ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some key issues and problems, such as the relationship between aesthetic value and arts other values, and the nature of the principles and criteria that might be used to justify a particular value judgement. Then, it compares how musical values functioned within two different cultures at crucial junctures in the history of Western music: the crystallization of the idea of classical music within Austro-German culture in the age of Beethoven, and the defining phase of American rock music and discourse in the mid to late 1960s. The crystallization of the values of classical music in the early nineteenth century was not just a response to Beethoven's symphonies, but reflects complex changes in the way that music was written about and received. Engaging with the music of Beethoven and the Beach Boys is crucial to grasping these new values. There are substantial divergences between the values of rock in its defining phase and those of classical music.
