Sounds from the West: American and European Music in Late Soviet Culture

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panel is dedicated to the perception and creative application of Western music in late Soviet culture (1952-1989). The panelists are interested in issues of cultural transfer, modification and appropriation of Western music in Soviet culture.
Thomas Jesús Garza (University of Texas at Austin) analyzes the cover versions of Western songs in late Soviet rock performances.
Alexey Kotelvas (University of Florida) explores the intersections between Boris Pasternak's poem It's Snowing and the American song Rock Around the Clock.
Irina Veselova (Independent scholar, the Netherlands), applying the methodology of the history of emotions, explores the perception of Western rock music by the Soviet youth audience.
Dimitri Filimonov (French Institute of Geopolitics) presents a study of the film "France - Song" (1969), as well as its influence on the spread of French author's song in Soviet society.
William Risch, Georgia College, the editor of volume ”Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc: Youth Cultures, Music, and the State in Russia and Eastern Europe”, will comment on the presentations.
The chair of the panel is Choi Chatterjee – a Professor at California State University, well known for a number of publications on Russian and Soviet international encounters and cultural transfers.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Choi Chatterjee, California State U, Los Angeles

Papers

• Windows to the West: (Un)Covering Western Songs in Late Soviet Rock Performances - Thomas Jesús Garza, U of Texas at Austin

• Western Rock Music and Transformation of Soviet Youngsters’ Emotional Culture: From the 1970s to the 1980s - Irina Veselova, Independent Scholar

• Pasternak and Rock 'n' Roll: Unrecognized Cultural Transfer - Alexey Kotelvas, U of Florida

Discussant

• William Jay Risch, Georgia College