Popular Music in Eastern Europe

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Ewa Mazierska

   Pages 1-27

3. State Policies and its Interpretation by Grassroots

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29

      PDF

   2. Propagated, Permitted or Prohibited? State Strategies to Control Musical Entertainment in the First Two Decades of Socialist Hungary

      • Ádám Ignácz

      Pages 31-49

   3. Pop-Rock and Propaganda During the Ceaușescu Regime in Communist Romania

      • Doru Pop

      Pages 51-67

   4. Estonian Invasion as Western Ersatz-pop

      • Aimar Ventsel

      Pages 69-88

   5. The Eagle Rocks: Isolation and Cosmopolitanism in Albania’s Pop-Rock Scene

      • Bruce Williams

      Pages 89-106

4. The Function of ‘Gatekeepers’

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

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   2. Censorship, Dissent and the Metaphorical Language of GDR Rock

      • David Robb

      Pages 109-128

   3. Folk Music as a Folk Enemy: Music Censorship in Socialist Yugoslavia

      • Ana Hofman

      Pages 129-147

   4. ‘The Second Golden Age’: Popular Music Journalism during the Late Socialist Era of Hungary

      • Zsófia Réti

      Pages 149-169

   5. Youth Under Construction: The Generational Shifts in Popular Music Journalism in the Poland of the 1980s

      • Klaudia Rachubińska, Xawery Stańczyk

      Pages 171-193

   6. The Birth of Socialist Disc Jockey: Between Music Guru, DIY Ethos and Market Socialism

      • Marko Zubak

      Pages 195-214

5. Eastern European Stars

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. Karel Gott: The Ultimate Star of Czechoslovak Pop Music

      • Petr A. Bílek

      Pages 217-241

   3. Czesław Niemen: Between Enigma and Political Pragmatism

      • Ewa Mazierska

      Pages 243-264

   4. Omega: Red Star from Hungary

      • Bence Csatári, Béla Szilárd Jávorszky

      Pages 265-282

   5. Perverse Imperialism: Republika’s Phenomenon in the 1980s

      • Piotr Fortuna

      Pages 283-301

6. Back Matter

   Pages 303-311

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This book explores popular music in Eastern Europe during the period of state socialism, in countries such as Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Estonia and Albania. It discusses the policy concerning music, the greatest Eastern European stars, such as Karel Gott, Czesław Niemen and Omega, as well as DJs and the music press. By conducting original research, including interviews and examining archival material, the authors take issue with certain assumptions prevailing in the existing studies on popular music in Eastern Europe, namely that it was largely based on imitation of western music and that this music had a distinctly anti-communist flavour. Instead, they argue that self-colonisation was accompanied with creating an original idiom, and that the state not only fought the artists, but also supported them. The collection also draws attention to the foreign successes of Eastern European stars, both within the socialist bloc and outside of it.
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• Popular music
• pop-rock
• Eastern Europe
• state socialism
• postcolonialism
• stars
• music journalism
• music policy

“This collection represents a multidisciplinary examination of popular music in Eastern Europe during the period of state socialism. By exploring the music of these countries with an internal focus, rather than in a simplistic relation to Western popular culture and the Western imagination, the role of the DJ, of stars, of journalism, of language and technology, as well as politics and youth culture are explored in relation to national politics and culture, between nations and between cultures. What emerges is a series of detailed explorations of music in individual contexts that collectively draw attention to the complexities and nuances of popular music production and consumption in the Eastern Bloc.” (Simon Poole, Falmouth University, UK)

• Studies in Eastern European Cinema , Salford, United Kingdom

  Ewa Mazierska

Policies and ethics