Rockmusik und Massenkultur
In this article, the authors show that the established music business' accepted categorization of "commercial" and "serious" music is not based on any justifiable musical grounds, but according to social valuations. Commercial and serious music are, when considered on a broader scale, in accordance with the classification of modern culture into mass culture and an elite culture. These two divisions delineate not only the effectual proportions of the two cultures, but, at the same time, delineate a hierarchy within the Arts. This cultural hierarchy is the expression and result of a social hierarchy. The approach to the respective culture is socially determined, the varying patterns in taste are products of differing social origins. Rock music is difficult to fit into this scheme. Indeed, it is continually ascribed to commercial music and it is disseminated through an enormous area, but not through a uniform mass audience. Entry into a Rock concert is predominantly a middle-class affair, workers are hardly ever to be found, and Rock music's "proletarian charm" is revealed as having been borrowed. There are many criteria, instead, which illustrate that the occupation with music - and the included symbolism is, essentially, more meaningfully valued among middle class youth than among also in Rock music - and favour other forms of popular music; leading to the conclusion that the acquisition of taste, also in terms of Rock music, can be traced to social causes.