When we first started reading about what Rock n' Roll was to parents, their children, and how it helped generated the definition of what a teenager was, we learned about how it was being received as a new genre. This chapter, however, dives into how much of an impact Rock n' Roll became after establishing it's place in American culture.
Whether the parents of the 1950's liked it or not Rock n' Roll was here to stay. But not just to stay, to rally the troops, or protestors rather, to ignite the soul, and experiment in every way possible. Once it was apparent that Rock n' Roll had major influences on the teenage society, smart marketers began catering to them through music. Such marketers would be Presidential candidates. Politicians began to realize that if they wanted to obtain the votes of America's youth, that they needed to do so in a way that they could relate to. President Reagan went as far as to include Bruce Springsteen in one of his speeches.
The power that Rock n' Roll had, and still has, is the ability to "[create] an internal dialogue that [helps] us discover who we are" as Eric Alterman puts it (ASU, 191).
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