Faking it: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music

In the last fifty years, the quest for authenticity, for the 'real', has become a dominant factor in musical taste - whether it be the folklorist's search for forgotten bluesmen, the rock critic's elevation of raw power over sophistication, or the importance of bullet wounds to the careers of hip-hop artists such as 50 Cent. "Faking It" explodes the myth of what it means to be 'real' and 'fake' in pop music. From 30s blues singer Leadbelly to Moby's use of his singing over half a century later, the appropriation of black music by a predominantly white musical fanbase, Pop Idol, the fact that no one in Cuba listens to Buena Vista Social Club to Kurt Cobain's suicide note and the fear it expressed of 'faking it'.