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Rock Music in Performance

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Abstract

In this new study, David Pattie examines the apparent contradiction between authenticity and theatricality in the live performance of rock music, and looks at the way in which various performers have dealt with this paradox from rock music's early development in the 1960s up to the present day.

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... As David Pattie explains, "the idea of authenticity […] runs like a ground bass through the practice and study of rock music. " 26 This division between pop and rock maintains the fragmentation of popular music's audience according to a 'hierarchy of taste' , based on different criteria such as class, gender, geographic or ethnical belonging. 27 Having that in mind, putting a hard rock/metal number in the glitzy, pop surrounding of the ESC does seem strange and could be seen as a promise of a new, 'quality' musical direction that the contest could eventually adopt. ...
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