Four contentions form the core of my argument about the dialogic nature of rock

Four contentions form the core of my argument about the dialogic nature of rock and roll music. First the presence of the past in rock and roll music has meaning beyond the lure of nostalgia and the persistence of artistic clichs. Second the experiences of the past help shape both the structure of the music and the intentions of the artists. Third the origins of rock and roll music in the postwar American industrial city infuse the music with certain democratic and egalitarian propensities. Finally while no cultural form has a fixed political meaning rock and roll music has been and continues to be a dialogic space an arena where memories of the past serve to critique and change the present. (p. 100)