I just recently read an interesting article by Michael Jarrett - "Concerning the Progress of Rock and Roll", in it he describes several theories about popular music. I'll try to summarize it for you...

The beginning is that new "authentic", "creative" musical practices are adopted by a very small number of people, but eventually a more accesible version infiltrates the mainstream and becomes huge, and eventually plays itself out. Most people would agree with this argument and can think of numerous musical examples to support this.
The main point of the article is to try and explain the birth of new creative musical forms.

Jarrett argues that any music form that got overexposed by the mainstream eventually decays into "compost". It is out of that compost that artists create new musical forms, which is done (according to Jarrett) by misreading the previous codes. His example is that Elvis misread the music of Pat Boone to create something new (rockabilly), rappers misread disco and funk of the 70's to make a new form of music. It's important to point out that misreading does not imply accidental or misinterpritation. The main point here is that derivative pop "compost" music is important for the overall cycle of music to create new original ideas, thus keeping the progress alive.

agree? disagree? comments?

Did you read it online, and if so, do you have a link to it? Sounds like it might be an interesting read.

It was published in "Present Tense: Rock & Roll Culture", 1992, Duke University Press.
I didn't find any online links...