Frank Kogan

I didn't include 'authenticity' in my definition as I'm not sure what *I* mean by the word in this context, let alone what rockists make of it!

Well, "authenticity" is a buzz word, so you don't have to have a definition yourself, and the "rockist" doesn't know what he means by it (when he's using the word itself) or what is stirring him up and bugging him when he makes an authenticity-type argument (which he can do whether he's using the words "authentic" and "real" or not). But the point is, you can recognize when someone is making an authenticity argument even if you yourself don't know what you would mean by the word in this context. And this (from my Busted fan) is a classic authenticity argument, even though it doesn't use the word "authenticity": "they don't give a shit about what people think." In fact, I'd say that this is the authenticity argument, and all the other reasons he gives (which were all over the place as to whether they're about the creative process, the music itself - its having and "edge" - or the audience (older than Jonas Brothers' and not exclusively female)) are subsidiary to this one. Except maybe for "originality," he wouldn't care about the other reasons if "giving a shit about what people think" weren't the big issue for him. And again, how am I different from him, other than being more self-aware and sociologically probing? I'm the one who wrote, "Now that Paris has been beaten down, Britney seems like the last remaining public figure who's not trying to say the right thing." How is this statement of mine not an authenticity argument, and how is it not "rockist"?