Only Rock and Roll? Rock Music and Cultures of Conservatism

Abstract: Rock and roll traditionally appears to exhibit a rebellious, subversive, and progressive connotation. Such ascriptions, however, ignore not only subgenres such as Rechtsrock (right-wing extremist rock), but also criticism, present from the onset, that accused mainstream rock of merely portraying and supporting the status quo rather than questioning it. Is rock and roll therefore a conservative genre? What do terms such as conservative and progressive really mean when they are applied to pop culture, music, and specifically rock and roll? Which findings are used to support these attributions? The article investigates these questions along an abbreviated history of rock from the 1950s to the 1980s in transnational perspective. The contribution shows that, inasmuch as rock is rebellious at all, its rebelliousness can be directed against a mainstream culture which is perceived as progressive just as much as against one which is perceived as conservative.