Uwagi na temat subkultur młodzieżowych w Grodnie w latach sześćdziesiątych-osiemdziesiątych XX w.
Some Remarks on the Youth Subcultures in Hrodna in the 1960s-1980s

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the question of the youth’s musical preferences in Hrodna in the second half of the twentieth century. Youth communities of that time are at present a mostly unexplored topic. One of the characteristic features of the youth-subcultural environment is their musical interest as a factor contributing to the youth worldviews, the formation of their value systems and behavioural norms. As established by Joanna Sadowska in her text on the fascination with Polish popular music in Hrodna in the late Soviet period, the youth subcultures and their musical preferences in Hrodna in the 1980s were quite specific, which explains the development of the Television Top Songs List (Telewizyjna Lista Przebojów) movement and crowds of Polish rock music fans. In Hrodna, interest in Polish culture, including Polish music, through the Soviet period was the result of numerous historical and cultural factors. Despite its massive scale, the TLP movement in Hrodna was unstructured, nor it did have a single leader or founder. The movement was made up of individual autonomous groups whose values and morals were in conflict with the official culture. Youth non-conformism was not determined by a single reason, and it was not a protest against the socio-political reality. Interest in Western music, including Polish, was, on the one hand, a consequence of individual tastes, while on the other it was a form of escapism and the search for self-expression of the young generation. An analysis of available sources made it possible to consider the following issues: the youth subcultures in Hrodna, the functioning of communication channels of information (radio, television shows, recording studios), and types of activity of the Hrodna youth (formation of private music collections, participation in rock bands, going to discos). Much attention is paid to the problem of the authorities’ attitude towards the influence of the Polish mass media on the Belarusian youth. The study of youth subcultures is not easy due to the expanding source base, requiring a broader range of research methods and tools. This basis includes not only oral sources but also questionnaire surveys, interviews, archival as well as iconographic and phonographic materials.

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