ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the many ways rock and pop pervades the everyday lives of adults in North American society. It examines what happened to the first, complete generation of rock fans: the baby boomer generation now in late middle age. The chapter argues that rock-oriented pop music continues to serve as a critical meaning resource for its adult fans as they continuously experience the becoming of self throughout life. To better understand how music works throughout the life course, the chapter also discusses the concepts of self, identity, and the life course itself. An identity is a typification of self, either imposed upon an individual by others. A life course is a patterned temporal trajectory of individual experiences. The e-self refers to an experience of individuality in which the affective and philosophical self-resources of rock'n'roll media are displaced or at least supplemented by the increasingly technological and commodified aspects of the media.
