The three phases of rock music in the Czech lands

Abstract

In the Czech lands (included in Czechoslovakia until the end of 1992), rock music has evolved through three phases. In the first phase, lasting until 1968, rock musicians had no ambition to offer social or political commentaries. This began as the era of rock ‘n’ roll, which is to say music being performed for dancing. The second phase began after the Soviet bloc invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, lasting until the end of the communist era in 1989. In this phase, rock musicians (no longer playing rock ‘n’ roll were closely monitored by the authorities and were expected to sing happy songs, submitting their song texts to the authorities for approval in advance of performing them. In spite of this control, some rock groups purposefully sang political texts in the 1970s and 1980s, mocking or criticizing the communists, albeit often cryptically. Finally, in the third phase — since 1989 — having lost their ideological foe, Czech rock groups have for the most part become politically disengaged.

The political economy of fanzines on the threshold of state socialism and post-socialism: The story of Czech(o)slovak fanzines

“…In her examination of Czechoslovakia, she fails to distinguish between the diversity in rock’s relationship with the late socialist state. In a recent study co-authored with Dordevic (Ramet and Dordevic 2019), she partly corrects her earlier work, but highlights bands that were not representative of the alternative scene.…”

“…In this system, independent cultural activities could be organized either legally, but on the margins of the official sphere with performers making compromises, or illegally within the underground culture that was backed by political dissidents. An underground community emerged in the 1970s in the guise of the máničky , a post-hippie community of long-haired non-conformists and became a source of conflict between dissidents and the political regime that resulted in Charta 77 (see, for example, Ramet and Dordevic, 2019). Thus, this first wave of underground revolt became a part (albeit a rather marginal one) of a closed community of dissidents, mostly comprising intellectuals whose illegal activities, including the samizdat publishing of magazines and books on politically proscribed subjects or by prohibited authors, were secretly supported by the West.…”

“…By the early 1980s, however, the grey zone on the borders of the official cultural production system facilitated the establishment of a new independent scene heavily influenced by British punk, which went almost unnoticed by the state authorities until 1983, when the Communist Party and the Ministry of the Interior launched a massive campaign against this new trend that was referred to as ‘new wave’ in official documents (see Ramet, 1994; Rybak, 1990). Although the regime loosened its grip in the late 1980s (Ramet and Dordevic, 2019), continued repression meant most alternative cultural events were held unofficially and irregularly, unlike in Poland (Piotrowski, 2016) and Hungary (Szemere, 2001).…”