ROCK CONCERTS IN HUNGARY IN THE 1980s

Abstract

In our study we analyse the characteristic features of rock concerts in Hungary during the last years of communist rule. We distinguish between `state rock', a trend similar to pop music, and `concert rock'. During the 1980s we carried out participant observation at rock concerts and conducted interviews with young concert goers. We view rock concerts as scenes from a musical subculture in our study. The effects of two types of rock concerts - hard-rock and underground - relating to the `voice of the rebel' and to the `voice of the conservative' (the revolt against authority manifested in concerts and its role in the socialisation of young people) are analysed, as is the role the concerts played in the lives of the fans. Hard-rock concerts socialised young males for the role of working-class man. Underground concerts, on the other hand, socialised young people for the roles of the intellectual, artist and bourgeois. On the basis of the above findings, we conclude that rock music played a politically progressive role under communism through its function of retaining the values of different social strata.