Thursday, November 3, 2011

FORBIDDEN MUSIC IN THE USSR


Evidence shows that
totalitarian regimes approach certain type of music as a threat to power and ideology. It turns out that oppressive governments fear the effect certain music creates on the people and how this impacts the relationship between subordinates and those in power. Those of us who grew up in Cuba understand the meaning of music censorship as the Cuban government adopted a similar anachronistic mentality when censoring music throughout the past decades, from the Beatles to Porno para Ricardo. The author of this blog for example was reprimanded with a note on the 'Student File/Expediente Acumulativo' that pointed to 'ideological deviation/diversionismo ideologico for writing the name of rock bands in my class notebook.

Browsing through the web in search of similar blogs on totalitarianism I came across this
interesting post from a Blog titled 'The Weirdo's Dairy' by alias Fuzz (a.k.a Simona Jareckaite) from Birzai, Lithuania.

The post reproduces a 1985 document extracted from the Soviet archives that shows important evidence about music censorship in the former Soviet Union. The document compiles a list of musicians and groups that government representatives in the Nikolayev regional of Ukraine considered "harmful" to Soviet ideology. Eventually these ideological bureaucrats ordered the Konsomol (Communist Youth in the Soviet Union) to prohibit reproduction of this music in discotheques.

Translation of the document by Simona Jareckaite“Group Name and Type of Propaganda” - Extracts
For a complete list see:
Forbidden freedom: Rock music in the USSR and Soviet Lithuania
6. Kiss - neofascism, punk, violence
9. Iron Maiden - violence, religious obscurantism
10. Judas Priest - anticommunism, racism
11. AC/DC - neofascism, violence
13. Black Sabbath - violence, religious obscurantism
14. Alice Cooper - violence, vandalism
16. Scorpions - violence
19. Pink Floyd - distortion of Soviet foreign policy ("Soviet aggression in Afghanistan")
24. Donna Summer - eroticism
25. Tina Turner - sex
26. Junior English - sex
29. Ramones - punk
30. Van Halen - anti-Soviet propaganda
31. Julio Iglesias - neofascism
34. Village People - violence

For the complete 3 parts document please click this link to redirect your browser to the Weirdo's Dairy, Forbidden freedom: Rock music in the USSR and Soviet Lithuania

No comments:

Post a Comment