Richard A. Peterson's views about the development of Rock ‘n’ Roll are effective in explaining the emergence of it and help our understanding but there are gaps in his theory.
Peterson’s catalysts of Rock ‘n’ Roll, (6 key factors) provides a good insight into the sociological and economical problems at that time. However he fails to consider how much of an impact the actual sound of the music had and how different it was to music before. I strongly feel that Peterson’s theory was flawed, he ruled out one major contributing factor, the extraordinary sound of the music. Another weakness of this theory is that it does not explain why it was this genre of music that emerged. Influential new artists such as Elvis Presley are ruled out as a factor so therefore he is overlooking other factors of why it was Rock ‘n’ Roll and why it was popular.
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I think that Peterson explains a set of unusual socio-economic factors (rather than problems) but I do take your point that the one thing that he generally does not concern himself with is the actual music.
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