ABSTRACT
This chapter adds to the sociological literature on rock music in that it is the first effort to empirically test the assumption that rock musicians identify strongly with the role. Itexamines the identity salience and psychological centrality is two slightly differing conceptions of how identities are organized within the self as well as the effects of those differences. Salience is correspondingly defined by Stryker as the probability of invoking a given identity in a particular setting or across a wide variety of settings. The concept of psychological centrality also incorporates and attempts to assess the global self-esteem of role occupants. The construct of authenticity has seldom been utilized in empirical research and never with musicians. The chapter has laid the foundation for future research to begin to discern the features of and delineate the processes attendant to the role identity structures of various levels of rock musicians.
