By underscoring difference, while at the same time calling attention to the politics of passing, The Commitments models an enabling contradiction of liberal humanism: the urge to achieve universality by making real/fake distinctions, while, at the same time, implying that such distinctions are fluid and contingent (created by institutions).
This contradiction informs all soul music, where authenticity ("aural realism") is manufactured precisely to the degree that one is able to pass as--
In other pop music styles, authenticity might be located in, or underwritten by:
We might conclude that every form of Euro-American popular music announces itself either (1) as a new way to signify authenticity or (2) as the conventionalization of a style perceived as authentic: