ABSTRACT
The conclusion examines in greater depth the issue of how a cultural historian comes to retain or repel a requisite degree of expertise. Three foundational concerns are introduced in response to this issue. First, the fact that the material record of American popular music has swollen exponentially as well as increasingly been placed out of reach through either the legal system or virtual abandonment by its mechanical copyright holders. Second, that the pervasive fascination with scenes on the part of cultural historians, as well as the facile manner with which those environments are more often than not depicted, is a limiting tendency. And, third, the propensity, however inoculated, by those chroniclers, and many consumers, to succumb to the imperatives of agoraphobia. Following a discussion of these points, the conclusion outlines an alternative approach towards evidence and its appraisal.
