Professor Lundy's Guide to Rock Music Connoisseurship

Abstract

This empirical and theoretical book should be of interest to anyone who dares to consider the contentious topic of measuring and justifying aesthetic value in music, as well as the issue of how experts compare to nonexperts in terms of aesthetic fluency, aesthetic sensitivity and aesthetic judgment in appraising music. The book should be both practical and personal for anyone who has a music collection and loves to see it grow continuously but wisely. What makes someone an expert? The key issue tackled here is how one develops into such a connoisseur of music. Overall, the book should spark much healthy debate about rock music quality and aesthetics in general, both among scholars of aesthetics and the musically passionate general public. Many of the ideas for connoisseur development for music could also be applied to appraisal in other areas of aesthetics beyond music, such as films, visual art, or literature.

Words of Praise

See book review in Cincinnati Magazine, Duane Lundy Lends Us His Ear for Great Music, by Kelly Blewett, December 21, 2023

Professor Lundy's Guide to Rock Music Connoisseurship is simply fantastic. It is written with elegance, eloquence, and passion. His vast knowledge of rock’n’roll will enlighten every reader, and his enthusiasm for this topic is infectious. The book is designed to be comprehensible to any reader, but also carefully cited to please the most demanding scholar. He successfully aims to teach the reader how to become expert in evaluating the aesthetic quality of music, using a precision system to guide us into deeper and defensible judgements on what pieces of music are the best and which are the worst. This is a beautiful book that enriches the heart and brightens the mind.
--Rhett Diessner, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Lewis-Clark State College, author of Understanding the Beauty Appreciation Trait: Empirical Research on Seeking Beauty in All Things

Aesthetic judgments of music are important, but poorly understood. To the everyday listener, they may seem arbitrary or otherwise inexplicable. In this book, Professor Lundy offers an unashamedly positive view on aesthetic judgments, emphasizing their rational nature and showing how various non-aesthetic biases that do exist can be minimized. The result is a joyful celebration of music, science, and connoisseurship, which is sure to spark further interest and debate on this fascinating topic.
--Professor Patrik N. Juslin, Music Psychology Group, Uppsala University, Sweden

About the Author

Duane Emerson Lundy is Professor of Psychology at Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, he earned a Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology and has taught courses in most areas of psychology including statistics, tests and measurements, social psychology, interpersonal attraction and empirical aesthetics. He taught for eight years at Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina, before moving on to IU East in 2006, where he has been ever since.