Contributed by Townsman Rick Massimo.

Everyone has certain forms of music they prefer to others. This is subjective. The impulse to try to describe one’s favorite music as objectively superior to others is what is commonly meant by rockism, a term that had a brief fling in professional and amateur music-critical circles a couple of years ago. See Kelefa Sanneh‘s seminal piece in the Sunday New York Times.

The strict-constructionist definition of rockism is an exaltation of the mythology of ’60s and early ’70s rock – teenage boys with guitars working out their feelings on paper in the afternoon and shouting them through microphones at night. (The loose-constructionist definition calls rockism an exaltation of any form of music on pseudo-objective grounds.) Rockism usually includes a derisive sneer toward some other form of music, usually whatever is currently popular on the charts.
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