Rock Star Role Models Win New Fans

Thu Jun 17, 2004 10:00 AM ET

By Jill Serjeant


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hip-swiveling Elvis, womanizer Mick Jagger and “Material Girl” Madonna may be some of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest musical icons but as positive role models, they’ve yet to win many fans.


Think again, argues rock critic Tim Riley. Far from being pilloried as a destructive influence on American youth, Riley says the best rock ‘n’ roll music celebrated sexual openness, honored tolerance, individualism and social responsibility in a way that helped baby boomers become better partners and better parents.


“Rock actually helped lead the culture toward a healthier, happier paradigm of male-female relations,” Riley writes in his book “Fever: How Rock and Roll Transformed Gender in America.”


“It depicted the world as a place waiting to be explored and enjoyed rather than as a system of tests to pass or fail,” Riley writes….


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