Author: Mason Secreti

After reading this article I realized that I was an undiagnosed technotourist. I’ve never traveled to Berlin, but I have heard of it’s great electronic music scene and would like to experience it sometime.

The music and the people seem to be the two largest attractions. Berlin also seems to be one of the most lively techno-tourist locations, although techno-tourism can be a lucrative industry for any host city. Berlin is an attractive city for not only historical tourists, but those who want to experience the music scene as well. I thought Garcia was right when he said Berlin was a “special case.” The city is attractive for loud music but not without the noise complaints of those living within the city. It highlights the cross between the two groups in Berlin – those involved in the electronic music scene, and those who aren’t.
The rise of techno tourism popularity seems to be analogous with a younger generation who are more cost-conscious and strive for experiences over materials. These people have really done everything they can to keep costs low, from booking flights months in advance, to avoiding all extra flight costs. Also, most tourists have connections to places to stay, but not all. Those without usually stay in more modest housing in hostels.

The reading on the Saharawi refugee camps in western Africa was interesting to me because it highlights the post-colonial world we are currently experiencing. The dust from the succession of the European colonial powers in Africa in the 20th century has not yet been settled. African nations are fighting for control of areas leaving hundreds of thousands without permanent homes, driven out of their homeland. Music during the revolution was voluntary and seen as a motivator for the cause – the survival of their people. It is important to the older generation that music not be paid for. The younger musicians have no problem accepting money.

Great civil unrest was a reality in France in May 1968. The protests began as student protests against capitalism and consumerism. In search for revolution alternative forms of government were considered, which included Trotskyism and Maoism. During the turmoil, musicians used rock music, a new genre which broke genre boundaries and sparked intense debates, to express their frustrations and to motivate the masses to push for social change. Johnny Hallyday introduced this genre to France with his singles released in the early 1960’s. Rock was heavily criticized for its “ability to promote violence,” which was seen in November 1961 at the Troisiéme festival de rock, where a riot broke out. The genre enjoyed widespread success, “Rock music both reflected, and participated in, the search for the revolutionary subject around 1968; but it also reflected the diversity of aims and means with which this search was conducted” (Brown, 89). Revolution songs (chanson révolutionnaire) were written with the purpose of giving the masses a voice and identity. New groups with extreme left (Gauche prolétarienne) ideologies formed, which intensified the wants for revolution. Dominique Grange is one such influential rock musician who belonged to such groups. Also, rock musician Léo Ferré was in his 50’s when his forward-thinking and boundary-breaking work Lété 68 (Summer 68) gained great success. West Germany also was experiencing civil unrest and protests. Anti-authoritarianism was at the core of the West German protests and rock music mirrored these conflicts. Class, culture, and the questioning of existing institutions were three facets by which rock flourished during 1968 West Germany. Leftist ideas were gaining ground in Germany. The SDS “Socialist German Students League” ran from 1965-1968. After 1968, two groups became the figureheads for the leftist anti-authoritarian search: the K-Gruppen and Basisgruppen. Bands such as Ton Steine Scherben flourished in the 1970’s. They wore colorful masks and costumes and encouraged the audience to come on stage and participate. Their goal was to “liberate the consciousness of young workers and apprentices in order to facilitate their political action” (Brown, 77). Their flagship single was “Rita and Paul,” and the group saw great success after seizing the George von Rauch Haus (previously Martha-Maria Haus, the name was changed after von Rauch was killed). The house was a haven for revolutionaries and also cast light on the issues of urban space in Berlin, which can still be seen today. 

Timothy Scott Brown, “Culture, Class, and, Communism: The Politics of Rock in the West German 1968,” Twentieth Century Communism 2015, Issue 9, pp. 77, 89. 

1. Do you think the complex feelings and ideas of the French and West German people would have been effectively communicated without rock music? Why or why not?
2. Do you think rock music was at the core of the revolution’s ability to attract people to the cause?
3. Do you believe that changes in social relations affected/reflected changes in musical genres? 
4. In what ways was the social atmosphere reflected in music? 
5. In what ways was rock music able to better reflect the feelings of the masses than yéyé? Or, do you refute this claim? 
6. How effective was Ton Steine Scherben in relating with the protesting masses? Do you think their engagement with the audience helped this?
7. Why do you think a push for anti-authoritarianism came so long after WW2? 
8. In what ways was rock music, and the breaking down of conventional musical genres in general, counterproductive to their cause? Or, do you believe it was not counterproductive at all?

Mason Secreti

HIS315 Blog Post

September 9, 2019

These readings for the 12th of September were concerned with the formation and the spread of socialist content of Asian and Soviet-influenced satellite states throughout Europe. Music nationalism and soviet realism, perpetrated by the Soviet government, infiltrated Kazakhstan. They wished to spread their influence and the Soviet culture. “Moreover, pro-worker, pop-opera, and mass dance themes presented socialist realism as a legitimate aesthetic that reached deep into the collective consciousness of the Kazaks (Rouland, 200).” This is interesting because previously soviet realism rejected anything remotely relevant to the West. But now, as the Soviet reputation engulfs eastern Europe, Western ideologies and culture are now seen as acceptable and part of Soviet repertoire. The fall of the radical RAPP and RAPM groups allowed for a breath of fresh air in Soviet creativity, however, music and art must still be “Socialist in content,” which proved to be difficult to execute as an artist. It was also notable, to me, that Azerbaijan was formed because borders were drawn around it – and great composers, who acted as musical crusaders throughout these Soviet satellites, marched in and forced a change in culture. For instance, Soviet composer Gajibekov spent time studying Azerbaijani folk music, in an attempt to more completely understand their culture to further assimilate them into the Soviet sphere. Lots of cultural shifting – such as the kobiz, an instrument reserved for shamans, was “therefore transformed into an instrument of mass choir (Rouland, 193).” This man was heavily anti-orientalist, saying that  “Augmented seconds in music, images of the nightingale and rose in po- etry, flower-bud ornaments in the visual arts, multicolored costumes and ceremonious bows in the theater: all this pseudo-Eastern style can only jar on an Eastern people and violate their spirit and tastes (Frolova-Walker, 353).”

1. What do you think was the greatest obstacle for the Soviets to spread their influence?
2. What do you personally believe Stalin meant, “Socialist in Content?” 
3. Why do you think Lenin said, “A culture designed to educate the masses was an essential foundation of socialism?” Do you think he succeeded in this?
4. Andrey Olkhovsky said, “The musical creative life of other Soviet republics is extremely weakly developed. These republics have neither national composer of their own nor a sufficient basis for their development, since their artistic consciousness has not yet been developed.” What do you take from this? Do you think this is true, or is he belittling the other Soviet states?
5. Ultimately, was the spread of Soviet culture successful? Are the effects still seen today?
6. A nation’s position in the hierarchy determined the rate at which they became “soviet-alized.” Do you think this hindered certain nations development? 
7. Do you think the dakada, international displays of Soviet art at the Bolshoi Theater, was genuinely a display or art, or rather, power?
8. Shirin Akiner argued that the spread of Soviet Kazak art is to “fulfil an ideological role that replaced ‘primitive traditional art,’ to create strong linkages with other Soviet cultures, while maintaining diversity, and to shape a local understanding of their historical past (Rouland, 185).” Would you agree with this? Is it right to call other native cultures “primitive?”