Musicologica Olomucensia

An Outline of the development of rock and alternative genres in Olomouc 1960-2010

Although popular music in Olomouc is most often remembered in connection with folk, country and tramp songs, it also entered history with its achievements in rock and in alternative genres. A major group in this sense are the Bluesmen, who with their original sense of rhythm and blues won recognition on the Czechoslovak rock scene in the second half of the 1960s. During the so-called normalization period, clubs such as S-Club or music festivals such as Vlnobytí [Surf] came to be widely recognized in the field of Czechoslovak rock. An important Czech group in the unofficial culture was Elektrická svině [Electric Swine]. Beside the metal genres active at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, Olomouc saw the development of heavy punk, which later grew into the culture of electronic dancing music of nationwide importance.