McClary and Walser (1988), "Start Making Sense!: Musicology Wrestles with Rock"

McClary and Walser (1988) identify the problem with using musicological methods to study rock music.

1. Classical musicologists often deride popular music as a lesser form.

2. McClary and Walser (1988) argue that this is due to the limitations of classical musicology as a method for anything besides classical music. By parsing out the various short-comings of classical music studies, such as the difficulties of notating and explaining nuances of performance and “the sensual power” (p. 289) of music, the authors demonstrate that the problem is not with popular music. Instead, the problem is with shoving popular music into a classical music paradigm. It is not that popular music falls short of some artistic bright line, but that classical musicology lacks the tools to describe the very different traditions of rock and other popular genres.