PT Journal
AU Barta, J
TI Journey of the Eccentrics from the Main Floor Upward: To the Evolution of the 1980s Czech Unofficial Music Scene and Its Change after 1989
SO Musicologica Olomucensia
PY 2020
BP 7
EP 24
VL 32
IS 2
DI 10.5507/mo.2020.010
DE Czech New Wave; music alternative; music market; professionalization; oral history; punk
AB The text focuses on the musical phenomenon of the so-called Czech New Wave of the 1980s. It examines its main features as presented in the essay by Josef Vlcek "Nova vlna - pribeh dusickovy" published in the book Excentrici v prizemi (1989). Some of the musical groups which belonged to the Czech New Wave, or more precisely to the punk rock of the first half of the 1980s are discussed in detail. On the example of the selected groups (specifically Krasne nove stroje, Nahoru po schodisti dolu band, Slepe strevo - the predecessor of the later Mnaga a Zdorp, and Uz jsme doma - initially punk band F.P.B.), which in spite of their success with their audience in the 1980s and subsequent commercial success in the 1990s cannot be definitely associated with the mainstream music scene, the article seeks to capture their changing attitudes regarding the transformations following the revolutionary year 1989.Through the lens of the individual band members, the social, political, and cultural changes are taken into account, which subsequently penetrated the artists' poetics and especially their lyrics. The text outlines the different approaches by which these bands asserted themselves in the newly emergent musical scene. These performers are also set in the broader meaning of the era at the turn of the 1990s and are compared with other bands of the indie music scene.
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