ABSTRACT
I have been going to conferences to talk about rock and popular music for almost twenty years now. At the more academic conferences, I have usually assumed that I was invited to play the role of the rock ’n’ roll professor, to talk about the ways rock culture challenged the adequacy and utility of traditional modes of academic work. At less academic conferences, I have usually assumed that I was supposed to play the role of the rock ’n’ roll professor, defending the need for and value of both theoretical and empirical (which is not to say “objective”) work. Usually, it was easy to tell which role I was supposed to play and which role was necessary on a particular occasion, and I was more than happy to play either. But I must admit that something has changed, for I can no longer separate the roles or the audiences. Increasingly, the same arguments have to be made to both (academic and nonacademic) audiences-and to tell the truth, I am tired of making them.
