Author: Amanda Fitzpatrick

Early in the reading, Buchanan refers to the “oppositional constructs at work” throughout Europe from the most basic level such as industrial vs. rural, to “West vs. East,” “socialist/communist vs. democratic,” and more (8).  However, while the divides can be seen in Europe as a whole when comparing country to country, Buchanan points out how these “dichotomies” are at work in Bulgaria and are “abstractions” that citizens are working through.  Given Bulgaria’s history and transition from a 43 year long Communist government into a democratic member of the European Union, these contradictions are reflected not only in the people but in the music.

               The Bulgarian Women’s Choir, as described by its conductor in the interview, sings contemporary arrangements of medieval music.  The first choir was said to be assembled by a famous Bulgarian conductor in the 1950’s in which women auditioned from villages around the country.  Today, the coloring of their traditional clothing is symbolic of Bulgarian history of the villages they are from.  Their voices are reflective of the traditional singing style of Bulgaria – there are six vocal ranges presented in the group, the voices are natural, and the way they sing is different than that of a Western style.  Yet, in the first video, we hear them end with Oh! Susanna blending their traditional Bulgarian style of singing with a Western song. 

               Throughout the interview, we see the conductor’s desire to share with others their history, traditions, and style of music.  She displayed her knowledge and was gracious for the invitation.  However, at the end of the interview, the men repeatedly congratulate each other on their discovery (of music that has existed in Bulgaria since medieval times) and the risk they took in bringing the choir to the United States rather than congratulating the women on their success and risk they took. 

1. Did you notice the difference between their guttural singing style and the open-mouth style of Western singing?
2. What other differences did you notice between traditional
3. Do you think the choir is effectively blending the contemporary with the traditional music?
4. How has Bulgaria’s communist history affected the existence and style of groups like the Bulgarian Women’s Choir?
5. How has Bulgaria’s transition from communism to democracy changed the music and the culture of the people? Do we see any Western influence?
6. Why did the men describe each other as having “courage” or taking a “risk” by bringing the choir to perform?
7. In what way do the attitudes of the woman interview contrast with the attitudes of the men?
8. Given the class topic is breaking barriers, how do you feel these women are challenging gender norms?
9. With the time period, why do you think the choir was all women?
10. How would the choir have been perceived differently if they had not all been women?

(so sorry this is late, my computer decided to update for the past hour!)

In comparison to David Bowie, who was political more so as a person than through his music, punk rock emerged as a political genre of music. This was the case due to the struggle between fascists and anti-fascists in the 1970’s in Britain. With the 1970’s largely being a decade of instability in Britain, it seems as if punk rock was the perfect genre to convey these frustrations and uncertainty. The Sex Pistols, with songs like “Anarchy in the U.K.” and “God Save the Queen,” were one of these punk rock bands that chose to demonstrate their political stances through their music. Though Bowie was still performing at the same time and even said in his interview that he believed in “himself, sex, and politics,” I wonder why punk rock artists like the Sex Pistols chose to make their music political while other rock artists like Bowie chose to not. Perhaps, this was simply the nature of punk rock music; as a genre of the working class, artists may have began making music in order to spread their political frustrations whereas artists like Bowie were simply artists. It just seems surprising to me that there were artists like Bowie making general music while there was such political unrest at the time, but that may be why punk rock was so short-lived whereas other rock music stood the test of time.

Through all of the detailed readings and the performance as Ziggy Stardust, I am still left wondering who David Bowie really is. In his own interview, I am left feeling that he has contradicted himself many times, perhaps due to his own uncertainty in who he really is as he was quoted saying “I honestly don’t know where the real David Jones is. It’s like playing the shell game. Except I’ve got so many shells I’ve forgotten what the pea looks like.” He was quoted saying disco is a dirge, and then said he loves disco. He was quoted saying he believes in himself, among other things, yet is also quoted saying he is not an original thinker and even describes his own music as plastic. In the beginning of the interview, he discusses how he “exploits”his bisexuality while later stating that he was exploited. However, these contradictions seem to make Bowie the artist he is. Above all, what came through in both Bowie’s interview and performance is a confidence bordering on arrogance (explicitly seen in the way he calls out Elton John and proudly states “I get away with murder”) and a love for the theatrics. Despite Bowie cycling through characters, in his performance it is evident that the audience connects with him, as several cried and many sang along. While Bowie himself was impossible to pin down, it should not be overlooked how he not only challenged rock culture, but the idea of sexual identity at the time.

With these five songs, we can see that the western influence of rock and roll has swept over the entirety of Europe. Similar to the Soviet rock and roll from Tuesday’s class, each song has a strong and openly political message addressing the common concerns and crisis of the time. I found the fourth song particularly interesting due to its seemingly strong support for communism. While we recently have been discussing the Soviet people’s growing discontent for their controlling government and see that reflected in their music, this German song had lyrics singing about how different places “belong to us” under communism and even sang “out of the way, capitalists, we’ll win the last battle.” I wonder if the Soviet discontent was only beginning and had not yet reached the people of East Germany, or if following the destruction of World War II, the people saw a benefit to communism at least in its early stages. All of the songs had a revolutionary sentiment and what we would consider leftist views, suggesting that coming out of fascist governments these people of both Germany and France would like to gain freedom and agency once again in their lives.

If any music we listened to so far was obviously political, it would be these five songs. Every one contained a political message, from comparing people to dolls suggesting they were being controlled with lyrics like “dolls are so tough controlled by him” to repeatedly singing “don’t shoot,” the motive for each song was to convey a political message. They seemed to be calls by the Soviet people against the government and each highlighted a problem with the status quo. I especially found the fifth song interesting, speaking kindly of Lenin singing “only our grandfather Lenin was a good leader.” The lyrics went on to compare their following leaders to Korean leaders and even noted that things will be great once they get communism. This suggests that although they see their current government as very flawed, they do not view their current government as communist in the way that Lenin envisioned it. Despite the hardships the Soviet people faced, they still see the communist government as an option. Perhaps, they truly appreciate the idea of all being treated as equals as communism states or maybe they simply are not aware of how other styles of government function, as can be seen in the reading with popular Soviet jokes being made like “I want to go to Paris again” despite never having been to Paris. This lack of awareness of the outside world seems to greatly contribute to their frustrations with their situation as well as the lyrics in Soviet rock and roll.

As discussed in Alexeyeva, World War II produced feelings of doubt in the people of the Soviet Union. A country taught to believe they were invincible saw with their own eyes that they were not. Not too long after the fact, Stalin died in 1953 and the country mourned. Many might be surprised to hear that the Soviet Union cried over the death of a seemingly oppressive leader; however, they knew no other life and it was ultimately the end of an era. This postwar society gave rise to a hedonistic lifestyle, but this is not unique to the Soviet Union. The same thing could be seen both in postwar America and postwar Germany, where older generations were shaking their heads at the new music and culture developing. However, this rise of a hedonistic lifestyle in the Soviet Union was unique due to its growth out of a repressive regime that prevented influence from outside and its lack of accessibility to all citizens in Soviet society.

In Edele’s “Strange Young Men in Stalin’s Moscow: Birth and Life of the Stiliagi,” it is established that the Stiliagi are not the majority: they are the privileged, middle class men of society. What they were lacking was not money or access to goods; they were lacking the freedom to express themselves. For example, they sought a secure sense of gender for themselves. Because masculinity was tied to military service under Stalin and these young men were not of age to serve at the time, they had to look elsewhere. Being they could not imitate veterans, they found they could imitate the western style of dress. This extended into Western ideals of fashion, hair, dance, and speech. The Stiliagi soon transitioned into the Shtatniki, but the core idea was the same. The goal was to emulate American fashion. However, the party took this expression of American style as un-Soviet and “rootless cosmopolitanism.” Unlike the truly struggling people of the Soviet Union, this group of people appear to be purely rebelling from a psychological standpoint and had the opportunity to do so due to their privilege in society.

While the Stiliagi and Shtatniki were reaching towards Western fashion, musicians reached towards the West as well. The music was very different than previous socialist realism that was desired by the regime. Some of the music was emotional, even sad, and others have strong pop and jazz influences. The music was clearly not celebratory of communism, with the second song even criticizing the regime having lyrics referring to the soldier as paper “dying under fire for nothing at all.” In many ways, this new music was simple with few instruments and one voice. The lyrics told a message rather than what we saw in propaganda music like “Life is Better,” designed to support the government instead of being an expression of the individual. This new music was another way in which the people of the Soviet Union were slowly growing their own individual identity following a collectivist government.

1. Why was the Party not able to once again repress music as they did before?
2. Why did the people of the Soviet Union mourn Stalin’s death?
3. Why do you think the people were shocked to find out Stalin was a criminal knowing how they personally were living?
4. Why out of all of the genres did music go in the direction of guitar poetry?
5. Why do postwar societies often turn to hedonism?
6. If the Stiliagi was more reserved for the privileged middle class, what were the poor doing? Were they turning to the West as well?
7. Do you think the result of the Soviet Union would have been different had following Stalin’s death, they did not strive to continue to repress Western influence or were their doubts in communism already too strong?
8. Why do you think some when given the opportunity to study anything (Thaw Generation) chose to study Lenin and Marx?
9. Why were women seemingly left out in the readings and music/How did gender play into this discussion?