FOR AMERICAN TEENAGERS, rebelliousness is a fairly common stance. To a greater or lesser degree, asserting one's own sense of independence, in the adolescent years, involves breaking away from parental authority. Many teens conspicuously adopt fashions, hairstyles, and modes of expression that seem designed to shock the sensibilities of the "older generation," and many make a point of criticizing or rejecting the values of their parents.

Popular music has long played an important role in this process, serving as a vehicle by which young people have asserted their independence and rejected the values of their elders symbolically. For some parents and older people, the music of the younger generation presents a real, rather than symbolic, challenge to the social order.

Historically, older generations have railed against supposed decadent and immoral influences in the music their children listened to. It may seem surprising...