Professor Graeme Boone's love for music began the first day his fingers were able to reach the keys of a piano -- and now he's giving lectures on rock 'n' roll.

Boone, a professor of music at Harvard University, will speak about "Pop Academics" at 2:30 p.m. today in the School of Music Recital Hall.

He's certainly come a long way since he bought his first album.

"It was by a psychedelic '60s group from San Fransisco called Country Joe & the Fish," he said.

These days, Boone has progressed beyond hippie rock, but not forgotten it. He specializes in such diverse subjects as ethnomusicology, the origins of rock, jazz and the early Renaissance composer Guillaume Duffy. He has written essays on jazz as well as articles on rock groups including another California phenomenon, the Grateful Dead.

The main focus of his speech will be his belief that people should develop a personal relationship with the music they listen to.

"People shouldn't be afraid to analyze music," he said, adding that society is afraid to examine music because it thinks it will lose its sense of immediacy.

Boone is clearly an up-and-coming scholar in his field," said Suzanne Roy, associate director of the Penn State's Music Department.

Boone questions society's interest in the origins of popular music. It concerns him that popular bands, such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, are viewed as a product of their recording company instead of a product of their environment.

Laura Macy, assistant professor of music at the University, and friend of Boone, invited him to speak. The faculty and students who attend his lecture will leave with a keen sense of musicology, she said.

"I'm very excited to speak at Penn State because I've never been there before," Boone said.

Boone's lecture, co-sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, is free and open to the public. It is the final presentation in the lecture series "Music Today: 1992-1993" sponsored by the Penn State School of Music.