Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc explores the rise of youth as
consumers of popular culture and the globalization of popular music in
Russia and Eastern Europe. This collection of essays challenges
assumptions that Communist leaders and Western-influenced youth cultures
were inimically hostile to one another. While initially banning Western
cultural trends like jazz and rock-and-roll, Communist leaders
accommodated elements of rock and pop music to develop their own
socialist popular music. They promoted organized forms of leisure to
turn young people away from excesses of style perceived to be Western.
Popular song and officially sponsored rock and pop bands formed a
socialist beat that young people listened and danced to. Young people
attracted to the music and subcultures of the capitalist West still
shared the values and behaviors of their peers in Communist youth
organizations.
Despite problems providing youth with consumer
goods, leaders of Soviet bloc states fostered a socialist alternative to
the modernity the capitalist West promised. Underground rock musicians
thus shared assumptions about culture that Communist leaders had
instilled. Still, competing with influences from the capitalist West had
its limits. State-sponsored rock festivals and rock bands encouraged a
spirit of rebellion among young people. Official perceptions of what
constituted culture limited options for accommodating rock and pop music
and Western youth cultures. Youth countercultures that originated in
the capitalist West, like hippies and punks, challenged the legitimacy
of Communist youth organizations and their sponsors. Government media
and police organs wound up creating oppositional identities among youth
gangs. Failing to provide enough Western cultural goods to provincial
cities helped fuel resentment over the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow,
and encourage support for breakaway nationalist movements that led to
the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Despite the Cold War, in both the
Soviet bloc and in the capitalist West, political elites responded to
perceived threats posed by youth cultures and music in similar manners.
Young people participated in a global youth culture while expressing
their own local views of the world.
by
&
8
more
This file is intended only for preview!
I ask you to delete the file from your hard drive after reading it.
thank for the original uploader
No comments:
Post a Comment