"We are singing for the happy days". Pop Music as a Tool of Propaganda in Late Socialism - case of the Czechoslovak Spartakiad
Abstract
The conference contribution focuses on analysis of the propaganda function of pop music in Czechoslovakia during the late socialism. On the example of music related to Czechoslovak Spartakiad, we want to follow the characteristic features of this music as a comprehensively understood text of culture.
We would like to follow the role of pop music in the context of ideological apparatus of the state and its potential as a tool of regime propaganda. The specific formule of the event and the special function of spartakiads as official rituals of the regime resulted in the need for their continual adaptation to the taste of the mass audience.
Therefore, their connection with selected elements of pop culture, such as pop music and contemporary dance, played a great role in the concept of appearances during the period of late socialism. Pop songs were also a tool for propagating the event.
In this context, it should be noted that the propaganda use of pop in the era of Czechoslovak "normalization" was not limited, of course, to its inclusion in specific political rituals, but it was also part of general concept of the state's cultural policy.