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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR j 7S196H i HINERMAN, STEPHEN DAVID ! AN, INTERPRETIVE JOURNEY ON THE INTERACTION OF j MASS MEDIA, MUSIC* AND LIFESTYLE! LIVING THE | ROCK'N'ROLL LIFE. ! THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PHtOt# 1978 © Copyright by Stephen David Hinerman 1978 AN INTERPRETIVE JOURNEY ON THE INTERACTION OF MASS MEDIA, MUSIC, AND LIFESTYLE: LIVING THE ROCK'N'ROLL LIFE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University by Stephen David Hinerman, A.B., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1978 Reading Committee: Approved by Dr. Leonard Hawes Dr. William Brown Dr. Donald Cegela Adviser Department of Communication To the spirit Spent some time feelin inferior Standin in front of my mirror Combed my hair in a thousand ways But it came out lookin just the same... ... So I got out (Rod Stewart, "Every Picture Tells A Story") Everybody said come on to my side Just to lead me down a blind alleyway Nothin worse than a fools advice... (Graham Parker, "Soul On Ice") ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As I write this, boxes lie all around. An old John Martyn album plays. Its been a long time since I tried to swallow this work whole, since I had the guts to stare it down. But, it's time to clean, to sweep out the old, and I don't have to deal with it unless I want to. All I have to do now is the thank you's. That makes me very relieved. Ultimately, the best story is the one that never gets written, and there are a lot of good ones in the two years that this dissertation aged. Good stories are not necessarily fun ones, or valuable ones, or constructive ones. They're the ones you love to tell because they put you in the middle. You get the attention, the love or the pity. You'll have to meet me sometime to hear the ones about this dissertation, the ones that lie between each sentence. Because unless we talk face to face, unless I can see some sympathy or disgust, I don't want to go into it. I'm tired of the whole damn thing. I will tell a story or two though, just to satisfy myself that some small message may get across. Somewhere in the series of negotiated breakdowns this dissertation went through from word one to rewrite and addition seventy five, Elvis Presley died. He smiled and passed on. Everyone has a theory as to why he chose that particular moment to check out; indeed, it is a tribute to his power that most of us figured he could control it. Just decide, and — snap. I myself think he just got tired of everything. iii But of course, one can only sneer so long. After awhile, everyone expects it, and sees the sneer directed not to themselves but to each, ones personal enemy. "Oh that," we say, "oh hell, he's not angry at me." Okay Elvis, you wore down. Nobody got scared anymore. Middle aged housewives from Charleston,West Virginia squeezed back into their senior prom dresses so you could touch them again, the way you did in 57, and all you wanted was a good five day motel romance, somebody to make you feel again. You got fat instead. But it was all that was left - the only thing you could do that would disgust them. Only it didn't work. They stopped listening, they only heard what they wanted to hear now. It is enough to make you cease caring and to begin performing. That is what I saw when Elvis died during the dissertation breakdown, which proves I guess that the crazed never stop speaking, we only forget to listen. Then, five weeks ago, English folksinger Sandy Denny died, falling down the stairs right after separating from her family and right before moving to America to make a try for the fame that had eluded her. She never had the problems Elvis had, never his recognition. Her problems were of a different nature, how to get the first word in. She never knew it, of course, but her voice had already answered something for me. Me, I never knew her. I couldn't make her insert an additional song in an album or change an inflection here or there. But she mattered. She forced me to hear the world differently, to transcend the crowd. To reach outside my time, iv I think I just let her sing. I like to think I listened. She has to be in this dissertation. I have to lift my glass in her direction. Yes, we did it, you and I, we can rest a bit now. * * * * And, to the ones who were constant and around: The writings of Greil Marcus and Robert Christgau were- and continue to be - formative. They, in abstentia, must be thanked. My family was constant in its support, in every way. My personal friends, John David and Rita, were comfort many times, and besides, I promised John David his name would be in the dissertation. Deanna Robinson, by being a personal friend, kept me in school, and by being a personal argumentative friend, kept me from giving up on ideas. And, last and most: Charlie Laufersweiler, G.R.I,, is responsible for a great deal of the clarity, precision ... hell, he figured out a lot of it. He always listened, gathered references, forced me into logic ... you think it's sloppy now, you should have seen it before he got through with it. I thank him totally. John Drop, G.R.I., is responsible for a great deal of what I now call my dexterity. Before I met John, I was fairly normal. After I met him, I began to see the world through a different set of glasses (coke bottles, telescopes, sheets of red tin). It is the highest compliment I can think of to say that without John, this dissertation V would have been completely different and probably no fun at all. And Leonard Hawes is responsible for more than anyone else, except me, for this dissertation. He ran interference, carried the ball, took out the middle guard, and even pulled off a statue of liberty or two. If Len Hawes had not been the advisor, this dissertation not only would have never been passed, but would never have been written. He gave me a hell of a lot of freedom, and took on a hell of a lot of responsibility. I thank him for caring and standing alone. And finally, to my editor, typist, critic, friend, and wife Nancy. It is probably our dissertation, and much of the pain it brought is still unable to be spoken. How much I am thankful I may never be able to say. And that, my reader, is the tragedy, the tragedy you will never know, that lies between the lines. vi VITA October 28, 1950 Born - Huntington, West Virginia 1972 B.A., Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 1973-1974 Graduate Assistant, Department of Educational Media, Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 1974 M.A., Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia 1974-1977 Graduate Assistant, The Ohio State University, Department of Communication, Columbus, Ohio 1977-1978 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Colorado-Boulder, Boulder, Colorado PUBLICATIONS "Living the Rock 'n' Roll Life: Ideology as Mass Fantasy", paper presented to the Conference on Culture and Communciation, Temple University, 1977 FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Communications Studies in Mass Communication: Professor Deanna Robinson Studies in Communication Theory and Criticism: Professor Leonard Hawes vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1.1 On Words and Writing 2 1.2 The Topic and the Plan for Study 7 1.3 Doing the Topic in Hostile Territory and Some Fears Implicit Brought to the Open 12 1.4 Suppositions of Academic Popular Music Research Critiqued 19 1.5 Paradigm Now 22 1.6 Widening the Paradigm 24 1.7 On Style in Criticism 28 1.8 A Possible Scenario 31 1.9 A Search for Method 32 1.10 Phenomenological