Bruce Baugh, “Prolegomena to Any Aesthetics of Rock Music”
1. OVERVIEW
2. Rock music has its own aesthetic standards, that either uniquely apply to it or do so in a specially appropriate way
3. Classical formalist aesthetics don’t apply
4. Form versus matter is a basic difference classical and rock
5. Matter in rock involves three (bodily) elements
6. One: Expressivity of notes
7. ROCK’S AIMS AT BODILY FEELINGS NOT INTELLECTUAL RESPONSE
8. Rock aimed at arousing and expressing feelings
9. Judged by feelings the music produces in listener’s body
10. PERFORMANCE KEY
11. Rock is a performance oriented tradition
12. Performance is key aesthetic object for rock
13. Not addressing what makes a good rock song
14. Explains why singer, not song, which is important
15. CLASSICAL FORMALIST AESTHETICS OPPOSED TO ROCK AESTHETICS
16. Classical aesthetics excludes from musical beauty what is central to rock
17. Compositional form is crucial
18. Matter does count in classical music (it’s not exclusively formal)
19. Performance also matters in classical music aesthetics
20. JUDGING (OR CREATING) ROCK VIA FORMAL AESTHETICS A MISTAKE
21. Mistake to judge rock by standards of classical music aesthetics (e.g., form)
22. Rock dismissed as insignificant because of simplicity of its forms
23. This simplicity of form is real in rock (not a misperception)
24. Condescending to suppose rock music has value only when approximates compositional forms of baroque/romantic music
25. When Rock musicians made this same mistake they tried to produce “art rock” or the “rock opera” which was silly
26. ROCK MUSIC FOR DANCING
27. Rock music is for dancing
28. When classical music meant to be danced to, the music regulates the dancers rather than the dancers regulate the music (as in rock)
29. With rock, the music is regulated by dancers (instead of other way around)
30. TECHNIQUE, FAITHFULNESS TO SCORE NOT IMPORTANT IN ROCK
31. Rock has performance based standards of evaluation, not compositional or formal ones
32. Bad rock band’s beat not quite right, even though correct time signature and tempo being observed
33. With rock, faithfulness to the music rarely arises
34. Unimportance of virtuosity (outstanding skill/technique)
35. Wrong notes are okay