Eric Clapton - How is Authenticity Constructed?

Authenticity is a major issue in discourses on popular music, and seems to be the bedrock of the distinction between 'pop' and 'rock', i.e., whether musicians can be trusted ('rock') or not ('pop'), which comes down to the distinction of whether musicians are 'authentic' or 'commercial' (Moore, 2002). In these discourses, authenticity is assumed to mean 'true to its origins'.

Certain authors have pondered that this distinction may be illusory, but even so, have divided authenticity into several categories (Moore, 2002): first person authenticity, where original music is performed in a manner that makes the audience believe the music is authentic: that is, authentically created, and performed; and third person authenticity, where a performer of music succeeds in conveying the impression of having accurately conveyed the expression of an - absent - other (Moore, 2002).

Authenticity is assumed, by many authors, to be...
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