©Călin Pop, Celelalte cuvinte, 1988

The proposed project aims to examine the history of popular music in socialist Romania, from 1948 until 1989, focusing, in particular, on the genres of jazz, rock, and light music and on their role in performing communist and nationalist ideologies, as well as in addressing demands of cultural consumption for various audiences. The project takes an interdisciplinary approach, as it brings together instruments of analysis from cultural and social history, cultural anthropology, and musicology. The research project construes the popular music genres of jazz, rock, and light music as spaces of interaction/negotiation between audiences and musicians, musicians and cultural activists/representatives of political authority, as well as between musicians themselves, depending on their social background, musical education and influences, and administrative authority/ies. While it focuses on the Romanian national context, the project also relies on an asymmetrical historical comparison with other national case studies of popular music behind the Iron Curtain (Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union).

Results:

Events:

–A Music So Popular That No Curtain Could Contain: Popular Music and Cultural Transfers during the Cold War
International Workshop, 5 December 2022, at NEC & via Zoom