Authenticity, Empathy, and the Creative Imagination

This article reviews the changing beliefs about artistic integrity and aesthetic value that feed into judgments of rock authenticity, taking issue with scholarship reduces authenticity to acts misguided judgment, myths, conceits, fakery. It argues there is no consensus meaning in music, as understandings change according varied experiences, perceptions, circumstances, vocabularies participants. Authenticity should not be approached cynically if based on deception, gullibility, ideological illusions, but for insights it can provide circumstances afford imaginative creative connection experiential empathy.