Are any of them, Britney Spears or Madonna, for example, as far from being rock musicians as Pat Boone was in the late fifties and early sixties?
Pat Boone was not a rock musician (esp. if we are looking at rock as it is today.) He was taking pop and R&B and changing it completely, and it wasn't pop or rock anymore. The pop music produced by Britney or Madonna may not be rock artists, but the music they make usually has the same backbone as rock. If that makes sense. Basically,, pat Boone changed his music so much it didn't fit into either genre of rock or pop but Britney and Madonna encompass pop and have rock aspects