This article addresses the entangled relationship between various genres of popular music and official culture in socialist Romania during the last part of the communist regime, the 1980s. It provides an analysis of the cultural and political context of late socialist Romania, focusing on the communist regime’s attempts at cultural control and uniformization and on the negotiations with various popular music
scenes which emerged throughout the country. Furthermore, the article addresses issues of censorship, cultural transnational networks, and it explores the relation between amateur and professional artists, both in the official context of political festivals and in the often informal one of local music festivals and performances, in an attempt to go beyond the received wisdom of 1980s Romania as a closed
society.