The movie starts and ends with this letter being read. During the opening sequence the following quote by David Bowie is written across the screen, while the song by Simple Minds, Don't You Forget About Me, plays in the background: "And these children that you spit on as they try to change their world are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through."

In the opening scene where the letter is narrated by Brian, the reading ends with: "That's how we saw ourselves at 7 o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed."

When social workers start to research a subculture group they often find that the members of the subculture group are less that helpful. Consider the following quotes:

"It is highly unlikely that the members of any of the subcultures described in this book (Reggae, Hipsters, Beats, Teddy Boys, Mods, Skin Heads and Punks) would recognize themselves here. They are still less likely to welcome any efforts on our part to understand them. After all, we the sociologists and interested straights, threaten to kill with kindness the forms which we seek to elucidate...we should hardly be surprised to find our 'sympathetic' readings of subordinate culture are regarded by members of a subculture with just as much indifference and contempt as the hostile labels imposed by the courts and the press." From: Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige, Routledge, 1967.

A 16-year-old mod from South London said: "You'd really hate an adult to understand you. That's the only thing you've got over them - the fact that you can mystify and worry them." From: Generation X by Hamblett and Deverson, Tandem, 1964.

III. ROCK MUSIC

Main Entry: 1rock
Pronunciation: 'rдk
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English rokken, from Old English roccian; akin to Old High German rucken to cause to move
Date: 12th century
transitive senses
1 a : to move back and forth in or as if in a cradle b : to wash (placer gravel) in a cradle
2 a : to cause to sway back and forth <a boat rocked by the waves> b (1) : to cause to shake violently (2) : to daze with or as if with a vigorous blow <a hard right rocked the contender> (3) : to astonish or disturb greatly <the scandal rocked the community>
intransitive senses
1 : to become moved backward and forward under often violent impact; also : to move gently back and forth
2 : to move forward at a steady pace; also : to move forward at a high speed <the train rocked through the countryside>
3 : to sing, dance to, or play rock music
synonym SHAKE
- rock the boat : to do something that disturbs the equilibrium of a situation

Main Entry: 2rock
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Date: 1823
1 : a rocking movement
2 : popular music usually played on electronically amplified instruments and characterized by a persistent heavily accented beat, much repetition of simple phrases, and often country, folk, and blues elements

Main Entry: rock and roll
Function: noun
Date: 1954
: 2ROCK 2

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

ROCK, also called ROCK AND ROLL, ROCK ROLL, or ROCK 'N' ROLL form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s.

It is certainly arguable that by the end of the 20th century rock was the world's dominant form of popular music. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it spread to English-speaking countries and across Europe in the '60s, and by the '90s its impact was obvious globally (if in many different local guises). Rock's commercial importance was by then reflected in the organization of the multinational recording industry, in the sales racks of international record retailers, and in the playlist policies of music radio and television. If other kinds of music--classical, jazz, easy listening, country, folk, etc.--are marketed as minority interests, rock defines the musical mainstream. And so over the last half of the 20th century it became the most inclusive of musical labels--everything can be "rocked"--and in consequence the hardest to define. To answer the question What is rock? one first has to understand where it came from and what made it possible. And to understand rock's cultural significance one has to understand how it works socially as well as musically.

1. What is rock?

The difficulty of definition

Dictionary definitions of rock are problematic, not least because the term has different resonance in its British and American usages (the latter is broader in compass). There is basic agreement that rock "is a form of music with a strong beat," but it is difficult to be much more explicit. The Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, based on a vast database of British usage, suggests that "rock is a kind of music with simple tunes and a very strong beat that is played and sung, usually loudly, by a small group