Electronic dance music, the rock myth, and authenticity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v13i2.147Keywords:
authenticity, electronic dance music, rock musicAbstract
Most discussions of authenticity in popular music mobilize the ‘rock myth’, a loose collection of assumptions that pit rock against an inauthentic other, such as pop, dance or electronic music. Some academic studies attempt to discuss authenticity in these genres by side-stepping the rock myth and focusing on other aspects of the genre’s construction. This article, however, examines the structures of power in electronic dance music showing that for the fans of this genre, as revealed through music journalism and online fan sites, the same discourses are at work as in discussions of rock.
References
Adorno, Theodor. 1991. ‘On the Fetish Character in Music and the Regression of Listening’. In The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed J. M. Bernstein, 26–52. London: Routledge.
ARIA. 2012. Statistics. Physical and Digital Sales by Value for the Years Ended 31 December 2004–2012. Available online at http://aria.com.au/pages/statistics.htm (accessed 20 May 2013).
Auner, Joseph. 2000. ‘Making Old Machines Speak: Images of Technology in Recent Music’. ECHO: A Music-Centered Journal 2, no. 2: n.p. Available online at http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume2-Issue2/auner/aunerframe.html (accessed 25 September 2012).
Auslander, Philip. 1999. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Butler, Mark. 2003. ‘Taking It Seriously: Intertextuality and Authenticity in Two Covers by the Pet Shop Boys’. Popular Music 22, no. 1: 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143003003015
Computer Music. 2005. Letter. Computer Music 85: 6.
Coyle, Michael, and Jon Dolan. 1999. ‘Modeling Authenticity, Authenticating Commercial Models’. In Reading Rock and Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics, ed. Kevin J. H. Dettmar and William Richey, 17–35. New York: Columbia University Press.
Den Tandt, Christophe. 2004. ‘From Craft to Corporate Interfacing: Rock Musicianship in the Age of Music Television and Computer-Programmed Music’. Popular Music and Society 27, no. 2: 139–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007760410001685804
Frith, Simon. 1981. ‘“The magic that can set you free”: The Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community’. Popular Music 1: 159–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000000970
——1984. ‘Rock and the Politics of Memory’. In The 60s Without Apology, ed. Sohnya Sayres et al., 59–69. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
——1986. ‘Art versus Technology: The Strange Case of Popular Music’. Media, Culture and Society 8, no. 3: 263–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/016344386008003002
——1987. ‘Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music’. In Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception, ed. Richard Leppert and Susan McClary, 133–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grossberg, Lawrence. 1993. ‘The Media Economy of Rock Culture: Cinema, Post-Modernity and Authenticity’. In Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader, ed. Simon Frith, Andrew Goodwin and Lawrence Grossberg, 185–209. London and New York: Routledge.
Gunders, John. 2008. ‘Professionalism, Place, and Authenticity in the Cook and the Chef’. Emotion, Space and Society 1, no. 2: 119–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2008.11.001
Hesmondhalgh, David. 1997. ‘The Cultural Politics of Dance Music’. Soundings 5: 167–78.
Huq, Rupa. 2002. ‘Raving, Not Drowning: Authenticity, Pleasure and Politics in the Electronic Dance Music Scene’. In Popular Music Studies, ed. David Hesmondhalgh and Keith Negus, 90–102. London: Hodder Arnold.
Lomax, Alan. 1968. Folk Song Style and Culture. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Luckman, Susan. 2003. ‘Going Bush and Finding One’s “Tribe”: Raving, Doof and the Australian Landscape’. Continuum 17, no. 3: 318–32.
Maxwell, Ian. 1994. ‘True to the Music: Authenticity, Articulation and Authorship in Sydney Hip Hop Culture’. Social Semiotics 4, nos 1-2: 117–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350339409384430
McLeod, Kembrew. 1999. ‘Authenticity within Hip Hop Culture and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation’. Journal of Communication 49, no. 4: 134–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02821.x
Middleton, Jason. 2002. ‘D.C. Punk and the Production of Authenticity’. In Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music, ed. Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook and Ben Saunders, 335–56. Durham: Duke University Press.
Moore, Allan. 2002. ‘Authenticity as Authentication’. Popular Music 21: 209–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002131
Pattie, David. 1999. ‘4 Real: Authenticity, Performance, and Rock Music’, Enculturation 2, no. 2. Available online at http://enculturation.gmu.edu/2_2/pattie.html (accessed 6 July 2011).
Peterson, Richard A. 2005. ‘In Search of Authenticity’. Journal of Management Studies 42, no. 5: 1083–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00533.x
Prendergast, Mark. 2001. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance: The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. New York: Bloomsbury.
Reisinger, Yvette, and Carol J. Steiner. 2006. ‘Reconceptualizing Object Authenticity’, Annals of Tourism Research 33, no. 1: 65–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2005.04.003
Rodgers, Tara. 2003. ‘On the Process and Aesthetics of Sampling in Electronic Music Production’. Organised Sound 8, no. 3: 313–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355771803000293
Scannell, John. 2011. ‘Living Without Authenticity’. Instruments of Change: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia–New Zealand 2010 Conference, 111–15.
Sherburne, Philip. 2004. ‘Digital Discipline: Minimalism in House and Techno’. In Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, ed. Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, 319–26. New York: Continuum.
Stewart, Jesse. 2010. ‘Intervections’. Contemporary Music Review 29, no. 3: 323–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2010.535367
St John, Graham, ed. 2001. FreeNRG: Notes From the Edge of the Dancefloor. Altona, Vic: Common Ground Publishing.
——2009. Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures. London: Equinox.
Tetzlaff, David. 1994. ‘Music for Meaning: Reading the Discourse of Authenticity in Rock’. Journal of Communication Inquiry 18, no. 1: 95–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019685999401800106
Thompson, Bronwyn. 2004. ‘Your New Favourite Brand’. Rolling Stone Australia (December 2004): 20.
Thornton, Sarah. 1995. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Usenet. 1993. ‘Moby’s Post’. Available online at http://www.moby.org/info/moby_thread (accessed 6 July 2011).
Waksman, Steve. 2001. ‘Into the Arena: Edward Van Halen and the Cultural Contradictions of the Guitar Hero’. In Guitar Cultures, ed. Andy Bennett and Kevin Dawe, 117–34. Oxford and New York: Berg.
Weisethaunet, Hans, and Ulf Lindberg. 2010. ‘Authenticity Revisited: The Rock Critic and the Changing Real’. Popular Music and Society 33, no. 4: 465–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007761003694225
Wolk, Douglas. 2005. ‘Thinking About Rockism’. Seattle Weekly, 4–10 May. Available online at http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-05-04/music/thinking-about-rockism (accessed 28 July 2010).
ARIA. 2012. Statistics. Physical and Digital Sales by Value for the Years Ended 31 December 2004–2012. Available online at http://aria.com.au/pages/statistics.htm (accessed 20 May 2013).
Auner, Joseph. 2000. ‘Making Old Machines Speak: Images of Technology in Recent Music’. ECHO: A Music-Centered Journal 2, no. 2: n.p. Available online at http://www.echo.ucla.edu/Volume2-Issue2/auner/aunerframe.html (accessed 25 September 2012).
Auslander, Philip. 1999. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Butler, Mark. 2003. ‘Taking It Seriously: Intertextuality and Authenticity in Two Covers by the Pet Shop Boys’. Popular Music 22, no. 1: 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143003003015
Computer Music. 2005. Letter. Computer Music 85: 6.
Coyle, Michael, and Jon Dolan. 1999. ‘Modeling Authenticity, Authenticating Commercial Models’. In Reading Rock and Roll: Authenticity, Appropriation, Aesthetics, ed. Kevin J. H. Dettmar and William Richey, 17–35. New York: Columbia University Press.
Den Tandt, Christophe. 2004. ‘From Craft to Corporate Interfacing: Rock Musicianship in the Age of Music Television and Computer-Programmed Music’. Popular Music and Society 27, no. 2: 139–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007760410001685804
Frith, Simon. 1981. ‘“The magic that can set you free”: The Ideology of Folk and the Myth of the Rock Community’. Popular Music 1: 159–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143000000970
——1984. ‘Rock and the Politics of Memory’. In The 60s Without Apology, ed. Sohnya Sayres et al., 59–69. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
——1986. ‘Art versus Technology: The Strange Case of Popular Music’. Media, Culture and Society 8, no. 3: 263–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/016344386008003002
——1987. ‘Towards an Aesthetic of Popular Music’. In Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception, ed. Richard Leppert and Susan McClary, 133–49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grossberg, Lawrence. 1993. ‘The Media Economy of Rock Culture: Cinema, Post-Modernity and Authenticity’. In Sound and Vision: The Music Video Reader, ed. Simon Frith, Andrew Goodwin and Lawrence Grossberg, 185–209. London and New York: Routledge.
Gunders, John. 2008. ‘Professionalism, Place, and Authenticity in the Cook and the Chef’. Emotion, Space and Society 1, no. 2: 119–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2008.11.001
Hesmondhalgh, David. 1997. ‘The Cultural Politics of Dance Music’. Soundings 5: 167–78.
Huq, Rupa. 2002. ‘Raving, Not Drowning: Authenticity, Pleasure and Politics in the Electronic Dance Music Scene’. In Popular Music Studies, ed. David Hesmondhalgh and Keith Negus, 90–102. London: Hodder Arnold.
Lomax, Alan. 1968. Folk Song Style and Culture. Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Luckman, Susan. 2003. ‘Going Bush and Finding One’s “Tribe”: Raving, Doof and the Australian Landscape’. Continuum 17, no. 3: 318–32.
Maxwell, Ian. 1994. ‘True to the Music: Authenticity, Articulation and Authorship in Sydney Hip Hop Culture’. Social Semiotics 4, nos 1-2: 117–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10350339409384430
McLeod, Kembrew. 1999. ‘Authenticity within Hip Hop Culture and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation’. Journal of Communication 49, no. 4: 134–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02821.x
Middleton, Jason. 2002. ‘D.C. Punk and the Production of Authenticity’. In Rock Over the Edge: Transformations in Popular Music, ed. Roger Beebe, Denise Fulbrook and Ben Saunders, 335–56. Durham: Duke University Press.
Moore, Allan. 2002. ‘Authenticity as Authentication’. Popular Music 21: 209–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002131
Pattie, David. 1999. ‘4 Real: Authenticity, Performance, and Rock Music’, Enculturation 2, no. 2. Available online at http://enculturation.gmu.edu/2_2/pattie.html (accessed 6 July 2011).
Peterson, Richard A. 2005. ‘In Search of Authenticity’. Journal of Management Studies 42, no. 5: 1083–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00533.x
Prendergast, Mark. 2001. The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance: The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. New York: Bloomsbury.
Reisinger, Yvette, and Carol J. Steiner. 2006. ‘Reconceptualizing Object Authenticity’, Annals of Tourism Research 33, no. 1: 65–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2005.04.003
Rodgers, Tara. 2003. ‘On the Process and Aesthetics of Sampling in Electronic Music Production’. Organised Sound 8, no. 3: 313–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355771803000293
Scannell, John. 2011. ‘Living Without Authenticity’. Instruments of Change: Proceedings of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia–New Zealand 2010 Conference, 111–15.
Sherburne, Philip. 2004. ‘Digital Discipline: Minimalism in House and Techno’. In Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, ed. Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner, 319–26. New York: Continuum.
Stewart, Jesse. 2010. ‘Intervections’. Contemporary Music Review 29, no. 3: 323–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2010.535367
St John, Graham, ed. 2001. FreeNRG: Notes From the Edge of the Dancefloor. Altona, Vic: Common Ground Publishing.
——2009. Technomad: Global Raving Countercultures. London: Equinox.
Tetzlaff, David. 1994. ‘Music for Meaning: Reading the Discourse of Authenticity in Rock’. Journal of Communication Inquiry 18, no. 1: 95–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019685999401800106
Thompson, Bronwyn. 2004. ‘Your New Favourite Brand’. Rolling Stone Australia (December 2004): 20.
Thornton, Sarah. 1995. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Usenet. 1993. ‘Moby’s Post’. Available online at http://www.moby.org/info/moby_thread (accessed 6 July 2011).
Waksman, Steve. 2001. ‘Into the Arena: Edward Van Halen and the Cultural Contradictions of the Guitar Hero’. In Guitar Cultures, ed. Andy Bennett and Kevin Dawe, 117–34. Oxford and New York: Berg.
Weisethaunet, Hans, and Ulf Lindberg. 2010. ‘Authenticity Revisited: The Rock Critic and the Changing Real’. Popular Music and Society 33, no. 4: 465–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007761003694225
Wolk, Douglas. 2005. ‘Thinking About Rockism’. Seattle Weekly, 4–10 May. Available online at http://www.seattleweekly.com/2005-05-04/music/thinking-about-rockism (accessed 28 July 2010).
Published
2013-06-06
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gunders, J. (2013). Electronic dance music, the rock myth, and authenticity. Perfect Beat, 13(2), 147-159. https://doi.org/10.1558/prbt.v13i2.147
