Jazz & Rock in the Soviet Bloc - Essay Example

This was because each of them posed a significant rebellion to the conventional societal norms, in America and the Soviet bloc. Soviet music has had a substantial and influential place in the spiritual life of people, especially in the ideological work (Kruschenev, 1962). Most youths were affected by this era, which was regarded as the era of political rebellion. Jazz and Rock Jazz brought along a different sense of culture in the Soviet Union, where part of it was widely accepted, and most of it was distasteful, as it was brought in fro the west, with the modern dances.

This new culture was, however, widely accepted by the youth of the Soviet bloc, who saw it as a chance to rebel against the Lenin policy. Vladimir Lenin maintained that literature; art and music should serve the interest of the people, but not everyone was in agreement. The influence of jazz and rock and roll fro America was used as a policy of rejecting abstractionism, formalism and any other bourgeois distortions in a Leninist policy (Kruschechev, 1962). The signing of the cultural agreement in 1958 brought together two nations, with different cultures.

They came to terms on reciprocal exchanges on television and radio broadcasts, documentary and feature films, professors, students and even music. There was also an agreement to establish direct air connections from New York to Moscow. The Soviets responded with a lot of enthusiasm to performances by American artists; for instance, a young pianist from Texas, Van Clibum, made an impact when he mesmerized the Soviet audiences in winning the Tchaikovsky International Piano competition in Moscow (Hixson, 1996).

This showed a gesture of receptivity of a new culture, and the disabuse of Soviet’s notion that America was culturally backward. This was a cultural phenomenon in the USSR, which generated mass hysteria, especially among women aged between 15 and 65 (Logan, Irina and Lebedev, 1992). The era of jazz and rock brought about a new language, Soviet’s slang and the new way of dressing. It was a contribution to Soviet’s flaming youth, known as the Stiljaga. This meant that they had a sense of style, actions and language.

A typical image of a stiljaga would be one dressed in a multicolored tie, light blue slacks, green coat and a yellow spotted vest, accentuated with a gold tooth and a trained lock of hair. This Russian youth would also dance wildly, in a manner that threatened the dance floor, as it was to the affinity for jazz. On the language, a true stiljaga identified himself as a uuvak and his girlfriend an euvixa, according to the slang of zargon stiljaga. The stiljaga slang comprised of some words, which were commonly used and included kabak, meaning a fashionable restaurant, kok, meaning a hairstyle with wave on top, rupii, meaning money and among others (Magner, 1957).

There were also stylish dances like the atom dance (atomnyi), the Canadian (kanadskii) and the triple Hamburg (troinoi gamburgskii). These were adaptations of the jitterbug, boogie-woogie, lindy hop and fox trot (Edele, 2002). The Moscow youth festival was the highlight of the Soviet cultural history. After years of Kremlin trying to fight off these sorts of cultural influence, thirty thousand young people were welcomed into the capital of the Soviet. The public also received exposure to the western youth, music, fashion, consumer goods, political perspectives and ideas.

This left a permanent imprint on culture, as the