It condenses experience into symbolic forms that can be readily communicated. Thus it creates socially shared meanings that offer its audiences ways of interpreting experiences. It also gives "private drives a public language." Therefore providing teenagers with a means of dealing with their sexuality and allowing them to share their private feelings with others.
Its form is epideictic in that it celebrates or rejects the present through praise, censure, inspiration and illumination.
In its symbolic form, it links words with rhythm and melody using repetition, alliteration, puns, double entendre, and cliched expressions. The symbolic representations created by music condense complex experiences and emotions into easily recognized patterns that almost become cliches of growing up. For example, first love, young love, summer love, impossible dreams, etc.
In its physical mode, it stimulates the body and its capacity for sensation. Thus the link between most popular music and dance.
It communicates related ideas about fashion, values, attitudes toward work, responsibility, school, parents, etc. At its most basic, rock music is about growing up and the difficulties that teens face in becoming adults in our society. Rock is about fun--about enjoying youth and the joys of sex.
Some statistics to help you understand the phenomenal growth of rock during its early days:
From 1955-1959, the popular music business grew by 260%. The year 1955 was chosen as a base because that year the 45rpm record was first released. During this period, the total revenues of the music industry were two times the gross receipts of the three national television networks combined, four times the gross receipts of professional sports, and fifty-five times the gross receipts of Broadway plays.