@article{ref1,
title="The Sacralization of Disorder: Symbolism in Rock Music",
journal="Sociology of religion",
year="1979",
author="Martin, Bernice",
volume="40",
number="2",
pages="87-124",
abstract="All culture simultaneously reinforces the existing order and offers alternative visions. All symbolic communication is ambiguous. Youth culture is a particular locus of &quot;the sacred&quot; in modern societies. Following Victor Turner it is argued that youth is a (liminoid) stage in the life cycle, characterised by the use of symbols of &quot;anti-structure&quot; as a vehicle for an age-specific social solidarity-&quot;communitas.&quot; Rock music embodies both halves of the paradox. Dress, behavior, musical techniques and lyrics display anarchic, taboo-breaking or expressively ambiguous meanings-&quot;anti-structure.&quot; &quot;Communitas&quot; is signalled by ritualized symbols of group identity particularly in the beat of the music, in common fashions and through the star performer who acts as sacred &quot;totem.&quot; Lower strata youth emphasizes ritual elements while higher strata develop the symbols of &quot;anti-structure&quot; in an extreme individualist direction. The relationship between &quot;anti-structure&quot; and &quot;communitas&quot; is sometimes symbiotic and sometimes contradictory especially when it expresses a cross-class tension.<p />",
language="",
issn="1069-4404",
doi="10.2307/3709782",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3709782"
}