Rock-and-Roll in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

As rock-and-roll achieved increasing popularity throughout the world, it inevitably diffused from the democracies of Western Europe to the Communist dictatorships of the East. Officials in Communist-ruled Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were determined to squelch "decadent" influences diffusing from capitalist Western democracies. They denounced rock-and-roll as subversive and linked it with juvenile delinquency, mob violence, vandalism, sexual immorality, alcoholism, and a host of other social ills.

During this period, rock-and-roll broadcasts were censored and concerts were often banned outright by Soviet and Eastern European police. Some countries placed official limits on the number of songs from non-Communist countries that could be broadcast over the radio. Soviet policy in 1971 decreed that at least 60 percent of all records played on the air had to have originated within the Soviet Union. Government officials were equally critical of other aspects of rock-influenced popular culture. In some countries, American jeans and T-shirts were banned; in others, long-haired youths were detained and hauled off to state-owned barber shops.

Despite official condemnation of rock-and-roll, the music became popular in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Figure 6-8). Millions listened to broadcasts of rock-and-roll on Radio Free Europe and on radio stations originating in Western Europe. Thousands of musicians began performing to clandestine audiences throughout the Soviet bloc, frequently expressing their frustration with the policies of the Communist governments of their countries.

Figure 6-8 The Russian Rock Group Gorky Park. Even though rock-and-roll was censored or banned outright in the former Soviet Union, the music has always been very popular. Mikhail Gorbachev abandoned the traditional government policy of condemning rock-and-roll shortly after taking office in 1985

Occasionally, government condemnation of rock-and-roll was tempered by recognition of the economic benefits that could be derived from it. The governments of Bulgaria and Romania, in particular, were caught between the conflicting goals of purging their cultures of Western influence and attracting rich Western tourists. Although these governments considered banning rock-and-roll performances, they soon realized that such a ban would drive young, big-spending Western tourists from their Black Sea resorts.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev took over as the leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev ushered in an era he termed glasnost, meaning "openness" or "candor." Which allowed for a new receptivity toward Western popular culture. A few months after Gorbachev took office, a Soviet rock band performed at the Live Aid concert, at which many internationally famous popular musicians performed in order to raise money for the relief of famine in Africa.

A similar benefit for victims of the Chernobyl incident was held the following year. The Chernobyl concert was sponsored officially by the Soviet government. Performers who had earlier been censored or banned were welcomed to the stage. Within five years. Soviet and Eastern European communism had collapsed. Without a doubt, rock music played a role of some kind in the democratization of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Geography and Rock-and-Roll Images. Rock-and-roll lyrics frequently express the emotions ofyoung people frustrated by the conventions, mores, andtraditions of the adult world. Indeed, protest has always been a favorite theme of rock-and-roll music. During the1960s, many songs protested militarism, the arms race,and the cold war.

These songs resonated among youngpeople throughout the world who objected to being "onlya pawn in their game," as Bob Dylan put it. That is, theyobjected to being soldiers in battles set up but not foughtby an older generation. A few years later. Pink Floydobjected to the young becoming "another brick in thewall": that is. mindlessly accepting the Western culturalvalues promulgated in the schools. Other popular rock-and-roll songs have protested environmental degradation,racial prejudice, and corporate greed.

We have already noted the prevalence of place images in country music. Place images also have characterized rock-and-roll throughout its history. Places associated with freedom and opportunity for creative expression are praised; those associated with alienation and repression are rejected. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, many songs extolled the pleasures of the southern California life-style.

Songs like "Surfin' USA," "Surf City." "The Little Old Lady from Pasadena," and "California Girls" encouraged thousands of young Americans to visit or move to the Golden State. During the hippie era of the late 1960s. San Francisco and northern California were romanticized in songs like "Warm San Franciscan Nights" and "San Francisco: Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair." In the 1970s, singers drawing from both rock-and-roll and country traditions applauded Southern defiance of Northern cultural, economic, and political domination.

Examples from this period include "Sweet Home Alabama," "Freebird," and "Ramblin' Man." The contrast between city life and country life is a popular theme in rock-and-roll, just as it is in country music. Many songs written and recorded since the 1960s depict cities as lonely and dangerous; for example, "House of the Rising Sun," "Dock of the Bay," "In the Ghetto," and "Another Night in Paradise." Others like "Little Boxes," "Society's Child," and "Pleasant Valley Sunday" testify to the conformity and shallowness of suburban life-styles. During the ecologically oriented 1970s, songs that glorified rural and wilderness settings, such as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home Country Roads," became very popular, but in the 1980s they gave way to those that glorified the glitter and glamor of fastpaced urban life.