Rock and Roll and the Transcendentalists

    My English class, English 260: Narratives of Social Protest is currently examining the music of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and their effectiveness as protest.  For tomorrow's class, we also read two articles critiquing the genre of Rock music and its value to society.  One of these articles specifically stood out to me because it relates to our examination of the Transcendentalists in Amcon.  The article is, "The Triumph of Vulgarity"  by Robert Pattison (No, not Robert PattiNson the Twilight actor.)
     I found his article to be extremely irritating, as he used two terms, vulgar and pantheist, as almost the sole adjectives to describe Rock, without ever defining what he meant by either vulgar or pantheist.   However, beyond the irritating, condescending tone of the piece, I found one of his claims to be quite intriguing.  On page 90 of the essay he claims that, "Rock is the vulgar emissary of Romantic pantheism."  The next ten pages of the essay use quotes from Emerson and Whitman to show the "roots" of Rock music as being, in essence, transcendentalism.  According to Pattison, rock music a permanentely youthful, "infinite network of selfhood illuminating itself in diverse moments of individual splendor"(90). 
     While I do not agree with Pattison's assessment that rock music is necessarily vulgar or confined to the individual due to these inspirations, I do agree that one can fine many of the traits of transcendentalism within Rock music.   There is a focus upon finding oneself and living in the moment  and transcending time which echoes Emerson's, "Nature,"  urging people to find the divine within themselves and the world surrounding them.  
     It is interesting in this sense as well that Rock music has become a public forum for protest, notably in the 1960s and 70s.   Bob Dylan, who himself read Emerson and Whitman and took inspiration from their work and the concept of the "over-soul,"  was seen as one of the great protest song writers of his time, even though he eschewed that label.   His music itself promoted democratic activity by drawing attention to inequality and violence in the United States, and his songs have been used in association with protest since, though not necessarily at his own urging.  In this way, I can start to draw parallels between not only the transcendentalists and Rock music, but also popular culture and democracy.   I am not sure if Putnam would consider listening to protest music together "social capital,"  but I think that it is interesting to see yet another link between what has traditionally been considered "social life"  and civic life.   I am still trying to sort out all the connections between these ideas, but I am going to continue to try and put these different subject materials together.