This conversation traverses topics such as rock ’n’ roll’s association with notions of freedom, self-expression and individualism in post-War America; how performers and listeners became subjects through rock in both liberal and socialist contexts; the shifting political significance of the notion of ‘the youth’ in the 1950s and 60s; the association between rock and the post-war emergence of the civil rights movement; the inter-meshing of racial and anti-communist sentiment—black, white, and red; and the move from ‘rock ’n’ roll’ to ‘rock’, and what political values were left behind (and what remained) with this change. The conversation concludes with a chat about the recent attempts to diversify Rolling Stone’s ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ list, as well as a discussion of how ethnographic processes applied in the process of researching rock ’n’ roll culture for Nick’s forthcoming book Rocking in a Free World: Popular Music and the Politics of Freedom in Postwar America.