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Sounds of pleasure and challenge behind the Iron Curtain: on the rise of Bulgarian rock music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2025

Claire Levy Open the ORCID record for Claire Levy [Opens in a new window]
Claire Levy*
Affiliation:
Institute of Art Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Krakra St 21, Sofia, Bulgaria
*
E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article focuses on the innovative developments of some emblematic rock bands in Bulgaria, observed during the late 1970s and 1980s in terms of their social, ideological and artistic maturity, as well as of their significant impact on local youth life-styles through the liberating experience of specific musical styles ranging from classic rock (Shturtsite) and progressive rock (FSB) to, say, new wave (Tangra) or punk (Rock Trio Milena). Why the 1980s? What were the dominant verbal and musical messages at that time? Did they stimulate and accommodate the democratic political changes in 1989? In trying to answer such questions, the article develops a thesis according to which the acculturation of transnational musical models as the ones in the field of rock music is not a form of any flat mimicry of modern trends; this process inevitably passes through the filter of specific local contexts and subjective experiences.

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Article
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Popular Music , First View , pp. 1 - 11
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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1985 FSB na koncert [FSB in Concert]Google Scholar
1987 Obicahm te do tuk [I Love You Up To Here]Google Scholar
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1976 Shturtsite [First LP]Google Scholar
1978 Shturtcite [Second LP]Google Scholar
1980 20-ti vek [20th Century]Google Scholar
1982 Vkusat na vremeto [The Taste of Time]Google Scholar
1985 Konnikat [The Rider]Google Scholar
1987 Musketarski marsh [Musketeer March]Google Scholar
1978 Non-StopGoogle Scholar
1979 FSB 2Google Scholar
1980 Kalboto [The Globe]Google Scholar
1981 78 RPMGoogle Scholar
1983 10 godini po-kusno [Ten Years Later]Google Scholar
1983 FSB VIGoogle Scholar
1985 FSB na koncert [FSB in Concert]Google Scholar
1987 Obicahm te do tuk [I Love You Up To Here]Google Scholar
1990 FSBGoogle Scholar