Rock and Politics in Communist Czechoslovakia
Rock and Politics in Communist Czechoslovakia

Summary/Abstract: Vaněk, Miroslav. Byl to jenom rock’n’roll? Hudební alternativa v komunistickém Československu 1956–1989 [Was It Only Rock’n’Roll? A Musical Alternative in Communist Czechoslovakia, 1956–89]. Praha: Academia, 2010, 639 pp. This book provides, according to the reviewer, a comprehensive discussion, including the international context of the field of rock music and the music and subculture developing out of it in Communist Czechoslovakia, covering a large span of time and topics. Rather than a musicological analysis, the publication is a purely historical interpretation in which the author draws on a wide range of primary sources and deftly combines them. He examines the relations between politics and the efforts of forms of musical expression to provide an alternative to state-supported pop music, and raises the cardinal question of whether rock music was indeed a useful weapon of opposition to the regime, and if so, to what extent.

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