The Ramones Strike A Pose At The Berlin Wall

The black market, often associated with the illicit trade of dangerous narcotics, military weapons, and the human body the mechanics of the market typically form around the dreary outskirts of what is deemed politically and socially unacceptable. This range of unacceptability is determined, in part, by the organizing nature the exist between the people, the state and the form of governance birthed by this relationship. Within a western liberal society, this relationship is formed in part by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s social contract theory where the authority of the state is granted via the organized approval of the body politic. Contrasted with the Soviet Union and its post-Bolshevik revolutionary formulation of the Russian state, where absolute authority is be granted to Communist party in all forms of governance, both socially and politically. Under this formulation, anything countering to the authenticity and the rule of the party is deemed subversive and illegal. However, in the case of both systems, what is deemed illicit does not just disappear, but instead continues in more allusive ways.

Within a political system like the Soviet Union, which deemed anti-authoritarian political rhetoric and non-traditionalist forms of art as great affronts to the state, where possibly could the grinding three chord anarchist mantras of bands like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, or the Clash possibly exist? Of course, Johnny Rotten’s spiked hair and snarled look would never be welcomed into the Eastern Bloc, knowingly. However, due to a growing assortment of unstoppable technological distribution methods and an organized underground network of self-proclaimed anti-authoritarian music pirates. Soviet youths began to have ready access to this overwhelming form of subversive music. In contention with the state apparatus, which fought, by all means, to prevent its proliferation, cutting edge black market networks enabled those willing to take the risk, the ability to plug-in to the soundtrack of the revolution. (1)

A Short-Lived Balance

Following the conclusion of World War Two, both the United States and the Soviet Union adapted to a new era of cultural diplomacy. Through the state sponsoring of music and artisan groups, each nation hoped to stylize their appearance abroad, both within their respective sphere of influence and to the greater world. (2) The subtle goal was to present their nations as more than just weaponry, politics, consumption, or an economic system but instead a place where the average family could enjoy the presence of their loved ones and live a life without need. The Cold War was progressing into something more than just an arms race between the two most powerful nations, but instead into an ideological war which sought to fixate itself among all aspects of life.

The acceptance of rock and roll and other forms of western music like classical, beat, pop, swing, and jazz by the Soviet state apparatus varied throughout the Cold War era. At times, music was a celebrated form of cultural transfusion between the Eastern and Western people. Early on in the post-war period, American musicians, particularly in the genre of classical music, were sponsored by governmental organizations, such as the State Department and the United States Information Agency, to perform in cities throughout Europe. Though these performances were not inherently political, they did, however, deploy, in a sense, the “artistic gift of peacemaking” which government officials typically could not offer. (3)

Classical musicians like Leonard Bernstein held the unique opportunity to meld international audiences into one collective community boundless of national identity. His orchestra could perform music which had originated in countries like Germany or Russia, then reimagined or perfected in America, and finally brought back to European audiences some 150 years after its original composition. For the social elites of the Soviet Bloc, classical music composed by Americans was celebrated, easily purchasable and even considered “safe” to play in social gatherings. (4) It was also commonplace to hear American jazz and swing music on state-owned radio stations and in the dance halls that were sprouting up across the cities of the Soviet Union. However, this celebrated unity of the East and West during the post-war period would eventually come to an end. As the fire and fury of rock and roll came to dominate the airwaves in the West, Soviet officials saw it as their prime duty to extinguish its flame before it too enraptured the East.

Rock and Roll

“Rock music is important to people because it allows them to escape this crazy world. It allows them not to run away from the problems that are there, but to face up to them, but at the same time sort of dance all over them. That’s what rock and roll is about.” ~ (Pete Townshend of the Who)

Originating with the popularity of Bill Haley’s two minute smash hit single “Rock Around the Clock,” then followed by the textual details (in the East) of Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips and then reaching a maxim with the ensuing pandemic that was Beatlesmania, Communist ideologist within the Soviet Union quickly began to see the ensuing rhythmic culture war that was organically developing around them, and attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, to force rock and roll into the underground. (5) With rock and rolls sudden roar through the Iron Curtain, Soviet officials came to realize that this new form of Western cultural influence was unlike anything they had ever seen before. The next battlefield of the Cold War was soldiering away from the realm of international politics and instead into the heartstrings, table tops, and tape decks of the youth all across the globe.

What made rock music so significant that Soviet officials wished to cease its distribution and consumption? There is no one singular remedy to this question, but a good start may be in the way in which rock musicians and rock and roll was typically presented throughout the decades. Early characterizations in media often portrayed rock and roll bands as unable to exist within the boundaries of control, innately spontaneous, in a synergistic relationship with the consumption of drugs, and retain the rare ability to inspire a mass of followers outside the guidance of establishment culture. In the Soviet Union, rock music fell out of line with the foundations of the “new socialist man” that were being reimagined throughout the 1950s. (6) These, “engineers of the human soul” sought to push ideological study over selfish desire and collectivization for the good of the community. (7) Popular early rock and roll songs instead focused on splashy iconography, catchy hooks, and seductive dance moves.

At the dawn of rock and roll era, popular songs like Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti” demonstrated the rich cultural diversity, opportunity, and glamorous fun that America had the potential to offer while simultaneously countering the Soviet propaganda of America’s dark racial tensions. Little Richard’s song encouraged youths to pack dance clubs, dance seductively with multiple partners, and be carefree all night. (8) In July of 1955, the same year as the release of Little Richard’s record, the communist Romanian cultural-political newspaper Contemporanual, depicted the dancehall scene as a sort of uncontrolled chaos. Describing dancers as barbaric, animalistic, cruel, savage and “pitched to the height of hysteria.” (9)

While the late night dance scene was conducted within a somewhat public setting through the provision of state licenses for dance halls, the new cultural zeitgeist that was taking hold within the youth culture was establishing itself separately from what had been authorized by the state. Western exploits in music, movies, and fashion relied upon individuality, and the consumption of a variability of content produce completely outside the controls of censors. (10) Western media and the technology which propagated it offered two troubling propositions. First, is that the consumption of these goods, particularly music and literature, could be done in the privacy of one’s home and away from the prying eyes of the state apparatus. Second, is that the consumption of these materials does have an effect, even if marginal, on the consumer’s perception of the world around them. In tandem, the consumption and eventual illicit participation in this western culture would allow for the creation of an “Imaginary West” where escapism can be found and a basis of change can be rationalized through. (11)

With Soviet youths seeking refuge through the outside world with the listening of rock and roll, various Eastern Bloc nations sought to counter the direct access to this “spiritual poison” via the implementation of an assortment of cultural preservation controls. The crackdown began where east meets west in the Democratic Republic of Germany. On January 2nd, 1958 ministry officials of the Departments of Justice and Finance sought to bring about a cultural balance by establishing a set of guidelines which required bands, radio Djays, restaurant and club owners to have at least sixty percent of the music performed originating from within the Eastern Bloc nations. (12) While previous examples existed of cops participating in late night crackdowns on dance clubs in Bulgaria and Russia offering “Western Nights.” (13) Alexander Abusch, a self-proclaimed Stalinist ideologist, called the early 1958 act the first “Kampfziel” (military target) in the war on “American cultural barbism.” (14) Throughout the end of the decade, other nations would commit to a similar 60/40 law with varying degrees of enforcement.

Technology

Technology has always been a quintessential factor in the human experience. In the contemporary world, access to information is instantaneous and nearly infinite, but in the days of analog behind the Iron Curtain, the Soviet state apparatus monopolized the access to and distribution of information and in doing so shielded Soviet youth from the Western world which had slowly been pulling away. However, the proliferation of underground technologically proficient networks closed that gap and allowed those with the technological wherewithal or the ability to navigate the illicit underground counterculture scene, the capability to pierce through that wall. FEach of the following technologies came with their own range features and underground influences which provided the tools for the average person to break down that barrier.

Radio

Offshore European Pirate Radio Station

With nearly 8,144,000 square miles of territory and some 160,000 million people, the radio was the perfect technology designed the connect the intricate and diverse land mass, that was the Soviet Union. Following the Russian revolution, radio technologies were quickly implemented in order to propagate communist propaganda across the vast, majority illiterate, population. (15) Radios were radically transformative, in that they were relatively cheap to produce for consumers on scale, effortless to configure for new users, and with the invention of the transistor radio in 1953 infinitely portable and cheap to power. (16) The radio allowed for near lightning quick audio distribution across the ten time zones that spanned the Soviet Union, and the technology was as just as cheap to deploy in dense city centers as it was for underdeveloped rural areas. The radio would quickly become the primary deterministic factor in the consumption of cultural and information media for the breath of the Soviet population for generations to come.

While the Berlin Wall may have been able to physically stop Johnny Rotten and the rest of the Sex Pistols from entering into East Berlin in 1976. The Iron Curtain was no effective shield for the radio transmissions that would be bombarding the Eastern Bloc throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. (17) The new ammunition in the era of the Cold War wasn’t guns nor bombs, but instead, the long-range AM radio signals that could beam rock and roll music hundreds of miles deep into the heart of the Soviet Union. State-sponsored radio programming by the United States, through Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) and the United Kingdom via the BBC,could travel through Moscow and reach central Russia. With one in five Soviets owning a radio by 1960, a finely adjusted antenna could pick up top 40 radio being broadcasted from the borders of West Germany. (18)

Radio Free Europe broadcasted three hours of rock and jazz music every weekday afternoon, interlaced with pro-American news for ten minutes at the top of every hour. (19) RFE would also translate and re-record Western rock music and popular literary pieces into various other Europe languages and broadcast the material in special Polish, Romanian, and Russian blocks that listeners could tune into weekly. American and European state-sponsored radio programming, came to be the main cultural consumption outlet for many rock and roll seeking youths in the Soviet Union. (20) All the while, inspiring youths to consume Western goods like Coca-Cola, popular cinema, motorcycles, denim jeans, fashion and of course the latest and greatest rock and roll albums. (21)

With the expansion of the Soviet Union into Eastern Europe following World War Two, Russia’s long history in civil radio and hands-on technical training would follow ensuite. (22) Across the Eastern Bloc, it was commonplace for high school and college students to take classes in the dissembling and rebuilding of radio equipment. (23) These skills would become instrumental in the formation and proliferation of low powered local amateur radio networks throughout the region. With this ability, anyone with access to a radio transmitter, enough power, and a willingness to thwart the law held the potential to become their own radio station operator. Known as a “pirate radio stations,” radio hobbyists could overpower state-operated radio frequencies and broadcast their own uncensored ideas and music to their surrounding community. Show hosts could reimagine themselves as their favorite western radio personality and play all their favorite bootlegged rock and roll hits, and at times rebroadcasts of previously record, to tape, radio segments from Radio Free Europe, Radio Luxembourg, or the BBC.

Pirate radio stations, when operated intermittently, held the potential to function unabated, particularly in city centers, but the obvious physical presence of large antennas and high power consumption became a telltale sign of a pirate radio operator. Furthermore, the mathematical process of triangulation allowed for KGB officers to eventually pinpoint transmissions to their general origin. Those caught distributing “dangerous bourgeois propaganda” would be charged with the “dissemination of anti-Soviet propaganda.” (24) The earliest instance of this charge dates back to July 30th, 1962, where three university students in Ukraine were charged with distributing unapproved Western music and producing their own “anti-Soviet radio show.” (25)

There was a clear limitation in the proliferation of pirate radio stations, in that this technology was relatively hard to access in good working order and nor was it cheap. (26) Take for example Yuri, a veteran guitarist of the St. Petersburg underground rock scene throughout the 1980s. (27) For years, Yuri was a master repairman in the radio regiment for the Soviet military. (28) Even though he had access to equipment during his time in the service throughout the 1970s. When he set out to create his own sound recording studio in St. Petersburg, it took him nearly a decade to piece together his sound equipment through his contacts in the underground St. Petersburg scene. (29) Time appeared to be one of the greatest friends and deterrents for those attempting to acquire the hardware to create their own radio station or recording studio. If one were to purchase equipment through legitimate means, it was nothing short of expensive. One KGB report from the city of Dniepropetrovsk, stated that the average cost of confiscated equipment during “radio hooligan” raids was more 3,500 rubles. (30) Surprisingly nearly 90 percent of those in possession of this extremely expensive equipment were under the age of twenty-five. (31)

Records

An Original Roetgenizdat (Record on Bone)

Music in the physical medium was considerably harder to come by in the Soviet Union in comparison to the free and effortless broadcasts of Western European radio programming. However, the physical form had its benefits. A legitimate copy of the Yellow Submarine by the Beatles comes with liner notes, colorful pictures of Ringo and Paul, plus the fantastic ability to play it as often you’d want. Throughout much of the Soviet Union, however, it was quite a challenge to come across an original copy of a Western music album. As mentioned earlier, cultural preservation laws often banned Western cultural goods like music, films, and literature from state-run stores. Access to LPs was considerably rare and typically required an individual to come about an acquisition in an assortment of roundabout ways.

Due to the limitations on the importation of western goods and the inconsistent nature of commercial manufacturing throughout much of the Soviet Union, the black and grey market was a thriving reality. The second economy was where one could procure an assortment of cultural goods that may not been entirely legal, but prelevant throughout much of the underground system. (31) Western records, albeit scarce in selection, were a prominent commodity on the black market due to the high popularity of the medium. (32) However, the prevalence of records throughout the majority of the population was rather limited due to the high cost which could draw a “small fortune on the black market.” (33) Records could fetch as much as 60–100 rubles for an original album, and considering that the monthly salary of a secondary school teacher in the 1960s was about 100 ruble, records were uncommon for the average person. (34) As such, access to this physical form of media was typically only associated with the “social elite[s] of the Soviet Bloc.” (35)

The black market, as it usually does, came to improvise a solution for the financial imperative at hand. Bootleg productions of western LPs were quite common throughout the 1970s, 80s, and de-Sovietization years as western intellectual property was not respected. (36) As opposed to the shellac, resin, or vinyl used by American and British manufactures. (37) Enterprising sound engineers began to develop a series of popular bootleg albums out of repurposed X-rays films. Called Roetgenizdat or “recordings on bones” these bootlegs albums were cut into the size of a 7’’ LP and spun at 78 RPMs. While the discs would typically only “last a few months,” the imagery of a fractured skull or broken collarbone spinning about while listening to your favorite song, drew quite an appeal. (38) The 78s on offered the capability of supporting one song, but at a price tag of 20 rubles, the cost was considerably less than legitimate full-length albums. (39)

The Cassette

Dead Kennedys’ Ep: In God We Trust, Inc.

With the introduction of the tape cassette into consumer markets in the early 1960s, music fans the world over were offered for the first time the safe portability of their own music library. The portable transistor radio, of the 1950s, left something to be desired for audiophiles. Commercials, signal interference, censorship, and establishment market-driven offerings left those desiring the variability of their (shared) records collection, wanting more. Upon mass production in the later 1960s, a cassette tape, with prerecorded content, cost only about 25 rubles for an entire full-length album in comparison to Western manufactured LPs which could potentially cost upwards of nearly 100 rubles. (40) Besides being far more affordable and considerably smaller, magnetic tapes offered the ability to rerecord over existing media, allowing the cassette to be repurposed on demand. So, for the over one million Soviets with tape recorders by the end of the 1960s, these individuals now possessed the ability to record political discussions, news reports, music off the radio and even their voice without the complicated cost imperative of an entire studio. This ability to repose on demand became the deterministic technological factor in what would become, the “taper culture.”

The “taper culture” that developed across the international music scene in the 1970s and 80s was unlike anything seen before. For the first time in hard medium format, audio in record form was no longer exclusively held by political elites, the well connected or under the control of gatekeepers. (41) The average individual now held the, no longer unique, ability to capture and cheaply share recorded information. This technological advancement lead to several social changes, particularly in regards to the ability to spread anti-authoritative messaging. Anti-Soviet political outfits now retained the ability to mass produce political messaging without the need of state-owned record producing factories. Western musical acts with political tendencies, like those commonly found in the hard rock and punk scenes of the 1970s and 80s, became readily available. The decreased the cost imperative, allow for bands originating within the Eastern Bloc, the first attempts at recording and distributing their own music and their own message. (42) The ability to duplicate cassettes effortless within the home was also a radical change. Individuals became tastemakers and could share media within their own social circles. The underground taper culture that proliferated throughout the 70s and later into the digital age would slowly dissolve “popular censorship” and allow for individually curated composition via the mechanism of choice. (43)

The small size of cassette tapes allowed for a nearly unpreventable form of information distribution. The cassette, allowed for the private consumption, private distribution and the private creation of audio. The monopoly by the state was over. No longer was audio, the human voice, funneled through a financially and politically limited, distribution hose. One could surmise, that what Gutenberg press did for the written word, the tape recorder would do for the audible word some five hundred and twenty years later.

What Did These Technologies Offer?

Silent Rebellion. The ability to acquire and consume material within the privacy of one’s own home allowed for an individual to cultivate an opinion outside the pressures of an authoritarian regime. The exposure to Western culture, cultivated generations worth of Soviet youth with an innate inability to be under the whole cloth of Soviet propaganda. (44) The Iron Curtain could not prevent the words of JFK’s West Berlin speech from being beamed into the living rooms of families across Eastern Europe nor could it prevent an adolescent from playing air guitar to “Anarchy in the U.K.” in the privacy of his bedroom. Cassette tapes only made it more so, as the storage medium offered the analog version of instant access to an extensive library of material. Once the technological capability was there, the existing demand for western culture and rock music would go on to flourish. One must also consider the pervasiveness of the black market system within the Soviet Union and the states dependency upon it. Shutting it down, would not just hurt the functionality of the economic system, but would only continue to verify the lyrics of the music these adolescents were listening too.

As western music reflected western norms, and as capitalist economies pulled away from the Soviet Union throughout the late 1970s and 80s, it is of no surprise that the iconography within western music would go on to display this growing differentiation as well. While it would be considerably hard for one to argue that rock and roll was the direct cause to the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union, western music and the technologies which enabled its spread, did appear to provide, at the very least, the soundtrack for that change. Looking back from the world that we live in today, it is hard to imagine how analog tape cassettes, radios, or albums could have potentially been world changers, but it will be of no surprise that the music and technological tendencies which popularized these formats woudl continue to live on far into the digital age.