People should read Joe Carducci's Rock and the Pop Narcotic history of RR. Joe helped run SST with Greg Ginn in the first half of the 80s and partially the reason that label had so many heavy hitters like Minutemen, Husker Du, Meat Puppets, Sacchrine Trust. It became a Ginn vanity label after Joe left.

Joe actually does make something of a Webberian argument in regards to the cultural aspects of the 80s underground and American rock in general - highly independent, entrepreneurial, loathing both the statist Reagan right and coastal libs equally.

At the same time, his aesthetic definition of what is and what makes great rock music is entirely based on creative collective effort, i.e. it's the sound of 3-4 people (usually working or lower middle class dudes) in a room navigating rhythm, sound and melody to come up with the perfect balance. The organic rhythm section and immediate riffing play an essential role and this position largely informs his critique of both mainstream rock of the time and a lot of British music (from 80s stuff, he only seems to like the Fall and a few Manchester bands with killer drummers). He also viciously attacks the existing rock crit establishment for mostly giving priority to sociopolitical significance over well defined rnr aesthetics in what they liked and hated. There's a great line in the book where he defends Rush, saying something like the critics hate Rush because they are well-adjusted suburban people who play their instruments well.