Essay about Rock Music in the GDR and the Eastern Bloc

The well-known riff of Deep Purple’s â€Å"Smoke on the Water† opens Andreas Dresen’s movie Changing Skins (Raus aus der Haut, 1997). The film opens in a crowded music club where young people are dancing ecstatically, turned on by pulsing rock and roll. This could be a trite depiction of youth culture if it were not located in a country that suppressed this kind of music: the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It is therefore worth reflecting on the social and political controversy in the former East Germany that, finally in the 1970s, permitted the performance of rock music and even imports from the capitalist part of the world. By the late 1970s, different kinds of rock music were not only an integral part of Western youth culture but also†¦show more content†¦Beat and rock music spread all over the GDR and imported records circulated on the black market. The government finally had to accept the fact that rock and roll had become an integral part of you th culture even in the socialist bloc. At the Eighth SED Congress in 1971, Honecker announced an about-face. The needs of young people – as they were an important part of socialist society – should no longer be ignored. Therefore, music from the West was allowed to be broadcast on radio stations (most popular was the youth station â€Å"DT64†), special editions of famous musicians like Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and so on were released, and local bands were allowed again to perform in newly founded music clubs and discotheques. In 1973, with the establishment of the Committee for Entertainment Music as part of the Culture Ministry and the arrangement of the International Youth Festival in East Berlin, beat music was officially rehabilitated. Basically since around 1970, â€Å"popular culture in fact was the core of a common culture† (Maase 15). As a matter of fact, with the accommodation of rock and roll to official culture the government now was better able to control songwriters and musicians. With the groups dependent on the benefits of the Ministry, whichShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Cold War and West Germany 1960-19701442 Words   |  6 Pagesbusinessmen, and the like. They were happily welcomed by the West and helped to make the economy that much better. Before the Wall was erected in 1961 the pay levels of craftsmen and professionals were broadcast from FRG radio stations (accessible in the GDR), especially if a shortage occurred in a particular field. (Perkins, Page 494.) In addition to gr eater incomes, West Germany offered a better exchange rate, more profitable currency, and the freedoms of Western Europe and North America. Throughout