(Based on Rockin’ the Borders: Rock Music and Social, Cultural, and Political Change by Bjorn Horgby & Fredrik Nilsson and Rock Around the Block by Timothy Ryback.)
Following the Second World War, in the 1950s, several countries experienced a post-war economic boom. As this boom allowed people to spend less time working and more time relaxing and enjoying art, this was the first time that pop music became a significant part of everyday youth culture. Rock music was the most popular kind of music at this time. Rock music emerged as an evolution of various African-American music genres, as a style more accessible to white individuals. Rock took inspiration from genres such as blues and jazz regarding its instrumentation, structure, and lyrical content. The rise of rock music coincided with the emergence of the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union as the world’s two most powerful, starkly opposed countries during the Cold War. As music is an important form of self-expression, early rock music was inherently tied to the political movements of the era. Similar forms of rock music diffused all over the world from the US, but cultural variations also caused significant differences between the styles of rock made in different countries. This includes a unique culture surrounding rock in Eastern Europe, much of which was occupied by the Soviet Union during the Cold War (Horgby and Nilsson).
As popular rock music emerged in the 1950s in the United States, it was considered by its listeners as an expression of dissatisfaction that could bridge the gap between races. The cultural connection between black and white music fans over rock music had a significant effect on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The hippies arose in the 1960s, which represented the anti-system/counter-culture ideas among the young rock fans in the US during the controversial Vietnam War (Horgby and Nilsson).
Along with images of dissatisfaction and liberation, rock music conjured images of anti-tradition and authority, counter-hegemony, and sexual freedom. Elvis Presley was one of the most iconic American rock artists, whose highly anti-traditional and sexualized “macho man” image caused great scandals. Companies and governments in power took it upon themselves to censor the “dirty” imagery associated with rock music. Rock music was developing similarly in Great Britain, where legendary bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones emerged; these British bands adopted the drug-heavy culture of the hippies and the anti-hegemonic messages of rock, but also created their own unique subcultures, such as Mod (Horgby and Nilsson).
American music mainly first diffused to Eastern Europe with jazz in the mid 20th century. Eastern governments, under Stalin, were highly disapproving of the popularity of jazz because it represented an American cultural invasion, and had a rebellious and chaotic image. Eastern authorities made efforts to censor and arrest jazz musicians. However, jazz was too popular to contain, and jazz ultimately became accepted as an appropriate form of music in the Soviet Union. This paved the way for rock to diffuse to the East more smoothly. It was successful in Poland and Hungary, two liberal countries who developed their own styles of rock. However, this diffusion was still not without backlash and criticism (Ryback).
Similar to jazz, and similar to the backlash against rock in the US, rock in Eastern Europe was seen as a symbol of American imperialism, the social ills of youth, and anti-nationalism. Multiple legal bans of rock music occurred, resulting in instances of great violence between the youth and authorities. The music was considered by its fans to be an escape from communist political ideas that felt forced upon them. The popularity of the music prevailed. The end of an anti-Soviet counterrevolution in Hungary was an important turning point for Eastern European rock culture; Hungary lost the revolution, and was overtaken by Communist leader Janos Kadar. However, Kadar importantly supported Western rock ‘n’ roll culture, and set the path for Eastern European rock musicians to further innovate their own styles as rock progressed to newer styles like punk and post-punk (Ryback).
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