Rockumentaries are commodities that construct authoritative interpretations of popular music history, shaping how we come to know, value, hear, consume, and identify with popular music and those who create it. The arguments rockumentaries make, and the ways they make them, are the subject of this dissertation. Rather than position rockumentary as a genre, I investigate it as a set of representational tendencies to be examined in relation to stardom, authenticity, fandom, the culture industry, and the music(ians) these films represent. My introduction argues that rockumentaries operate according to what I call the offstage pattern, a dialectical structure in which onstage and offstage spaces constitute one another as spectacular and intimate, respectively. The offstage pattern exploits our desire for privileged access to stars and the industries in which they work, selling us the idea that there exists some more real, more authentic reality that the rockumentary will uniquely allow us to see and hear. In my three chapters I take a thematic approach to rockumentary production, developing analytical methods rooted in the work I understand rockumentaries themselves to be performing. Specifically, I investigate how rockumentaries (de)mystify musical work, represent “trainwrecks,” and make psychogeographical arguments. Throughout, I focus especially on the ways rockumentaries use music in constructing their arguments, how they encourage us not only to listen to this, but listen like this.
","abstract_html":"<p>Rockumentaries are commodities that construct authoritative interpretations of popular music history, shaping how we come to know, value, hear, consume, and identify with popular music and those who create it. The arguments rockumentaries make, and the ways they make them, are the subject of this dissertation. Rather than position rockumentary as a genre, I investigate it as a set of representational tendencies to be examined in relation to stardom, authenticity, fandom, the culture industry, and the music(ians) these films represent. My introduction argues that rockumentaries operate according to what I call the <em>offstage pattern</em>, a dialectical structure in which onstage and offstage spaces constitute one another as spectacular and intimate, respectively. The offstage pattern exploits our desire for privileged access to stars and the industries in which they work, selling us the idea that there exists some more real, more authentic reality that the rockumentary will uniquely allow us to see and hear. In my three chapters I take a thematic approach to rockumentary production, developing analytical methods rooted in the work I understand rockumentaries themselves to be performing. Specifically, I investigate how rockumentaries (de)mystify musical work, represent “trainwrecks,” and make psychogeographical arguments. Throughout, I focus especially on the ways rockumentaries use music in constructing their arguments, how they encourage us not only to listen <em>to </em>this, but listen <em>like </em>this.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Eckenroth, Lindsey"],"institution":"The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York","degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Music","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Amy Herzog"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":["Mark Spicer","Landon Palmer","Stephanie Jensen-Moulton"],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:04Z","subjects":["Film and Media Studies","Music","Musicology","Performance Studies","popular music","documentary film","rock stardom","psychogeography","creative work","trainwreck"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4476","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Amy Herzog"]},{"key":"dc:contributor.committeemember","label":"Committee Member","values":["Mark Spicer","Landon Palmer","Stephanie Jensen-Moulton"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Eckenroth, Lindsey"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2022-09-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Music"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Film and Media Studies","Music","Musicology","Performance Studies","popular music","documentary film","rock stardom","psychogeography","creative work","trainwreck"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4476"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Rockumentaries are commodities that construct authoritative interpretations of popular music history, shaping how we come to know, value, hear, consume, and identify with popular music and those who create it. The arguments rockumentaries make, and the ways they make them, are the subject of this dissertation. Rather than position rockumentary as a genre, I investigate it as a set of representational tendencies to be examined in relation to stardom, authenticity, fandom, the culture industry, and the music(ians) these films represent. My introduction argues that rockumentaries operate according to what I call the offstage pattern, a dialectical structure in which onstage and offstage spaces constitute one another as spectacular and intimate, respectively. The offstage pattern exploits our desire for privileged access to stars and the industries in which they work, selling us the idea that there exists some more real, more authentic reality that the rockumentary will uniquely allow us to see and hear. In my three chapters I take a thematic approach to rockumentary production, developing analytical methods rooted in the work I understand rockumentaries themselves to be performing. Specifically, I investigate how rockumentaries (de)mystify musical work, represent “trainwrecks,” and make psychogeographical arguments. Throughout, I focus especially on the ways rockumentaries use music in constructing their arguments, how they encourage us not only to listen to this, but listen like this.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Listen Like This: Audiovisual Argument in Rockumentary"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Amy Herzog"],"dc:contributor.committeemember":["Mark Spicer","Landon Palmer","Stephanie Jensen-Moulton"],"dc:creator":["Eckenroth, Lindsey"],"dc:date.available":["2022-09-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Rockumentaries are commodities that construct authoritative interpretations of popular music history, shaping how we come to know, value, hear, consume, and identify with popular music and those who create it. The arguments rockumentaries make, and the ways they make them, are the subject of this dissertation. Rather than position rockumentary as a genre, I investigate it as a set of representational tendencies to be examined in relation to stardom, authenticity, fandom, the culture industry, and the music(ians) these films represent. My introduction argues that rockumentaries operate according to what I call the offstage pattern, a dialectical structure in which onstage and offstage spaces constitute one another as spectacular and intimate, respectively. The offstage pattern exploits our desire for privileged access to stars and the industries in which they work, selling us the idea that there exists some more real, more authentic reality that the rockumentary will uniquely allow us to see and hear. In my three chapters I take a thematic approach to rockumentary production, developing analytical methods rooted in the work I understand rockumentaries themselves to be performing. Specifically, I investigate how rockumentaries (de)mystify musical work, represent “trainwrecks,” and make psychogeographical arguments. Throughout, I focus especially on the ways rockumentaries use music in constructing their arguments, how they encourage us not only to listen to this, but listen like this.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4476"],"dc:subject":["Film and Media Studies","Music","Musicology","Performance Studies","popular music","documentary film","rock stardom","psychogeography","creative work","trainwreck"],"dc:title":["Listen Like This: Audiovisual Argument in Rockumentary"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Music"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy"],"thesis:institution_name":["The Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:00:04Z"}