ieas.unideb.huieas.unideb.hu/admin/file_8763.docx  · Web viewSince the word “rock” was in fact ... Socialist Yugoslavia was a military state and the JNA was part of the everyday

Organizers

Zsolt Győri Ewa Mazierska György Kalmár IEAS University of IEASUniversity of Debrecen Central Lancashire University of Debrecen

Ábel KónyaMODEMDebrecen

We wish to express our gratitude to the

Department of British StudiesInstitute of English and American Studies

and the Hungarian Society for the Study of English (HUSSE)

for the help it offered

Many thanks to our enthusiastic colleagues and student helpers:

Elemér SzabóEdit Károlyné Kotricz

Erika Kiss Petra Patkó

Ákos Porcsin (design) Dóra Fehér

Balázs GécziSzandra Petrik Vivien Katkó Niki Szabó

Petra VisnyeiDávid Ráduly

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PLENARY LECTURES

Ferenc Hammer Eötvös Lóránd University

My presentation will cover the topic of home-made technologies, gadgets and musical instruments in the DIY popular music scenes in the communist period. The focus of my work is document substitution technologies, household industries, the use of expertise and resources provided by the state socialist economy and informal professional hierarchies. The key element of my talk is the analysis of materiality in these artefacts and processes, that is, particularly non-verbal and non-negotiable elements of the material. The methodology of my work is mainly interviews with older pop musicians and technical staff, and the actual analysis of appliances and instruments.

Ewa Mazierska University of Central Lancashire

My paper will present two approaches dominating the study of Eastern European music which can be summarised as ‘self-colonisation’ and ‘political subversion’, arguing that they oversimplify what is in reality a complex phenomenon, and on the way eliminate many important factors shaping Eastern European music industries and scenes. Instead, it proposes to consider it as a form of participation in cosmopolitan culture, achieved by reworking ideology by a multitude of agents, including music journalists and managers. It will also argue that the model of popular music prevailing in Eastern Europe, in which earnings from live music were higher than from recorded music, and ‘tertiary income’ play a major role in the financial position of artists has much in common with one that came into existence in the West after the digital shift.

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PRECONSTITUTED PANELS

COLD WAR POLITICS –AN OBSTACLE FOR JAZZ OR A MOTOR FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT?

We analyse the relationship between jazz and politics by having a look at East-West contacts during the Cold War. The main idea of the panel is to demonstrate how jazz got acquired a new artistic quality not despite of, but as a result of the more or less successful use of this music as political weapon. Ádám Ignácz demonstrates how jazz after suffering harsh forms of persecution became integrated into the Socialist cultural model by examining the situation in Hungary during the 1950s. Katharina Weißenbacher shows how organisations used various options to benefit from holes in the Iron Curtain to import forms of jazz into the GDR. Rainer Bratfisch examines the options of a radio station in the GDR between official cultural politics and musical needs. Rüdiger Ritter shows by examining the Polish and Hungarian cases that East-West jazz contacts in the Cold war were not a one-way transfer, but led to a real mutual musical exchange and provided options for artistic development.

Rainer Bratfisch

Balancing Act between Individual Initiative and Control: Jazz broadcasts on radio and TV in the GDR

Soft and sweet dance music dominated broadcasts of the few German radio stations after World War II. Jazz was only a marginal note. In the fall of 1946 Horst H. Lange began broadcasting his „Half An Hour For The Friends Of Jazz Music” over the Berliner Rundfunk station. Until April 1st, 1949 all broadcasts were strongly censored by the Soviet Military Administration. Everybody who had contacts with jazz musicians in the Western sectors of Berlin were fired. Jazz broadcasts had to fit in the respective state-determined cultural policy. The radio stations of the GDR had three functions concerning jazz music: 1st the popularisation of the so-called „progressive” trends within jazz, 2nd the production of jazz releases and 3rd the organisation of jazz concerts and festivals. This never was officially postulated, but it was the common practice. Individual initiatives by such people as Karlheinz Drechsel, Rolf Reichelt, Klaus Schneider have always been important. The relationship of the officials responsible in radio and TV for jazz exemplarily demonstrated the discrepancies within the system – jazz always reflected the ambivalences between strict condemnation, attempted integration and real exclusion, more or less open damnation and persecution and shamefaced toleration, lack of understanding and stupidity, dislike and sympathy.The essay discusses the official cultural policy influencing the presence of jazz in the radio and TV broadcasts, the possibilities of presenters and authors in relation to such broadcasts, the broadcasting schemes, the relationships and the exchange of broadcasts with radio stations in other countries in Eastern Europe and the role of the studio facilities as a recording studio of radio and TV in the Berlin Nalepastrasse.

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Ádám Ignácz Hungarian Academy of Science

Aesthetic and Compositional Debates on Popular Music in Hungary (1950-1956)

Following its campaigns against literature and philosophy, at the beginning of 1948, the Soviet leadership began to intervene in the internal affairs of musical life. The major party ideologist, Andrei Zhdanov announced a struggle against formalism and cosmopolitanism. Socialist realism no longer had an alternative in artistic ideology. Jazz and dance music, labelled as “warmongering instruments” of Western imperialism, could not avoid the devastating critique, nor could they transform in order to comply with the requirements of the new aesthetic principles. The news of the events that shocked Soviet artists also spread, within a short time, to the occupied countries. Moreover, from 1949, the Stalinist synthesis of ‘national in form, socialist in content’, became in all the states following the Soviet model, a priority, in all forms of music. The communist parties aimed at creating a new, musical culture with a nationalistic character. Hungary was no exception to this process.The makers of Hungarian musical policy were under constant pressure to implement the new program. In the field of popular music, the aim was to purge the musical repertoire of any song that may contain elements of jazz and Western dance music, to eliminate unwanted components from pieces composed under the aegis of the regime, and simultaneously to design a new, ’nationalistic’ style.Relying on archival data and media coverage I will reconstruct and analyse the most important aesthetic and compositional debates on jazz and popular music in Stalinist Hungary, and introduce the ‘modus operandi’ of the most important institutions of musical censorship (such as the so- called Opinion Committee and the first state funded schools of composition for dance-music).

Rüdiger Ritter

Propaganda coup or cultural exchange? Voice of America’s jazz radio shows in State Socialist radio programs – the example of Willis Conover’s Music with Friends for

Poland and Hungary

During the 1970s, when Cold War was in full bloom, radio listeners in Poland and Hungary could hear original American jazz not only from the Voice of America, but also from their own, State Socialist radio stations. Jazz broadcaster Willis Conover produced a show, “Music with Friends” especially for the radio stations of Poland and Hungary. The tapes were shipped to Warsaw and Budapest, where they were broadcast. In America, this was regarded as a major victory of “cultural diplomacy”, because from the 1950s onwards one of the aims of US cultural politics in the Cold War had been the destabilization of the Eastern Bloc societies with the help of the attraction of music. But these broadcasts were useful for State Socialist cultural politics, also: They helped to integrate the Polish and Hungarian Jazz scenes into the State Socialist cultural paradigm and continued the process

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of installing their own national forms of jazz in these countries by State cultural politicians begun in the 1960s. By examining the making, working, and reception by listeners and official cultural politics of the “Music with Friends” programs for Poland and Hungary, this paper gives a new interpretation of the role of jazz in the Cold War: Jazz is described as a cold war weapon used not only by the USA, but by both sides. Nevertheless, this weapon did not fulfil the expectations, but on the contrary it created new and unexpected forms of bloc-bridging cooperation. I base my findings on archival research in the Conover papers (University of North Texaas, Denton, Texas), the State Department material (in NARA Washington), and in the relevant radio and government archives in Warsaw and Budapest.

Katharina Weißenbacher University of Arts, Graz

The Swiss way of transporting American jazz to the GDR: On records smuggling and the background of Louis Armstrong’s concert tour

This paper is about the control of media by the state in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the means used by jazz fans to undermine it. In the GDR, media was controlled and restricted by the state, but yet jazz fans found different ways to acquire jazz recordings and/or listen to Western radio.In 1959, two Western newspapers started to build a so-called "jazz Bridge" from the West to the East: The Swiss daily newspaper "Die Tat" collaborated with the West German jazz magazine "Das Schlagzeug" to found an organization called "Jazzbrücke". In covert articles readers were encouraged to donate jazz recordings and jazz books to jazz fans living in socialist countries. In this period the GDR state security service had already hired several unofficial employees to observe jazz clubs and jazz musicians in Berlin as the officials feared Western influence. The organization "Jazzbrücke" was discovered and stopped, but jazz fans devised other strategies to smuggle jazz recordings into the GDR, for example via leaving suitcases filled with recordings on the highway or via Poland. Six years later, in 1965, Switzerland was again involved in "importing jazz to the GDR" when a Swiss Manager financed Louis Armstrong’s tour to the Eastern part of Germany. This paper compares interviews with contemporary witnesses and Stasi papers focusing on the Topic "Jazz in the GDR".

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UNDERCURRENTS OF THE CONSENSUAL MASSES? DISTRIBUTION OF UNOFFICIAL MUSICAL ARTEFACTS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIAN SOCIETY IN THE 1970S AND 1980S

Post-1968 Czechoslovakia suffered from a chronic lack of different kinds of consumer goods, including unofficial music records. This scarcity (with either economical or ideological roots) led to a development of many different strategies on how to obtain musical recordings that the state itself did not officially provide. Viewed from the perspective of history these activities spread widely across the society and became a significant sign of everyday life in socialist Czechoslovakia. Informal exchange of LPs, tapes, books and journals about music, combined with various DIY elements, became a common practice among music fans.This panel explores the possibilities of the dissemination of various music artefacts (western records, songs from the officially blacklisted authors, etc.), their role in the development of certain subcultures. At the same time the papers also analyse the inevitable and multi-layered interaction between various communities of music fans and pioneers of new musical genres on the one hand and the state and its sanctioned cultural policy on the other.

Bc. Jiří Andrs Centre for the Study of Popular Culture

From Eastern Bloc with love. Bringing western music from the Eastern European countries during the 1970s and 1980s

It is a common notion that the illegal music markets were a dominant channel for the importing to and distributing in Czechoslovakia of unofficial gramophone records in the seventies and eighties. But the spectrum of methods of importing musical records was in fact very wide. One of the important channels within this phenomenon was the import of the western-made music from other socialist states, especially from Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia.  In many of those countries licensed versions of western LPs were released much more often than in CSSR. Compared to original western LPs it was easier for Czechoslovakian citizens to obtain them—because of better possibilities of travelling to socialist countries and also because of the relatively low prices of eastern LPs. This part of the unofficial import was mainly performed privately and it is almost impossible to research detailed information on it from the archives. I, therefore, worked through oral history and recorded some remarkable testimonies. (The presentation will also include selected examples of eastern-made LPs.) Through this perspective it is possible to show differences within the eastern bloc’s cultural policy that might be otherwise observed as a monolith.

Bc. Jonáš Chmátal Charles University

Rock This Town! Rise of the rockabilly subculture in Czechoslovakia during the 1980s.

The rockabilly subculture persists in the Czech cultural space until the present day. This essay focuses on its roots in the second half of the 1980s when the very first bands were formed. Before

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that no one in Czechoslovakia had ever heard of rockabilly so there was a need to explore this form of rock' n' roll and to find a way to perform it. This was not an easy task, because everything, from visual style to the music, had to be imported from abroad.This paper describes this cultural transfer, its dynamics and sources. Oral historical research shows that this transfer was based mostly on various cultural artifacts such as music records and movies. This research also demonstrates that Stray Cats records and movies such as Elvis Presley or American Hot Wax especially created important elements of a shared experience among the future rockabilly fans and musicians. This experience combined with some DIY aspects and personal enthusiasm laid the foundations for rockabilly. Because of this, people were ready to rock already before 1989 and burst to rockin' even more after that.

Mgr. Adam Havlík Charles University

You can always get what you want! Unofficial music markets in state-socialist Czechoslovakia

This paper deals with the issue of the so-called “music markets” in Czechoslovakia before 1989. During the 1970s and 1980s, many young people regularly attended these unofficial music markets in order to obtain precious western records. The paper discusses the social conditions that determined the existence of such musical markets, particularly the ideological and economic constraints which affected the possibilities of obtaining western music; such as the scarce licensed records, foreign radio, and smuggled records from abroad. The music markets were a peculiar phenomenon deeply rooted in the everyday life of many music fans before the Velvet Revolution. The essay discusses the specific milieu of these regular events, their organizationing principles, the variety of available goods and also the interaction between the buying, selling and bartering visitors. Equally important is the attitude of the state towards these events which changed over time from repression to partial tolerance. This ambiguity demonstrates that the state-socialist Czechoslovak society should not be perceived simply as a dichotomy between the almighty state and the defenceless population without its own agenda.

Bc. Martin Mejzr Charles University, Prague

„Folk guitar as a gun“. The political dimension of music in late socialism: the case of Czechoslovak singer and poet Karel Kryl

Folk music gained strong political content from the 1960s to 1980s, including socialist Czechoslovakia. Probably the most famous singer/songwriter was Karel Kryl, a songwriter inseparably connected with the year 1968 and a persistent critic of the military occupation of Czechoslovakia. One year after the occupation, he chose to immigrate to West Germany because of the arrival of a new, pro-Soviet political establishment. After that the cultural policy of state socialism tried to erase the name of Karel Kryl from the collective memory. However, this effort failed, even though his songs and records were strictly forbidden under threat of persecution.

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The presented case study pays attention to contradictory phenomena. On one hand, there were the claims of the post-1968 political establishment over the control (and suppression if necessary) of the political content of music. On the other hand social activities and mechanisms of musical propagation “from below” emerged. The case of Karel Kryl and his music can be also perceived as a specific “lieu de memoire” of the year 1968, or in other words as a part of a counter-memory discourse facing the state-promoted oblivion within the official politics of memory.

PRESENTATIONS

Emília Barna University of Technology and Economics, Budapest

Networked Spaces of a Translocal Underground

My proposed paper relies on ongoing research into contemporary underground music scenes in Budapest, and in particular the “lo-fi” movement, participants of which typically use home recording technology for production and online channels for distribution. The scene also has its corresponding offline spaces, such as the Rakéta festival (since 2012). I have been exploring the corresponding online and offline spaces of interaction and creativity, access to these spaces, particularly with regard to gender, and the discursive maintenance of (genre) identity and boundaries. A network perspective has enabled a focus on connections – between people, places, music products based on genre aesthetics, ethics, or media platforms –, as well as processes of (symbolic) exclusion or distancing. I intend to show how the private space of the home studio functions as a local(ized) space of creation, which is extended by the performer towards the public and translocal space of social media with the help of online and digital technology. The home here, in other words, is a virtual, and at the same time translocal, simultaneously personal and communal space – the local hub of a “me-centered network” that also channels the Budapest-based scene into international rhizomatic music networks.

Attila Benke Eötvös Lóránd University

Death (Metal) of Socialism: the function of Galloping Coroners’ music in Gábor Bódy’s Dog’s Night Song (Kutya éji dala, 1983)

In the early 1980s, the Hungarian postmodern (‘new sensibility’) movement emerged hand-in-hand with the new wave / alternative / underground music styles. Although the ‘new sensibility’ was not as fruitful as Western Europe’s similar tendencies (for example in England and France) because of the restrictions of the socialist state, several films used unique visual style and recent alternative or new wave music. Trabant and Marietta Méhes appeared in János Xantus’ Eskimo woman feels cold (Eszkimó asszony fázik, 1983), members of the AE Bizottság made Jégkrémbalett (1984) and Galloping Coroners (Vágtázó Halottkémek) and its leader, Attila Grandpierre, were given significant roles in Gábor Bódy’s Dog’s Night Song (Kutya éji dala, 1983).

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Therefore, in my presentation, I would like to analyze the role of Galloping Coroners and its music in Dog’s Night Song, a film produced by one of Hungary’s most talented filmmakers, Gábor Bódy. Why did Bódy choose them? How do their songs connect to the film’s self-conscious social criticism? What is the ‘new sensibility’ of Bódy and the Galloping Coroners compared to earlier movies which criticized the Kádár-regime?

Monika Borys Warsaw University

Bazaar nationalism. Images of disco polo in 90s

Disco polo is a music genre which brings together all social tensions specific to the Polish transition to capitalism. By its very nature, it is determined by the dialectic of tradition and modernity. Perceived as trashy and shameful, at the same time it was the fastest-growing sector of the entertainment industry. In order to define the performative strategy of disco polo bands, I will analyze various sources: concerts, music videos, cassette covers. I will claim that it always implies the act of seduction and bargaining, inseparable from the contexts of the discotheque and the bazaar. To show disco polo in a broader perspective, I am going to refer to other narrations and visual representations which describe the lower class in the 90s. I will argue that disco polo images are opposed to naturalized social notions of Polish peasants as indifferent homo sovieticus. Contrary to those notions, ‘disco polo society’ always tries to exceed the condition of apathy by fantasizing about consumption and celebrating new, capitalist values. Furthermore, by referring to a discussion led by the intelligentsia which inaccurately has recognized disco polo as an evidence of the twilight of the ‘romantic paradigm’ (proclaimed by Maria Janion in 1992), I will argue that the disco polo aesthetic richly draws from the romantic imagery and as a consequence it has become a pop, bazaar version of nationalism.

Imola Bülgözdi University of Debrecen

Rock Opera and Resistance: Stephen, the King As a Building Block of Minority Ethnic Identity

Stephen, the King (1983), the most popular Hungarian rock opera, succeeded in bringing alive the well-known foundational myth of the Hungarian nation state by means of a new genre and its political relevance as a covert protest against the Soviet military presence. The narrative, however, gave rise to alternative interpretations among members of the Transylvanian Hungarian minority during the Communist regime, when the simple act of listening to the LP was considered a crime and, therefore, became an act of resistance.My talk aims to map out the various ways Stephen, the King helped shape ethnic minority identity by introducing elements of historical and cultural discourses that the Romanian state tried to overwrite at every possible level. This tendency manifested itself not only in the

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denial of the legitimacy of the Hungarian foundational myth, one of the key elements of national identity, according to sociologist Stuart Hall (Modernity and Its Futures), but also in the general hostility towards Hungarian cultural practices. Consequently, this rock opera was deployed by Hungarians in Transylvania in the construction of a minority identity that incorporated, among others, legends of the pagan past, folk music, simultaneous identification with both the winning and the losing side, or the threat of forced cultural assimilation.

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Anca Caramelea University of Bucharest/ University of East Anglia

Popular Music in New Romanian Cinema

The paper aims to discuss how music is approached and used by the filmmakers of the Romanian New Wave, and the respective implications it has for their films. In most Romanian films, music is very scarce, and employed only as diegetic sound or as background for credits. While the absence of music can be explained by various reasons, there are exceptions that must be reviewed and that provide interesting insights into the relationship between popular music and Romanian cinema. A discussion of musical options will follow an examination of the range of songs and musical genres used; most of the musical pieces employed belong to popular music, with very few exceptions of original music. An interesting aspect is the use of older songs with a nostalgic feeling attached to them, mostly pre-1989 pop music specific to the communist period. Other popular genres, like manele (a musical style with Roma and oriental influences), rock or traditional music have also found their way into new Romanian films, and the effects this has on the films will also be touched upon in the presentation.

Daniela Doboş University of Iaşi

The Bloodied Christmas: The Romanian Rock of the Revolution

Pop-Rock music emerged in Romania in the 1960s, with its roots in the late 1950s. It was the work of a number of youngsters acquainted with Western music, most probably via Radio Free Europe’s music programme Metronom, while a catalyst for its popularity was the 1961 British film The Young Ones, featuring Cliff Richard and The Shadows. The communist regime in Romania was the most brutal of the Eastern bloc, but even as political prisoners still filled detention facilities, the first bands made up of university students came together – Sfinx (1963), Olympic ’64, Sincron and Phoenix. Since the word “rock” was in fact banned from use, they called themselves “electric guitar bands”. While the 1960s were a decade of apparent liberalization, in 1971, Nicolae Ceauşescu introduced a harsh cultural reform, which implied complete rejection of Western culture and a turn to a brand of “nationalism” that soon became synonymous with Ceauşescu’s sinister personality cult. The internal situation and the standard of living plummeted during the 1980s and things came to a head in 1989 with the bloody revolution, not surprisingly the most violent of the Eastern bloc. Thus, rock music emerged victorious in the prolonged ideological war with the communist regime, and at the time of the revolution, about a dozen bands authored and performed a series of mostly rock compositions dedicated to the terrible events and their fallen heroes. These songs, which then came to be known as The Songs of the Revolution of December 1989, make up a unique body of musical work inspired and informed by a historical tragedy.

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The paper sets off to determine the context of the events of December ’89, as well as describe and assess this singular popular culture response to “the threshold of fire and blood” (Paler 2010).

Fanni Feldmann University of Debrecen

From Flamboyant Trend-setter to Paternalistic Conservative:The Case Study of Ákos as Eastern European Pop Star

My presentation follows the transformations of the Hungarian pop star Ákos, an iconic figure whose career began as the leader of Bonanza Banzai, a synthesizer pop band, at the end of the 1980s and who rose to iconic status among middlebrow audiences as a solo artist in the 1990s. Ákos adopted the “orchestration” and eerie, sterile textures of British synthpop (Soft Cell, OMD, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Spandau Ballet), alternated between Hungarian and English lyrics, gave spectacular stage performances following in the wake of Western trends, and used a serious tone in his lyrics and music videos—all techniques which made him a performer capable of synthetizing quality (“Western”) entertainment and heavy messages for members the MTV generation. I argue that Ákos adopted well-tested strategies of constructing his star status, and that his image as a messianic innovator and trend-setter crumble if we consider the wider pop music scene and consider international influences.In the 2000s, Ákos bid farewell to his image of the secluded artist withdrawn into his ivory tower, and sought to achieve greater visibility in the Hungarian pop scene (by attending festivals and increasing his media presence), trying to find legitimacy for the virtuosity the music press never granted him. My presentation also examines his more recent activities and increasing associations with the political right. It seems that Ákos’ new strategy to remain in the spotlight is through direct involvement with politics, more particularly the paternalistic, anti-liberal, misogynist attitudes of right wing voters. His recent scandal (2015), in which he outspokenly sided with the heteronormative family model, suggests that Ákos hopes to remain in the spotlight by speaking assertively in favour of the conservative political ideologies of the present government, that is, by openly embracing the populist agitprop he once criticised.

Piotr Fortuna Institute of Polish Culture

Patronized counterculture. An image of entertainment and Polish rock music of the 60s in Big beat by Jerzy Passendorfer

Big beat (pol. Mocne uderzenie, 1966, dir. Jerzy Passendorfer) is a film musical portraying the Polish rock’n’roll scene of the 60s. It provoked critics to produce countless humorous titles, such as Not so Big beat or Beat but not too big. In this case, the weakness of cinematic experience reflects both an overall political strategy towards rock’n’roll music in the communist country and specific conditions of the film production system of the time. As a consequence, the subversive potential of the counterculture was suppressed to conform to the interests of the authority. ‘Big beat’ is a term coined by the communists to distinguish the genre from Western rock music, which was considered a dangerous fashion coming from an antagonistic political

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system. In Passendorfer’s film, the power of youth music is neutralized by the variety of mis-en-scènes and narrative measures, including unconventional camera-work, links to the naiveté of the mass audience and deprivation of the entertainment industry. This strategy leads to some striking paradoxes, such as undermining the role of music or clear opposition between romantic love and singing, which in both cases contradicts the defining rules of the musical.However, the enemy is not demonised and the film could be praised for its agreeability. “Young people were singing in Polish, noisy and vulgar rythms became more peaceful, and a harmonious, lyrical songs replaced distasteful yelling”, as a critic (M. Święcicki) commented on trends in popular music. At the same time, authorities (in the film personified by the master of ceremony) declare their support for the big beat. This move intended to confirm to the liberalism of the government actually reveals its urge to fully control the subversive power of the rock music.

Mariusz Gradowski, PhD University of Warsaw

Rock and roll styles and genres in Poland (1957-1973)

This paper will describe the process of setting rock and roll styles and genres (as defined by Allan F. Moore) in Polish musical culture. My Ph.D. research revealed three phases in this process. Phase 1: imitation (1957-1962), phase 2: polonisation (1962-1967) and phase 3: artistic re-interpretation (1967-1973). I will present detailed characteristics of each phase (i. e. socio-political context, case of cover versions, rock and roll and local folk music fusion, development of original artistic language) as well as proper musical examples (mostly from Czesław Niemen’s recordings, which remain one of the most interesting example of Polish popular music).

Zsolt Győri University of Debrecen

“The music isn't music, the words aren't words”: Underground Film/Music in Late Socialist Hungary

The so-called “cinema of new sensibility” (including both feature films and experimental films) offered the much sought visibility of the Hungarian underground music scene in the 1980s. While cinema served as a “recording studio” for bands that otherwise could not produce and promote their material, it also gained from the invigorating vitality of the subcultural experience surrounding underground bands. I explore this interdependence in the wider context of the politics of the underground, founded less on the agency to protest against “really existing socialism” than the commitment to stage and act-out individual and communal identity crises. In my assertion, the films in question perform the politics of commitment to the real, to the definite and actual, to a socio-cultural presence which declined to perceive itself from the vantage point of a utopian future.I lay out my arguments through three interrelated propositions:

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1. The historical conditions of economic stagnation and ideological aimlessness of “really existing socialism” generated a receptive but marginal audience for the underground music scene.

2. The political agency associated with the underground music scene was fullest when it staged and articulated – in spontaneous and ecstatic experience – the indefiniteness, uncertainty and identity crises of both the artist and the audience.

3. András Jeles’ Little Valentino (1979) is the earliest articulation of the experience that informs the music underground and the cinema of new sensibility, while Gábor Body’s The Dog’s Night Song (1983) marks its aesthetic closure.

Adam Havas – Adam Ser Corvinus University, Budapest

“The Poor Neighbours”: The Construction of the Hungarian Jazz Scene

Jazz studies is an interdisciplinary area of academic research engaging with jazz-related issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, improvisation and modernism. Although generations of scholars since the 1940s have focused their attention on the examination of jazz as a musical and cultural phenomenon, some scholars argue that the extramusical relevance of jazz is studied by an ‘academic underground’. In Hungary, the sociological literature on jazz is poor, although some important efforts have recently been made in mapping the contemporary musical communities in their broader cultural context (Tófalvy et al., 2011). The present study aims to bring the art world of contemporary Hungarian jazz musicians into the centre of social scientific investigation, while standing on the shoulders of two great predecessors: Becker, a sociologist and jazz musician; and Bourdieu, in order to provide a model of the structure of the jazz scene in Budapest, and its occupation in the coordinate system of commercialized and high culture. The current research, which is based on qualitative research (~30 structured interviews from 2014-2016) and survey techniques, is the first sociological inquiry on the contemporary Hungarian jazz scene focusing on the symbolic stratification within the scene and on the economic possibilities of agents considered as creative workers.

Imre Horváth University of Debrecen

“You say gangsta, I say betyár“: The Technical and Ideological (Im)possibilities of Hungarian Rap

English suits rap well: its innate iambic rhythm and the variety of stress positions work well with simple hip hop beats. Although the Hungarian language is capable of producing a large variety of versification including iambic rhythm, Hungarian emcees are usually not trained in them and/or often try to mimic the American sound. The results thus often sound arbitrary and unnatural to the native ear. Certain artists find a workaround to the problem with humour, word-play, self-reflexivity and self-parody (Ludditák, Bëlga) or the avoidance of serious subjects (90s mainstream pop artists), others try to keep a sense of Americanness in the lyrics

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(Ganxsta Zolee), and some try to “hungarianize” rap using trochaic rhythm (FankaDeli). Parallel to the poetic issue, adaptation often changes rap in terms of style and ideology. Although rap music is diverse in terms of subject matter, socio-political concerns are present in both American and Hungarian rap. While certain American emcees address issues of drugs, gang violence and racism, there emerged a Hungarian wave of emcees rapping about right-wing ideas, still mimicking the American sound, and making Bëlga’s joke about “Hungarian National Hip Hop” a reality.

Karaulic Jovana University of Arts, Belgrade

THE ROLE OF POPULAR CULTURE IN A STATE SPECTACLE: Case study: Central celebration of the “Youth day” in Belgrade, 1980-1987

While a certain ideology is formed and then confirmed, there is a need to create symbols that will express the ideology. One of the ways to convey the message of an ideological state apparatus is a state spectacle, created through images coded according to the tenets of ideology in which they arise. From this standpoint, we look at the Yugoslav state event "Youth Day," which existed almost as long as the state did in all its stages. The paper explores the role of popular music in state spectacle programmes, where the popular culture was seen through the lens of vital and creative contents, whose spectators were not passive observers. A period of turbulent social changes, after Tito's death in 1980, was chosen for the analysis, and issues raised in the paper are related to the new state circumstances. If we accept that the state spectacle has an important role in establishing the framework of an "imagined community", what is the role of the popular culture in this process? Can popular culture influence the perception of the society in which it is generated? In the period of ideological disorientation of Yugoslavia from 1980 to 1987, popular culture, as an element of the state spectacle, influences its perception with its progressive model. The question is whether its subversive characteristics were an instrument of the official state ideology in this period (as a state of political, economic and cultural order) or society "from below", and whether its proactive role had "spontaneous" strength and power in general.

ZlatkoJovanovic University of Copenhagen

“In OUR Country.” Subversive Practices of New Primitivism.

The paper deals with New Primitivism, originally a subcultural movement that emerged in early 1980s Sarajevo but that grew by the mid-decade into a central paradigm of Bosnian popular culture. The movement expressed itself both in music and in radio and television shows. As a popular-musical genre, New Primitivism is interesting on several levels. First, its contemporaries often described it as a delayed version of NewWave, which, however, distinguished itself as being an exclusively Sarajevan phenomenon. Second, addressing the presumed lack of popular-cultural tradition in Sarajevo, New Primitives invented their own (popular-cultural) tradition. This came most clearly to expression in the choice of the name of one of the leading proponents of the movement, Elvis (J. Kurtovich). Third, New Primitives turned the dominant modernization narrative in Socialist Yugoslavia, according to which

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Sarajevo’s cultural production was lagging behind those in other major centers of the country, upside-down. Finally, albeit critical toward the old communist paradigm, the Sarajevo youth culture that emerged with New Primitivism was not opposed to Socialist Yugoslavia, and aimed rather to reform than abolish it. Addressing these issues, the paper seeks to provide some general conclusions concerning state-popular culture relation in Socialist Eastern Europe.

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Hajnal Király Sapientia Hungarian University of Cluj/Eötvös Lóránd University

DissenSonorous Envelopes: pop music and nostalgia in Post-Communist Hungarian Cinema

The musical comedy is a rare phenomenon on the Hungarian post-communist cinematic palette, but whenever it occurs, it bears a figurative load reflecting on the communist past or the crisis of a post-communist present. The nostalgia they evoke is descriptive of the society's concept of home, past, identity quest and future projections. In my presentation, I propose a comparative analysis of two emblematic, musical nostalgia films, made almost 20 years apart, Pretty Baby (1997) and Liza the Fox Fairy (2014), in order to detect generational differences in terms of social, collective sensitivity, belonging and individual coping, greatly figured by the musical score. While Pretty Baby is set in a well circumscribed communist past, with retro-style costumes and exclusively Hungarian music triggering collective memories, Liza, the Fox Fairy is characterized by a refreshing "bubble effect", disconnected from all direct or implied references to a communist past or its aftermath. Focusing on the film's visual and sonorous (pop-musical) connections to distant, Far Eastern (Japanese) and Nordic (Finnish) cultures, I will argue that Liza's paradoxical nostalgia (instead of longing for a home, nostos, she is yearning for an elsewhere) is symptomatic of an individual isolation, that is, melancholia. The use of non-Hungarian musical scores creating a phantasy-world attracts the psychoanalytical trope of "sonorous envelope" that figures both an infantile bliss and an impotent entrapment, connecting this film to a wider range of contemporary Hungarian films thematizing social disintegration and melancholic helplessness.

Marcell Kónya University of Debrecen

The Interplay of Local, National and Global Networks of Meaning in the Work of Contemporary, Underground Hip Hop Musician Funktasztikus

Csató Adorján is one of the most unique figures of contemporary Hungarian alternative hip hop music, as he lives in Borsod county, and unlike other contemporary representatives of the genre, addresses the countryside experience of poverty and deprivation. His life and work has three more or less distinct periods. Initially he produced music as Funk N’ Stein, then as Interfunk, and most recently he has put his name as Funktasztikus on three albums so far. I will analyse the three albums of this last period – Tartsd Lent (2014), Táncdalok, sanzonok, melodrámák (2011) and Jelentések Fanyarországról (2009) – and explore the way political and social problems, perceived as the heritage of state socialism and the regime change, are addressed in the songs. Apart from strong reliance on historical references, the regional identity of this artist is of equal importance; his lyrics and music videos describe the Borsod region, this backward developed and de-industrialized region of the country with soaring unemployment rates, social segregation and ethnic tensions, as an allegory of the nation.The boom bap production style connects Funktasztikus to early New York hip hop and also most recent alternative hip hop, the commercial-like visual style of his music video combining clichés and also their rejection makes him a unique act within the Hungarian hip-

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hop scene and allows me to examine the presence and interaction of local, national and global influences and textures in his work.

Manuela Marin West University of Timișoara

The Securitate and Youth’s Musical Counter Cultures in Communist Romania

My paper analyzes how the Romanian secret police, the Securitate, reacted towards the emergence of punk rock, new wave, rock and csöves (tubers) musical counter cultures among the Romanian youth during the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, I will begin with an overview of the general political and cultural context in which these counter-cultures appeared, showing that despite the official ban, young people found alternative ways (including Radio Free Europe) to satisfy their thirst for listening to Western music. In the second part of my paper, I will show how and why the Securitate ascribed a political and an ideological significance to a personal issue, such as youth’s listening to foreign music, by looking both at the internal and international context, and also at the Securitate’s assumed role as guardian of the Romanian regime. Also using the documents created by the Securitate, I will show how the Romanian young people borrowed the elements of the Western (punk rock, new wave, rock) and Hungarian (csöves) musical counter cultures and what specific artefacts (D.G. Leathers) they used for adorning of their bodies or pieces of clothing.

Maroš Melichárek University of Prešov

National symbolism and myth in Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian military songs from the period of years 1991-1995

Military conflicts in history have had their own inherent laws regarding warring armies, command, technology, armament, tactics, winners and losers. The fact remains, however, that the listed components are not only pursuing the mosaic form - in the history of the Balkans in particular. From late medieval times, Ottoman armies marched to the sound of bands known as mehterân (in modern Turkish Mehter bölüğü), known in the West as a janissary band, formed just as the core unit of Janissaries. What transformations took over the music during the bloody Yugoslav conflict at the end of the 20th century? Yugoslavian conflict was the worst combination of the government's failure to achieve its objectives, the historical antagonism presented in myths, and emotions that culminated in an aggressive battle for territory. Socialist Yugoslavia was a military state and the JNA was part of the everyday life constantly reminding the population of the huge success of the 2nd World War. Military propaganda proved to be a fertile ground to dominate the minds of many young people. Military songs represent a threefold role in the context of military conflict- motivation, communication and psychological. In all participating armies, warring factions meet military music in all the three aspects. The main task of this paper is to highlight the basic categorization of military music production in the years 1991-1995 (on the basis of nationality, religion, territorial jurisdiction, scope, target group, character singer / group) and provide an analysis of recurring national

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myths. The existing research implies that each side is very specific - most strongly linked with the historical context, history, and national myth was Serbian (Rodoljub Vulović, pseud. Roki, Miroslav Pržulj, pseud. Lepi Mica Mirko Pajčin, pseud. Baja Mali Knindža) progressive Bosnian (eg. Dino Merlin, Mladen Vojičić, Tifa) and Croatia to some extent a combination thereof, with an emphasis on traditional family (eg. Marko Perkovic Thompson, Miroslav Škoro). It is a great tragedy that such texts are sung today in Syria, Ukraine and Kurdistan. In this context, the military theme song has become very significant.

Radoš Mitrović University of Arts, Belgrade

Serbian Rap: Between Nationalism and Socialism

The post-socialist period of transition in Serbia started in 2000-2001, with a new government, led by the so-called Democratic Opposition of Serbia party. As accumulated social and political problems hadn’t been efficiently sorted out in the first years of their leadership, a new wave of discontent developed in part of society.That revolt was also visible in new tendencies appearing in popular music – mainly in hip hop. The so-called second generation or the second phase of hip hop in Serbia started to emerge in this moment. Development of technology, as well as more available recording equipment also affected the expansion of rap music. One of the most popular groups, recognized by its unique aesthetics, was Beogradski sindikat (Belgrade Syndicate). The group flirted with socialist ideology, standing, at the same time on the clear line of nationalism. In my paper, I will try to problematize the relationship between hip hop, socialist heritage and nationalism. My thesis is that Beogradski sindikat has transformed the idea of rap music as an emancipatory tool, the way it was promoted by American groups in 80’s, such as Public Enemy – which was at the same time: antiauthoritarian, anti-racist, nationalistic (pan-African) and pro-Black Panthers (left wing). Beogradski sindikat re appropriated some of their ideas, and developed them in a completely different context, and aesthetic. At the same time it can be said that nationalism, anti-globalism and socialism were part of the same ideology of those who were left aside in the wide polarity in society between the three largest political parties: ex socialist, nationalist and pro- European. The problem of the relations between these categories and their influences on popular music is the key for understanding the position of the so-called conscious rap, represented by the group Beogradski sindikat, in the beginning of the transition period in Serbia.

Doru Pop Babeș-Bolyai University

Integrating Rock Music in the Socialist Propaganda. A case study on Romania, from 1964 to 1989

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The objective of this research is to analyze how pop-rock music was integrated in the official discourse of the communist regime in Romania. The paper will analyze popular culture phenomena like the music events called „Cenaclul Flacăra”, which was the ”socialist pop music” alternative for the ”rock rebellion” of the West. It will also survey the mythological representations of ”rockers” in the national culture at the time, from the anti-social typologies to the ”positive” and ”accepted” versions of this culture in the pop bands of the time, from Phoenix to Mondial or Semnal M. One theoretical starting point will be the argument put forward by Sabrina Ramet in Rocking the State (1994), and to analyze how the political system and the ideological apparatus of the Ceaușescu regime dealt with the implications of the attraction generated by the new music culture of the Anglo-American rock-pop bands. A major objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of Western pop-rock-folk music in communist Romania during 1964 and 1989; thus, the paper will discuss the main elements of the influence of ”pop music” in artistic, literary and cinematic representations, while analyzing the most important cultural and political implications of the pop-rock for two decades in a communist society: social resistance, cultural dissent and political subversion against the regime. The paper will finally make an attempt to answer a fundamental question. Was this music--which was listened to ”illegally” on Radio Free Europe or Radio Luxembourg, pirated on various supports, and distributed by the ”official” record companies like ”Electrecord”--encouraging political dissent, or was it part of a wider propaganda conflict, part of the Cold War? At the end it will provide a broader map of understanding pop-rock culture during Nicolae Ceaușescu version of socialism.

Kinga Povedák MTA-SZTE Research Group for the Study of Religious Culture

Alternative music subculture: popular music in the Hungarian Catholic Church during the years of state socialism

Christian popular music and its social context are an area that has been neglected in the investigation in the present and recent past of popular music research trends. Rock and roll that appeared in the 1960s began to spread invasively in Christian popular culture too. It was at that time that the Jesus People movement began in the United States and the Folk Mass Movement was launched within the frames of the Catholic Church. However, analysis of the new modern religious music phenomenon cannot remain merely within the frames of religion: it must take into account the cultural circumstances of the period and, in the case of the socialist countries, also the political conditions of the period. Because Christian popular music functioned as a “new religious language,” it had considerable power to shape communities, a fact that soon attracted the attention of the one-party regimes behind the Iron Curtain. An analysis of church music that attracts mainly youth and young adults can give an insight, among others, into the tensions that the appearance of Christian popular music brought, the nature of the music, its spread, and samizdat characteristics, as well as into the great transformation that has occurred in vernacular (lived) religiosity. My paper analyses the phenomenon on the basis of Hungarian archival sources and oral history.

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Klaudia Rachubińska Warsaw University

Whatever happened to the hero(in)es, or, the rise and fall of Polish women artists in the 1980s

The XVIII National Festival of Polish Song in Opole in 1980 was a turning point in the history of women in Polish popular music. The well received gender-ambivalent performance of Izabela Trojanowska and the mainstream debut of Maanam's charismatic singer Kora Jackowska have paved the way for other women artists who would not conform to the hitherto dominant aesthetics and gender norms. In the following years, Polish pop-rock saw an influx of distinct female vocalists whose subculture-informed visual styles and gender nonconforming attitudes and lyrics would rock the music scene and make them recognizable icons for years to come.Hence, it is surprising that the realisation of this golden age of women artists lasted for only a few years. By 1985, most of the women artists who hit the mainstream after or around 1980 (such as Izabela Trojanowska, Beata Kozidrak, and Małgorzata Ostrowska) have either returned to more conventional modes of presenting and inhabiting femininity--their ambitious, controversial, and political lyrics often switched to themes of unrequited love, passivity and submission – or left the music scene completely. In my presentation, I intend to analyse both the sudden influx and gradual taming of those women artists in early 1980s Poland.

Zsófia Réti University of Debrecen

The Silver Age – Popular music journalism in the late socialist period of Hungary

The paper aims to analyse how popular music journalism functioned in the late socialist period of Hungary. It argues that although state control did determine some aspects of writing about popular music – just as it did in most areas of the public sphere – a well-functioning popular music journalism network was created by the mid-1970s. In order to support this claim, first I will briefly review the already available literature on popular music journalism during the Kádár-era, then I am going to look at the limitations and possibilities of the “existing popular music journalism” in Hungary. The research combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative data is provided, on the one hand, by the analysis of the recently collected press bibliography of Hungarian popular music from 1945 to 1975, and on the other hand, by archival research of the relevant magazines from 1975 to 1989. The qualitative analysis focuses on the main popular music “scandals” of the age – the hot issues that had an impact on public opinion outside the popular music public sphere, including the csöves-, and a few years later the punk-scandals, as they were displayed in popular youth press.

David Robb Queen’s University, Belfast

Survival and the Metaphorical Language of GDR Rock

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This paper will argue that GDR rock developed, musically and lyrically, into an aesthetically valid, hybrid rock form in its own right. Taking leading groups such as Puhdys, Renft, Karat, City, Silly and Pankow, it will look at how a distinctive practice of metaphorical lyric writing emerged in GDR rock. This came about for three reasons: firstly the state’s insistence on high cultural values as opposed to the perceived decadence of popular music in the West; secondly as lyricists’ response to the need to circumvent censorship, and thirdly to satisfy a public thirst for critically challenging texts in the face of the dearth of oppositional culture in the media. The treatment of key recurring themes in songs will be examined: the state’s sense of historical mission, the division of Germany (linked to the torn inner-self), and the urge to experience a greater life than was possible within the confines of the GDR. Musically GDR rock, not chained to the fashions of the West, will be seen to be a hybrid combination of styles from hard rock, jazz, agitprop, chanson, Neue Deutsche Welle and New Romantics.Francesca Rolandi University of Rijeka

Listening to Sanremo. The Italian popular music and the Yugoslav music scene

After a tense period in the aftermath of WWII, since the mid 1950s, the cultural relationships between Italy and Yugoslavia have flourished. One of the symbols of this reapproachment was the popularity achieved by Italian musica leggera in the neighbouring country. After a first period when any contact with Western music was forbidden – but when Italian radio stations were easily listened to in the coastal areas – Italian popular music started being available in all the state media: the Yugoslav TV stations were broadcasting Rai tv programmes such as Sanremo and other music contests, the Yugoslav labels released albums of the most important Italian interpreters, and the Italian singers were having long tours all over Yugoslavia, playing in the most renowned music halls. While a clash was going on between conservative members – stressing the risks represented by Western new genres – and most liberal ones – insisting on the importance of “entertainment” in the life of the working class –, Italian popular music penetrated without major problems, being less controversial than other Western music genres. Therefore, Italian popular music suceeded in penetrating into Yugoslavia and influencing the local music scene, providing a cultural product that appears “Western” but is deprived of any subversive meaning.

Kujtim Rrahmani University of Pristina

Voice of Singer – Voice of War: Aesthetics and Politics of Kosovo Battle (1389) Epic Cycle

This paper aims to interrogate the relationships between aesthetics and politics of the popular music/song with a special regard to Southeast European experiences. These experiences are going to be analysed and theorised from the light of different interdisciplinary perspectives.The Battle of Kosovo (1389) represents one of the most crucial historical dates with a huge impact in modern social and political life of Albanians and Serbs. Despite the fact that this battle was a joint resistance between Serbs, Albanians and others against the Ottoman Empire, the later pretension about the national ownership on this enterprise has been coloured by

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strong national and ideological requests. Exactly 500 years after this historical/mythical battle, in 1989, in Fusha e Kosovës / Kosovo Polje (the same place where Sultan Murat has been killed), the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic promoted his new nationalist agenda with the aims of creating the new Old Great Serbia. Unfortunately, even today, Southeast Europe remains a typical arena of such vivid connections between national epics and national politics. Thus, the voice of singer remains a voice of diplomacy and war by introverting and transcending poetics into politics. The paper will introduce such dangerous liaisons between these domains by presenting both the national Albanian and Serbian epic versions of the Kosovo Battle as well as their ideological instrumentalisation under the marks of history, politics, and national ethics.

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Irena Šentevska University of Arts, Belgrade

Popular music, cultural politics and ideology: the strange case of turbo-folk

Since the end of World War II, the official cultural politics of socialist Yugoslavia went through different (often contradictory) phases in its approach to the folkloric traditions of Yugoslav ‘nations and nationalities’, and to the village and ‘rural ways’ in general. Release of Lepa Lukić’s single Od izvora dva putića (1964) marked a symbolic beginning of the new era of commercial expansion of the ‘newly composed folk music’ (NCFM). Reforms associated with introduction of workers’ self-management into the Yugoslav economy also resulted in ‘democratization’ of the popular music production: the newly-established elements of market economy turned the attention of record companies towards commercially successful acts, and those were mainly the performers of NCFM. The official ideology of progress imposed upon the ‘evolving’ revolutionary peasantry a need of modern cultural institutions and appreciation for artistic values. In this aspect of cultural consumption, the ‘centaurs of Yugoslav economy’ (peasants-industrial workers) most visibly failed to meet the guidelines of the socialist cultural policies. The overwhelming presence and importance of NCFM (both in rural and urban environments) became the most visible symptom of this cultural ‘underachievement’. This paper traces the historical evolution of NCFM into the so-called turbo-folk genre of ‘modernized’ (Westernized) Balkan folk music, and the contemporary debates on its ideological role in the present context of post-Yugoslav and post-socialist Serbia.

Xawery Stańczyk University of WarsawDistinctive ideas of music underground

The phenomenon of Polish underground scene in the late 1970s and 1980s is presented and interpreted mostly as the actions of rebellious individuals and groups, styles and attitudes antagonistic toward the socialist regime. Both academic and popular discourses about underground creativeness are concentrated either on ‘pure’ historical facts about bands/individuals or on the formal analysis of works, acts, and genres. Therefore, they do not recognize sociocultural contexts and ideas of underground practices without which they are impossible to understand.

In my presentation, I will adress authenticity, spontaneity, creativeness, living together, and the art of living as distinctive features of young underground artists, musicians, and animators. These ideas were practiced in everyday life as well as in performances and happenings with audience involvement. My aim is to discuss how adopting such distinctive underground ideas constructed underground identity differently from both traditional and ‘bourgeois’ dominant culture and ‘consecrated’ avant-garde art circles.

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Łukasz Strzelczyk Warsaw University

Spaces of music in Poland of the 1980s.

In my paper, I will discuss the meanings of the artist’s space in Poland of state socialism, analyzing the phenomenon of students’ clubs and music festivals. The period in focus is the 1980s, because this decade encompasses a wide variety of emancipatory practices, concerning popular and alternative art. I am especially interested in the processes of shaping the first market mechanisms related to ‘festival-craze’ (‘Poza kontrolą’, ‘Marchewka’, ‘Rock Galicja’ and the Jarocin Festival), and the influence of so called ‘Wilczek law’ on the commercialization of popular culture in the end of the 1980s. I will also show how these experiences influenced the music market after the fall of the state socialism. I will try to answer the question whether the so-called third circulation helped to protect the sphere of artistic independence. Were these artistic places an oasis of freedom? Did they stimulate artistic development or were merely a safety valve, where dissatisfied youth vented their frustration?

Eszter Ureczky University of Debrecen

Scores in Motion Picture: Nostalgia, Retro, and Cultural Memory in Balaton Method (Bálint Szimler, 2015)

Balaton Method is a recent Hungarian crossover film combining generic elements of music videos, road movies, documentaries and feature films. The loose narrative line is organized around the theme of Lake Balaton, and features seventeen contemporary musicians and bands (Akkezdet Phiai, Bin-Jip, Elefánt, Jónás Vera Experiment, Kamikaze Scotsmen, Napra, Punnany Massif, Quimby, among others) to provide a subjective panorama of the alternative musical scene. As the very first crowdfunded feature film in the country, Balaton Method is a unique gesture of recycling the lake’s commonplace visual imagery and nostalgic atmosphere with the current audial impulses of the lyrics and rhythms by various performers. The movie is the structural-stylistic continuation of the popular Kodály Method videos, created by director Bálint Szimler and Marcell Rév (the cinematographer of White God), a project in which the duo shot a video monthly with live audio recording of Hungarian underground bands playing at diverse locations. Cinematically, the use of single-take clips and very long takes, again recorded live on the Balaton set, and the use of archive footage from Gábor Zsigmond Papp’s movie Balaton retro rewrite the viewers’ attitudes to this national heritage. The visual retro “Balaton feeling” of cycling, sailing, eating langosh, taking a ferry in the sunset, partying in the mess hall of a resort or at the open-air cinema of Fövenyes, Balaton Sound festival, or The Valley of Arts, is accompanied by the sounds of a wind section, a women's choir, or percussionists drumming on a Polski Fiat, making the film much more than just a touristic spectacle. The whimsical journey around the “Hungarian Sea” is both a retrospective survey of an ever nostalgic site of memory and an audio-visual time capsule for the future. As the director has put it: “It’s surely going to be worth watching in twenty years’ time to see what kind of music we listened to in Hungary in 2014.” Relying on Svetlana Boym’s notion of reflective nostalgia in The Future of Nostalgia, Pierre Nora’s ideas on lieux

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de memoire in Realms of Memory, and Ewa Mazierska’s insights on the spatial turn’s effect on the interconnections of popular music and national identity in Relocating Popular Music, I interpret Balaton Method as a filmic experiment in mainstreaming musical subcultures while modernizing a heritage site.Balázs Varga Eötvös Lóránd University

Worlds That Never Were: Postsocialist Nostalgia and Recent Eastern European Musical Comedies

Postsocialist (or postcommunist) nostalgia is often analyzed as a controversial phenomenon of contemporary Eastern European societies and culture. Nostalgia seems to be a kind of therapeutic mechanism. Retrospective mythmaking (idealizing the Socialist past as an antidote to the disturbing postsocialist / capitalist present) is sometimes understood as marketing tool. In recent Eastern European cinemas Ostalgie or Yugonostalgia is usually opposed to the films which discuss the near past with criticism and rigour.This paper analyxes a recent trend or rather a cycle of retro fashion films in Eastern European cinema which deal with the long sixties’ counter culture, music and the beat generation. This transnational cycle of films ranges from Péter Tímár’s Dollybirds (1997) and Leander Haussmann’s Sonnenalle (1999) to Jan Herbejk’s Big Beat (1993), Filip Renc’s Rebelove (2001) and Valery Todorovsky’s Stilyagi (2008). Beat culture, rock music and the musical as a genre may be interpreted as a special mode and form of retro and postsocialist nostalgia which could illuminate the paradox and ambiguous nature of the phenomenon. Such films motivate the nostalgic retro-fashion but they also can be a tool for the critical-reflective reading of the 1950s and 1960s. (There are different strategies even if using the soundtracks of these films: using the original songs / re-orchestration of popular hits / mixing original and new (contemporary) musical materials.) Furthermore, these films have a lot of common narrative patterns which may be analysed as well (East-West dichotomy; youth culture / counter culture vs 'official' or mainstream Socialist culture).

Bruce Williams The William Paterson University of New Jersey

The William Paterson University of New Jersey

Pop-rock in Communist Albania really did exist, and it followed many of the tenets set forth by Motti Regev in his linkage of the music genre and aesthetic cosmopolitanism. Prior to the death of Enver Hoxha in 1985, young musicians, mostly from secondary school, performed forbidden Anglo-American rock songs to small groups of trusted friends and family at Tirana’s artificial lake. This phenomenon intensified in the late 1980s, and coincided with an ever-so-slight relaxation of the ban on rock. In 1988 and 89, there were two pop-rock concerts in Tirana, one by an Albanian and one by an Italian duo, both which constituted an integral component of the climate that led to Tirana’s student uprising in early December, 1990. This revolt, in turn, played a pivotal role in the government’s decision of 11 December 1990 to allow political pluralism. One of the key events of the uprising took place on December 8, the tenth anniversary of John Lennon’s death. A group of students, among them Blendi Gonxha and Adrian Klosi, future

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activists for social justice, and Edi Rama, Albania’s current prime minister, occupied the Academy of the Arts and replaced photos of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Alia, with portraits of John Lennon. They lit candles, sang such Beatles’ hits as ‘Revolution’, ‘Working Class Hero’, and ‘Imagine’, and drafted a letter to Yoko Ono.The Albanian ‘John Lennon Protest’ was arguably the most expressly polilticized event of the rare manifestations of rock music in Albania. It furthermore provided evidence for Albania’s aesthetic cosmopolitanism inasmuch as through it, Albanian university students and professors demonstrated their appropriation, not only of Western rock music, but also of notions of democracy and social justice.

Márk Zalán University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest

Escape from the present?

The cinema of Central Eastern Europe has significant traditions and various types of themes, as well as rich style of narratives that turn to the language of motion pictures to deal with the recent past. Among these variations are movies which include pop-rock music, an effective way to recall the past, express collective memory and nostalgia. My topic aims to do a comparative analysis between the music in Hungarian and Polish feature movies made after 1989, focusing on periods before the fall of the Berlin wall. How do these movies recall the past and what is the main role of music? Does it help to elaborate the past or rather emphasize a nostalgic tone? If the latter, why does music play such an important role in nostalgia? According to András Murai’s essay We remember, therefore we are (Emlékezünk, tehát vagyunk), some nostalgic movies emphasize the friendlier side of the Communist era. Instead of dealing with the gloomy realities of the past or the present, movies long for past times showing it in a cheerful style. My topic compares – along with the selected countries relationship with their own socialist past – the basic stylistic and narrative differences and similarities between Hungarian and Polish feature music movies, trying to find answers whether they critically deal with the past, reinterpreting or asking questions, or just prioritise nostalgia as the dominant attitude.

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Names and email addresses of participants:

Jiří Andrs [email protected]

Emília Barna [email protected]

Attila Benke [email protected]

Prof. Petr A. Bílek [email protected]

Monika Borys [email protected]

Rainer Bratfisch [email protected]

Imola Bülgözdi [email protected]

Anca Caramelea [email protected]

Jonáš Chmátal [email protected]

Daniela Doboş [email protected]

Fanni Feldmann [email protected]

Piotr Fortuna [email protected]

Mariusz Gradowsk [email protected]

Zsolt Győri [email protected]

Ferenc Hammer [email protected]

Adam Havas [email protected]

Adam Havlík [email protected]

Imre Horváth [email protected]

Ádám Ignácz [email protected]

Żaneta Jamrozik [email protected]

Karaulic Jovana [email protected]

Zlatko Jovanovic [email protected]

Hajnal Király [email protected]

Marcell Kónya [email protected]

Manuela Marin [email protected]

Ewa Mazierska [email protected]

Martin Mejzr [email protected]

Maroš Melichárek, [email protected]

Radoš Mitrović [email protected]

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Doru Pop [email protected]

Kinga Povedák [email protected]

Klaudia Rachubińska [email protected]

Zsófia Réti [email protected]

Rüdiger Ritter [email protected]

David Robb [email protected]

Francesca Rolandi [email protected]

Kujtim Rrahmani [email protected]

Irena Šentevska [email protected]

Dorota Skotarczak [email protected]

Xawery Stańczyk [email protected]

Łukasz Strzelczyk

Eszter Ureczky [email protected]

Balázs Varga [email protected]

Katharina Weißenbacher [email protected]

Bruce Williams [email protected]

Márk Zalán [email protected]

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