Rock and Roll in the Rocket City, written by Dr. Sergei I. Zhuk, provides an intriguing outlook into a subject that would be the last thing I would think to read before this class. He aims to show just how the culture of Soviet Russia was affected and changed by Western society. These influences, in the end, reenforce Soviet ideology as well as undermine it. This book really helps to let the readers understand just how life was like and how it changed in the Soviet times due to the influence of Western society. The book takes place in the city of Dniepropetrovsk. This was an important role as the main industrial urban center of the southern Russian Empire and of Soviet Ukraine, making it an important “rocket” city. The center of the city’s …show more content…
Contemporaries noticed major developments during the first stage of the consumption of this Western music that would influence the important cultural and ideological practices of both the ruling elite and common consumers of Western cultural elements into their everyday lives. This really begins to show just how influential the Western society became in the Ukrainian society during this time. First, the new jazz music affected how the local youth dressed and their lifestyles in general. They incorporated more Western cultural elements into their everyday life. The citizens had to begin to incorporate the new Westernized cultural forms of the “stylish” youth culture into their own ideological practices. Eventually, the Soviet officials declared American jazz as “progressive” and as “good, cultured” consumption in their official ideological practices. On the other hand, provincial ideologists from the closed city lagged behind the new Western ideas and fashions that came from Moscow. This led to new tensions being formed between the “ideological practitioners” in Dniepropetrovsk and their ideological supervisors in Moscow. The supervisors in Moscow justified that the consumption of the Western products were unacceptable in the orthodox Marxist worldview of the local KGB and Soviet officials. Since the central command was in Dniepropetrovsk, this made it difficult for the people in the region to use the Western products. The first wave of cultural consumption in the 1960s, involving the Western jazz music, demonstrated the ability of both Soviet officials and common consumers to make money on new music and build new connections from it. Later, this would become the foundation for a huge music business in the closed city of the
...ath to dominate their field and branch off into other dominating sub-genres. Those genres, especially in the 1920’s, created the foundation of what we see today in the 21st century. The genres and the creativity produced in these decades were accompanied by entertaining dance and shows that provided the people with a comfortable diversion from their outward life. In addition, music remained a way of spiritual and fun release of the mind and energy. With the radio acting as a distribution center for music, it became a national pastime in which it still ranks number one today for it’s easy access and reaching fields. In conclusion, although the 1920’s saw the birthplace of what is generally known today as the foundation of modern music, the 1970’s matched innovation and creation in the industry which is why music is still a staple in the lives of many people today.
Historically, Russia has always been a country of perplexing dualities. The reality of Dual Russia, the separation of the official culture from that of the common people, persisted after the Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War. The Czarist Russia was at once modernized and backward: St. Petersburg and Moscow stood as the highly developed industrial centers of the country and two of the capitals of Europe, yet the overwhelming majority of the population were subsistent farms who lived on mir; French was the official language and the elites were highly literate, yet 82% of the populati...
William Howland Kenney provides an in depth look at the Chicago jazz as a cultural movement that shaped the 1920’s. His new interpretation of the Chicago Jazz life reveals the role of race, cultural, and politics in the growth of this new musical style. This in depth look focuses on the rise of jazz from 1904 until its end in 1930. This book covers a lot of areas in Jazz that were fundamental in its development. My overall impression is that this book is well written, it is expansive in its overview of jazz. Kenney is knowledgeable in this area of cultural history, and his book is well researched. The purpose of this book is to
New York, Oxford University Press. Moorehead, Alan, Ed 1958. The Russian Revolution. New York, Carroll & Graf Publishers Inc. Pipes, Richard, Ed 1995.
Jazz is an American genre that developed from ragtime and blues in the early twentieth century in urban areas of the U.S. This genre is characterized by strong, prominent meter, improvisation, distinctive tone colors, and performance techniques. The development of Jazz made a postive, lasting impact after World War One ended. It became a way of bringing young people together. Jazz became the basis for most social dance music and provided one of the first opportunities for public integration. Subcultures like the gangs of New York and Chicago encouraged the subjugation of the black artists to the white man’s economic and social power, often resulting in gang leaders having complete control over
In the midst of the Cold War, an era of racism and culturalism emerged in America. The American international reputation rested on President Eisenhower’s shoulders. Due to emance discrimination against minorities, the United States government appeared separated and weak in the eyes of communist Russia and throughout the world. It was Eisenhower and other major political figure’s responsibility to repair that image and once again create a façade that America is united. In Penny M. Von Eschen’s work, Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, she analyses how U.S. politicians used the music of rising black Jazz musicians to sway nations worldwide to fall back in love with American culture, mask the evident racism, and ultimately win the Cold War. She also brings to light the well deserved credit that these ‘jambassadors’ had in spreading Jazz around the world and making these tours as activism for black culture. Though each party had their own way of portrayal to create peace and unity, these groundbreaking entertainers conveyed it through creating an international jazz culture
Also known as the Jazz Age and the Roaring Twenties, the American people felt that they deserved to have some fun in order to forget the emotional toll and social scars left from the war. The Jazz Age was appropriately named due to the illegal activities and good times, which included music, parties, and flapper girls. Jazz was a new style of music that originated out of the New Orleans area, where one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time – Louis Armstrong – began his career. The energy of jazz was a very new and almost uncomfortable style for the very traditional, rigid family of the 1920s. Young people in particular seemed to enjoy this new music the most, as it made them feel carefree. The energy of jazz was symbolic of the era’s trans...
The word “jazz” is significant to America, and it has many meanings. Jazz could simply be defined as a genre or style of music that originated in America, but it can also be described as a movement which “bounced into the world somewhere about the year 1911…” . This is important because jazz is constantly changing, evolving, adapting, and improvising. By analyzing the creators, critics, and consumers of jazz in the context of cultural, political, and economic issue, I will illustrate the movement from the 1930’s swing era to the birth of bebop and modern jazz.
Imagine you are walking the streets of New Orleans. You are standing right where jazz was established in the United States of America. Jazz wasn’t just about music, it also affected the culture involving social, economic, artistic and jazz leaders.
A. Soviet History. Marxists.org. 2010. Web. The Web. The Web.
The Soviet citizens during the 1930s, particularly the younger ones, believed “they were participants in a history process of transformation, their enthusiasm for what was called ‘the building of socialism’” (68). The Soviets built hotels, palaces, and had blueprints displayed all throughout “that was supposed to set a pattern for urban planning throughout the country and provide a model of the socialist capital for foreigners” (69).
Jazz replaces some popular music to be America’s mainstream popular music. This kind American music finds its way to the whole America. In this period, Jazz’s every note makes young man crazy, and then the word “JAZZMAD” comes into America. Jazz has a connection to the American in some fundamental way. It is an African roots of American culture. Jazz’s free rhythm, and the lyrics presents the decadence and dark life in America, and it reflects American culture. However, Jazz’s development witnesses the process of American culture. Jazz is a pure American music, because of this advantage, it brings so many fans of Jazz. This fusion makes Americans believe that the Jazz is related to their identity, and namely tolerance. Americans learn every day and they believe that other people and culture can make their life valuable. As the result, it makes Jazz a distinctly American
Jazz was used in many ways when it first came on to the scene; it was used as an instrument of revolution and also as a way to get over sickness whether it were physical or mental. The United States was not the only country to experience Jazz when it really came to life in the 1920’s. Jazz began to reach out to other European countries including Germany before the rise of Nazi power throughout the country. It was a genre that could be used as a revolt against certain powers and can be seen in Josef Skvorecký’s “Eine Kleine Jazzmusik”, a story written to depict the ways Jazz touched certain people. Another way in which Jazz was utilized occurred in the United States, depicted in Haruki Murakimi’s “Nausea 1979”, as a way to heal sickness and loneliness. Both stories are written in a different way, one as an actual story and one as an interview. They show the different uses of Jazz, but also how it influences people the same way. One influencing a revolution and the other influencing the health of a man.
8Sites Richard, ‘The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, 1900-1945’, in Michael Howard and William Roger Louis, The Oxford history of the twentieth century, New York, 1998, p. 117-27.
While at face value Pelevin uses these examples to demonstrate massive change in Russia during this transitional period, it is revealed throughout the duration of the book and Tatarsky’s search for meaning that this transition is far from profound and is in fact superficial at best. Tatarsky’s drug and alcohol escapades as well as his spiritual experimentations with the Oujia Board are revealed early on to be attempts by Tatarsky to learn more about advertising; however, much of what is provided through these instances of intoxication is instead meaning in the Post-Soviet transition. As such, it becomes apparent that while Tatarsky explicitly is searching for answers to his various advertising questions, he is also more subtly trying to find meaning in the Post-Soviet era. It is revealed that reality is a social construct from Tatarsky’s first encounter with Che Guevara. This fact provides a point of continuity from the Soviet times to the Post-Soviet times.