This article focuses on the state-forced changes in the musical creative process in 1960s communist Czechoslovakia. Using historical sources and narrative interviews with famous musicians of that time (Karel Kahovec, Viktor Sodoma, Josef Laufer…), it examines how musicians perceived the effects of state repression e.g. having to translate English lyrics into Czech, being persecuted for playing a specific musical genre, and being banned from the media due to inappropriate themes or topics used on their records. These repressions are evidenced in two example cases: the song “Slunečný hrob” [Sunny Grave] by the Blue Effect band, which became famous in the Czech movie Pelíšky only in the late 1990s, and the unjustly forgotten album Odyssea [Odyssey] recorded by Atlantis, a Petr Ulrych’s music band, in 1969. The article shows how the perception of music and lyrics by the state’s repressive apparatus changed over a short period of time and how artists negotiated with the regime according to the changing circumstances
Rock’n’roll stał się kulturowym i popkulturowym fenomenem lat 50. w Stanach Zjednoczonych, nie tylko rewolucjonizując scenę muzyczną, ale i wywierając głęboki wpływ na kinematografię. Zarówno wielkie studia, jak i producenci niezależni chcieli skapitalizować jego bezprecedensowy oddźwięk, zwłaszcza wśród nastoletniej publiczności. Rewolucyjny i subwersywny potencjał rock’n’rolla, opór starszej generacji, jego natychmiastowe powiązanie w społecznym odbiorze z buntem i przestępczością młodocianych sprawiły, że powstające filmy, manewrując między cenzurą i moralną paniką a hołdowaniem „nastokulturze”, stanowią do dziś interesujący przedmiot analizy osadzającej fenomeny muzyczne i kinematograficzne w kontekście społecznym.
EN
Rock’n’roll became a cultural and popcultural phenomenon of the 1950s. It not only revolutionised the music scene in the United States, but also exerted a profound influence on the cinema. Both major studios and independent producers wanted to capitalise on the unprecedented response, especially among teenage audiences. The revolutionary and the subversive potential of rock’n’roll, the resistance of the older generation, and the immediate association in its social perception with rebellion and juvenile delinquency led to the resulting films maneuvering between censorship, moral panic and the admiration of “teenculture”. Today they represent an interesting object of analysis embedding musical and cinematographic phenomena in a social context.
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