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Theodore Gracyk. Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1996. 280 pp. Cloth $49.95.
Morehead State University philosophy professor Theodore Gracyk tackles a remarkable number of music-related issues, ideas, and personalities in this brief, well-documented study. He unapologetically justifies rock music as a cultural phenomenon unique to the 20th century. "Existing primarily as a social category," writes Gracyk, "rock eludes or supersedes aesthetics" (207). This conclusion is reached after the author has determined that rock recording is a cooperative artistic venture that is distinctively dependent upon technology. It is also an activity that is time-bound, capsuled in a mediated format, both creative and commercial in nature,...