist or band they attended and why it was meaningful to them and how much it enhanced their feelings for the music. since my biggest fan hadn't been to a concert in his forties and yet still considers himself a Motown fan, I had to ask him how he listens to music. You can sit at home and relax. I still listen to CDs and, er, DVDs. Similarly, a male, Caucasian, thirty-nine-year-old Grateful Dead (or Deadhead) fan explained his listening habits and commitment to his favorite band. I have a son and a wife. We own a house. We have a car and all that stuff... I certainly don't go out and follow the band around the country all the time, but when they come to town I try to go. Adults listen to and use rock music differently than teenagers. Adults listen to music for the music's sake. They may still appreciate rock music, yet they do not contribute to its cultural significance. They don't embody that rebellious teenage attitude. They don't go to concerts anymore. Looking at patterns in how adults listen to music compared to young people, sociologist Simon Frith noted that "people's heaviest investment in popular music occurs when they are teenagers and young adults... people use music less and with less intensity as they grow." Among the older fans interviewed, most of them still don't go to concerts. Those who do, like the Deadheads mentioned above, aren't very into it. When sociologist Andy Bennett surveyed fans at his local venue, he found that private, at-home listening was the preferred method of experiencing music among adult fans. However, just because adults may not listen to music with the same frequency or intensity as teenagers does not mean that the value of rock is exclusive to young people. Rather, you need to look at how and for what reason they listen to music. They don't identify with the anguish, they feel nostalgia for it. And as author and cultural commentator John Strausbaugh simply said, “the].