Icone in azione. Il Pop e il Rock come drammaturgie

The iconic quality of ‘rock image’ is often only a byproduct of the aesthetics of the rock show conceived as a theatrical performance. This tendency of rock - and of popular music more generally - toward drama represents a historic value, even if its present reliance on video as a promotional means, and on teen-oriented television series as a shortcut to fame, has partially weakened its attitude as a ‘live’ experience. My argument is focused primarily on the concept of necessity. It appears that a certain amount of extra-musical messages is organic and necessary in rock music. This necessity has often been brilliantly integrated in the development of rock performance. Each theatrical feature exploited by rock - the frontman as main actor (and sometime director) of the show, his prossemics, his props, and eventually costumes, scenographies, and various kinds of puppets and machinery in motion - may be felt as ‘necessary’ for the narrative ingrained in the lyrics, in the first place. Furthermore, its non-musical and non-verbal messages, as well as stylistic features, are committed to drammaturgy as they support, enhance or expand the musical message itself. The sense of necessity can act by ways of affinity, complementarity, or even contrast to the musical presentation, but in any case full expression is achieved through visual as much as theatrical means. Action is meaningful -- visualism is only one side of the coin, the other one being dynamic and kinetic narration. In its second section, the paper proposes a preliminary catalogue of visual and theatrical themes that are organic to rock tradition. Three case studies - Mick Jagger, Ian Anderson, and Pink Floyd - will be discussed in the third section as examples of critic visualizations of typical rock mythologies: sexuality, juvenilism, and alienation.