Rockin' Out provides a comprehensive social history of popular music in the United States from the heyday of Tin Pan Alley to the current sounds of electronic dance music and teen pop, from the invention of the phonograph to the promise of the Internet. It offers an analysis and critique of the music itself and the conditions of its production and consumption. The text is organized chronologically and thematically around particular genres/styles of music and addresses such dimensions as race, class, gender, ethnicity, technology, copyright and the structure of the music industry as they affect the development of the music.