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ry to the emergence of rockmusic and its associated aesthetic and culture. Before beginning this central task,however, we will briefly explore the roles of creators and audiences in the process.It is easy to characterise eras in terms of the leaders of the time. The'Napoleonic' era is an obvious case in point. It is no less tempting to identify anaesthetic revolution with its most celebrated exponents - Vivaldi, Shakespeare,
Beethoven, Picasso. In this vein, it is possible to point to specificindividuals likeChuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis and say that rockemerged in the late 1950s because, like other creative circles of artists (Kadushin1976), they began their creative efforts at this specific moment. In bringing intoquestion this 'supply side' explanation, I do not, for a moment belittle their
accomplishments. Rather, I suggest that in any era there is a much larger number ofcreative individuals than ever reach notoriety, and if some specific periods of timesee the emergence of more notables, it is because these are times when the usualroutinising inhibitions to innovation do not operate as systematically, allowingopportunities for innovators to emerge.4If, as we are suggesting, Presley and the rest did not cause the rock revolution,Richard Petersonbut simply took advantage of the opportunities that became available to them, and ifthe supply of potentially creative people regularly outnumbers the demand, it istempting to ask who then would have emerged into the limelight as the creativeleaders of the new music if it had emerged at an earlier time. What if the year hadbeen 1948 rather than 1954? A number of accomplished black rhythm and bluesperformers who come to mind, most notably T-Bone Walker and Louis Jordan.(Shaw 1987; Dance 1988; George 1988). Would the whites have come from jazz ofrom country music? Probably some would have come from each of these traditions,but who would have been the Elvis Presley? Perhaps Hank Williams, butmore likelythis strikingly handsome mama's boy of 1948 would never have become aprofessional musician. Rather, he would probably have dropped out of school to
drive a truck, then served with the Army in Korea, and saved enough money to buy abeer joint.5What of the 'demand-side' explanation of the emergence of rock music? Asapplied to this instance, it says the remarkablyl arge cohort of newly-affluenty oungpeople, the vanguard of the 'baby-boom' could not relate to the jazz-based sensuousslow dance music created for twenty-year-olds approaching the age of first marriage.Characteristically, songs in this vein featured a male who abstractly promisesmarriage if the female is willing to share her sexual favours.The baby-boomers demanded music that spoke to their own condition. Theappropriate themes included a mix of the excruciating joys of first love, fights withparents, and frustrations with high school and the older generation generally.Although it can be argued that the uniquely large baby-boom cohort has beenresponsible for a number of changes in the US, it did not cause the emergence of rockin the mid-1950s. In fact, it could not have done so. After all, in 1954 the oldest of thebaby-boomers were only nine years old and half had not even been bornyet!Although the emergence of rock was not caused by the baby-boom, we are notarguing that audience preferences had nothing to do with the rise of rock. Quite tothe contrary, the newly affluent teens and pre-teens comprise