Bottom-up Content Convergence Phenomena in Socialist Cultural Economies: The Case of Premodern Story Universes of Romanian Film and Music

Abstract

Our article focuses on an instance of cross-media content convergence in state-socialist cultural economies. We deliver a cultural studies intervention addressing the hybrid nature of the cultural economies of the former Soviet Bloc. We show that this instance of convergence was not the effect of a top-down imposition of a policy of state-socialist power, but rather a bottom-up phenomenon, triggered by artistic and economic interests and more specific to capitalism. These interests respond to consumer demand, competition, and box-office success. We borrow the concept of convergence from the writings of Henry Jenkins. Our case study explores a synergy of content between cinema and rock music in 1970s Romania, generating evidence by means of close readings and exploration of reception and production information. Under scrutiny are the adventure film The Immortals (Sergiu Nicolaescu, Romania, 1975) and the music and public presentation of the Romanian band Phoenix. We argue that the inclusion of Phoenix’s music in the soundtrack of the film is a key testimony to bottom-up convergence, marking a synergy of discourses that independently developed the same story universe. We show that this synergy took place because the two discourses had the potential to boost each other’s artistic and economic performance.