David Holbrook, in Pop and Truth, as quoted in The Sociology of Rock (1978) by Simon Frith,
“

The attitude to sexual love in the "pop" song is so ugly and mechanical as to seem schizoid, and psychopathological. Exposed as they are to such powerful cultural statements, young people are being encouraged to forfeit genuine commitment in love in favour of depersonalised sexual activity, with an undercurrent of violence, and to take false solutions in which they must deny their deepest needs, by hate.

— David Holbrook on Pop music

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The attitude to sexual love in the "pop" song is so ugly and mechanical as to seem schizoid, and psychopathological. Exposed as they are to such powerful cultural statements, young people are being encouraged to forfeit genuine commitment in love in favour of depersonalised sexual activity, with an undercurrent of violence, and to take false solutions in which they must deny their deepest needs, by hate." in the context of "David Holbrook, in Pop and Truth, as quoted in The Sociology of Rock (1978) by Simon Frith, " to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Pop music" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

About David Holbrook

David Holbrook (9 January 1923 – 11 August 2011) was a British writer, poet and academic.