Posted on 05/06/2014 2:53:00 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
WASHINGTON -- A pro-Kremlin lawmaker spawned a tsunami of scorn in Russia this week by alleging that Soviet rock star Viktor Tsoi's Perestroika-era anthems were composed by CIA operatives trying to destabilize the Soviet regime.
Friends, acquaintances, and fans of the late frontman of the legendary band, Kino, call the claims ridiculous. But the U.S. government was keenly aware of the power of rock ’n’ roll to rattle its Cold War rival, according to “Free to Rock,” a new documentary that explores the impact of rock music on Soviet society.
The White House, in fact, played a hands-on role in this soft-power strategy when U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s administration helped send the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to the Soviet Union in 1977 for the first tour of an American rock band on Soviet soil, said Jim Brown, the film’s New York-based producer.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
I’ve always found it odd that most American musicians are, at heart, socialists, yet they were considered “subversive” in the Soviet Union.
Second, many---not all, but many of the rockers we interviewed have become quite conservative.
Most actor/musicians in the limelight know they have to play the game. Some of the liberalism is tantamount to biting the pillow on the casting couch.
Follow the money. For musicians, this means popularity, not intellectual, moral, or political consistency. The easiest path is to play and say whatever appeals (”freedom”), and that easily results in a different set of rules (”subversion”). The difference between countries or regions is the prevailing understanding of what is virtuous and what is vicious, what is allowed and what is punishable by those in charge. Many musicians were subversive here as well, not against the conservative communists dictators, but against the conservative Christian parents.
Yep, because nobody rocked liked the “Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.” LOL!
Yep, still have the vinyl...including the original Will the Circle Remain Unbroken.
The Soviets were perfectly fine with the Western musicians spreading anti-establishment and counterculture in their home nations, but at the same time they were considered “subversive western influence” in USSR.
It is the Hegelian Dialectic.
This is exactly what I learned during my interviews with rockers for my chapter in “Seven Events That Made America America”
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