by Hilary Rosen

About the author: Hilary Rosen is the president and chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 1956 the attention of America was largely directed at a singer whose gyrations that year led Ed Sullivan to call him "unfit for a family audience." In 1997, there are those who think Elvis Presley is still around. On this the recording industry is neutral.

Repeated Arguments Against Popular Music

But we see a similarity in the attacks on Elvis and those on contemporary music that lead us to this hearing today.

For much of this century, whether Ragtime or Rhythm and Blues or Rap, each generation has seen adults who compare it to the music of their youth and say, "This is different."

For good reason.

Popular music, after all, has often become...