The Historical Song of the Beat Era: A Novel and/or History of Hungarian Youth Music Cover Image

A beatkorszak históriás éneke. A magyar ifjúsági zene regénye és/vagy története
The Historical Song of the Beat Era: A Novel and/or History of Hungarian Youth Music

Author(s): János Kőbányai
Subject(s): Cultural history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Korunk Baráti Társaság
Keywords: beat music; revolt; Kádár era; Hungary

Summary/Abstract: The author, a former beat (pop, rock, then jazz and folk) critic, tries to summarize the narrative of the Hungarian youth music movement four decades after his study “A magyar beatkorszakszak” (The Hungarian Beat Era). In his view, from this perspective, it can be inserted as the narrative of a historical period not only into the history of a genre or culture, but also into the “universal” history of the Kádár era. Without this, the essence and atmosphere of the peculiar Hungarian “goulash communism” cannot be understood. For this apparently “freetime” activity of young people – on the borders of legality and illegality – can be seen as the most significant oppositional or countercultural movement pervading the whole of society. This is because it has permeated all strata of society through its “sensual-erotic” medium. This politically elusive movement popularized the West’s sense of life and its ideals of living, with great success, in the context of a regime that was built on the very denial of these ideals – in the East’s zone of great power oppression

  • Issue Year: 2022
  • Issue No: 02
  • Page Range: 74-81
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Hungarian
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