ABSTRACT
From its very beginnings rock ’n’ roll has been perceived as a distinctly American (and soon thereafter, Anglo-American) cultural product. At the same time, rock has circulated for decades around the world, where its presence has been felt as an influence on local music-making practices. While one could certainly see this spread of rock as yet another example of American cultural imperialism, Motti Regev argues against such a reading.1 Regev, a sociologist at the Open University of Israel, instead emphasizes the way in which an international “rock aesthetic” has emerged, granting its participants a certain symbolic freedom. Drawing on the sociological studies of Pierre Bourdieu and Scott Lash, Regev suggests that those who take part in rock music making are figuratively “thrown” into two fields. From a spatial standpoint, they are members of a “local field,” wherein they grasp some relationship to a larger national identity. At the same time, they are operating within the general “field of popular music,” wherein rock has been accorded a privileged status of authenticity and innovation. “Thrown” into these fields, local musicians find a certain agency through rock’s authenticity, one that allows them to explore the boundaries of national identity. In the following excerpt from Regev’s article, he outlines three different ways in which the “rock aesthetic” is articulated in the local field: Anglo-American pop/rock as such, “imitation,” and hybridity.
