"Rock music has come a long way, you know. Charting the genre's evolution, mapping its seemingly infinite offshoots and hyphenated mini-trends – these would be full-time jobs, lifelong careers. Rock twists around with soul, bops along with funk, embraces pop, and (often horrifically) flirts with rap and hip-hop. All of this hybridity speaks to rock 'n' roll's revolutionary spirit and its classic refusal to work cleanly within established borders.
Of course, these experiments often come with plenty of controversy among fans and critics alike; when rock, for example, hooks up with the sheen and pulse of dance music, many people are historically just as likely to stare awkwardly at the floor or flee the room as they are to start shimmying. Those who stick around and are willing to get their blood moving have been rewarded for decades with some of the best, most exciting, and most inventive popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries."
