The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of rock and popular teenage music on public school music education programs. "Frankstown Secondary School" is a large suburban public school offering a guitar program that includes a strong popular music component. Subjects in this study were selected from students enrolled in Frankstown's guitar program. They participated in two rounds of in-depth interviews, which were recorded, transcribed and analyzed. The guitar program at Frankstown emerged as a powerful educational tool. Students who deliberately "chose the margin" or adopted "oppositional frames" found a program that explicitly embraced the margin. Guitar class was a place where the students seemed comfortable; a place where they were able to "act out" their oppositional persona within the larger Frankstown culture--a place that accepted them as they were and was a product of their own negotiations with the instructor and one another.