ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors consider the effect of rock on what it meant to be a musician, on musical opportunities, careers and expectations. Being a successful rock musician did involve new kinds of reward and status and a new kind of stardom. The authors focus on three issues in particular: wealth—even by the early 1970s, rock stars’ earning power far outstripped that of previous British musicians; work—rock careers involved a particularly relentless routine of touring and recording; and autonomy—rock stars were in the odd position of claiming a creative authority for work that was to a considerable extent shaped by their record companies. The world of rock musicians in the 1970s was, like other music worlds, essentially male. Women do appear backstage in rock memoirs. The authors conclude with a different issue: the assumption that rock music making was a masculine occupation.
