Hearing A New World: The Aesthetic Use of Technology in Pop-Rock

Abstract

At odds with the relevance it has as object of aesthetical experience around the world, pop-rock music is still a rare subject in philosophical inquiry. Nonetheless, it has arisen growing interest in the last two decades, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. In such context, this paper intends to give an overview of the philosophical contributions on the subject made so far, and provide some guidelines for its study in the field of aesthetics. After reconstructing the debate, starting from Theodor W. Adorno’s thoughts on mass music as prolegomena and arriving at the so-called “ontologies of rock”, this article takes an aesthetic point of view concerning the specificity of pop-rock and argues that the decisive aspect of the genre in the choir of popular musical expressions lies in the unique role of technology applied in its production.