Roving through the history of rock music from Elvis Presley's first recordings in 1954 to kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, This book gives an account of rock as a distinct artistic medium. Theodore Gracyk argues that rock and roll is a performance style, one in a number of musical styles comprising rock. What distinguishes rock is how it is mediated by technology: the art of rock is in the recording. In establishing this claim, he uses interviews, observations of the critics and comparison with other musical forms. He also takes up popular academic myths and stereotypes about rock and focuses on the features that generate controversy. Finally, he investigates the relationships between rock and romanticism and commercialism, and challenges the orthodoxy of making grand distinctions between "serious" and "popular" art.