As a theory it works well in explaining how economic, cultural and social factors produce a platform for something new. Peterson discusses how technology plays a huge role by looking at the Transistor and Vinyl. However the theory crumbles when it doesn’t go further than this. It doesn’t look at other and arguably more relevant technology such as the base guitar and amp.
It seems that this theory has one massive floor. It doesn’t take into account the music. It shows how a platform was built for something new but doesn’t explain why this new fad was Rock ‘n’ Roll. Therefore it is hard to understand how Peterson’s theory improves our understanding of its birth.
For me it is hard to accept a theory to do with music which in fact have very little to do with the music itself. Why wasn’t there a Jazz boom with Miles Davis instead of Elvis and Rock ‘n’ roll??
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This is pretty good but I would suggest that the lack of emphasis on why the music sounded as it did, and why this particular sound was so universally embraced is more of an omission than a flaw (not a floor) as Peterson clearly seems to have felt that these factors were outside of his remit.
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