How Did Rock Music Contributed To The Fall Of The Soviet Union?

Rocking the USSR:

How Rock Music Contributed to the Fall of the Soviet Union

Advanced Modern Global History Max Goodman

B Block April 24, 2023

Dr. Hagler

Introduction:

This paper will examine the effects of rock music on the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the rebellious tendencies of Soviet youth caused by rock music.

Rock music played a significant role in the social and political dissent among Soviet youth against the state due to the rebellious messages and Western ideology it broadcasted, a result which was then exacerbated by inconsistent and unsuccessful Soviet censorship. This cultural phenomenon was partially reflective but also had some impact on the destabilization and eventual

Throughout its history, the Soviet Union has had varying policies surrounding the distribution and consumption of rock music, as different leaders throughout the decades held different views on the practice of Western culture in the Soviet Union. In the 1940s, prior to rock and roll’s inception, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union was quick to condemn any sort of Western influence, like jazz and Western fashion trends. Stalin was worried that these American influences were a threat to Soviet culture and the “new socialist man”, described as “an individual free of bourgeois vices who voluntarily subordinated self-interest to the needs of the community.” However, after the death of Stalin in 1953, these restrictions were rarely listened to or enforced, resulting in Western music and culture gaining much traction in the Soviet Union. By the mid-1950s, Stalin's successor, Khrushchev, sparingly permitted jazz and other forms of Western culture in the Soviet Union. This was around the time of rock and roll’s emergence, which was originally considered the same as jazz under Soviet policy. Rock music flourished under the somewhat liberal policies sounding Western culture during this era, causing its popularity to skyrocket, particularly among the Soviet youth. This did not last long, however, when in the 1960s to

Soviet youth, and other rock fans alike, found many ways to evade such censorship, one of the most common being the expansive underground market for Western rock records. In the 1950s and 1960s, people would create bootleg rock records out of discarded X-ray plates and then distribute them on the black market, allowing rock fans to listen to Western music that was otherwise banned in the Soviet Union. These bootleggers found that there was an abundance of discarded X-ray plates in hospitals, and discovered that when cut into the correct shape, such material was suitable for etching music onto. Although these “bone records” were not of great quality and deteriorated quickly, their cheap cost and easy-to-find nature made banned Western rock music easily accessible for anyone who wanted to listen. After the advent of the tape recorder in Soviet Russia, bootlegging rock music became even easier and more accessible, as anybody with access to a rock record and tape recorder could effortlessly make many copies onto cassette tapes, which were much cheaper and easier to distribute than the previous methods of bootleg rock music. In addition, add the last part about radio stations playing rock here, either from the source directly above or another source. Therefore, in addition to these attempts at rock