Czech Underground from a Musical Historical Point of View

0566296 - ÚDU 2023 RIV CZ eng J - Journal Article
Opekar, Aleš
Czech Underground from a Musical Historical Point of View.
Central European Journal for Conteporary Religion. Roč. 4, č. 2 (2020), s. 5-34. ISSN 2533-7955
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA21-16304S
Institutional support: RVO:68378033
Keywords : underground * alternative scene * grey zone * rock * Czech music * normalisation * music literature
OECD category: Performing arts studies (Musicology, Theater science, Dramaturgy)
Method of publishing: Open access
https://cejcr.com/2020-02-history.pdf

The first part of the article summarises and comments on the literature on the Czech music underground. It proves that professional research of the phenomenon was previously carried out by foreign authors, whose focus was mainly on the social and political contexts in Eastern Europe. Memoirs and published interviews predominated in the domestic reflection of the phenomenon. Theoretical studies, including monographic treatises, appear only on an ongoing basis. However, the underground is still more in the field of view of historians than musicologists. This article also traces the changes in understanding the “underground” category in the Czech environment. It leads to defining it compared to the “alternative scene” and “grey zone” categories, which gradually gained a specific significance in Czech public awareness in the 1970s and 1980s. The second part of the article places the Czech musical underground in the context of the general development of rock and popular music in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0337675