Rock's Furnace Against Modification Of 'Pop' Music

The idea of rock is thought of as a being legitimate, serious and superior in comparison to ‘pop’ music. Rock as a genre has been defined by its process of exclusion, resistance against mass-distributed music (Keightley, 2001). Consumers identify rock as a subculture, marginalised minorities, that it arises outside the mainstream. They embrace obscurity and accept exclusivity as inevitable outcome of the majority’s lack of ‘taste’ (Hibbett, 2005). Paradoxically, rock from its early stage has been mass mediated and industrially organised. It was at the centre of mainstream popular music because the massive youth demographic of the 1960s enabled rock to be, “commercially made mass music” (Frith, 1981, p.54). Nevertheless, the music industry exploit and satisfies the consumer’s desire for social differentiation (Hibbett, 2005).
Garofalo (1987) argued that rock’s defiance against commodification of music is contradictory because both major music corporates and small independents are part of consumer capitalism and market