Pop after Communism. The Transformation of Popular Culture after 1989/90

Organizer: Leibniz Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF Potsdam) / Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam

Organized by: Dr. Jürgen Danyel
Conference language is English, the book presentation by Jens Balzer on 15 Nov. is in German.

The social changes that went along with the political upheaval of 1989/90 in the countries of state socialism were not limited to the political system, economic structures or social conditions. The late phase and the end of state socialism were marked by a far-reaching transformation of popular culture, with global cultural changes becoming an important driver of the post-communist transformation. The conference brings together researchers from the broad field of pop history to examine the overarching trends of fundamental socio-cultural change that followed the political upheaval of 1989/90.

Press release ZZF Potsdam, 10 Nov 2023 (in german, pdf)

PROGRAM

Day 1 (15 Nov. 2023)

18:00  
Book presentation / Buchpräsentation (in german / in deutscher Sprache):
Jens Balzer: „No Limit. Die Neunziger - das Jahrzehnt der Freiheit“

Der Journalist Jens Balzer erzählt in seinem im Juni 2023 erschienenen Buch von einem Jahrzehnt, in dem man an die Zukunft glaubte und ans »anything goes« – und in dem doch auch ein neues Zeitalter der Grenzen, der Identitäten und der Kämpfe begann. Er unternimmt einen Streifzug durch die Aufbrüche und Abgründe der Popkulturgeschichte und geht dabei auch auf Aspekte ein, die Gegenstand der Tagung sind.

Die Präsentation des Buches  bildet den Auftakt der Tagung und kann unabhängig von dieser besucht werden.

Day 2 (16 Nov. 2023)

Welcome and Introduction

9:00 – 9:30   
Jürgen Danyel (ZZF Potsdam): Pop in Transition. Perspectives on post-Communist Popular Culture

Panel 1: Pop between Westernization and National Identity I
Moderation: Michael Homberg (ZZF Potsdam / University of Potsdam)

9:30 – 10:00  
John David Vandevert (Uppsala University): To Be or Not To Be. Russian rap and the pursuit of a post-Soviet “Russianness” from 1991 to 1999

10:00 – 10:30
Claudiu Oancea (NEC, Bucharest): From Fakelore to Ethno-Pop and In-Between. Folk and Pop Music in Late Socialist and post-Socialist Romania

10:30 – 11:00
Maximilian Kreter (HAIT, Dresden): ‘Trabireiter, Goitzsche Front & Weimar’ – Embodying the ‘nOSTalgic nation’? Everyday nationhood in East German ‘German Rock’ from 1994 until 2019

(Break 11:00 – 11:30)

Panel 2: Sex, Body and Gender in post-Communist Popular Culture
Moderation: Frank Bösch (ZZF Potsdam / University of Potsdam)

11:30 – 12:00
Kotryna Bėčiūtė (Vilnius University): Restoration of Independence is Sexy. Changes in Representations of Sexuality and the Body in Lithuanian Popular Culture in the 1990s

12:00 – 12:30
Chang Liu (Heidelberg University): Naked Ambitions: Madonna’s Photobook and the Transformation of Cultural Landscape of post-Mao China

12:30 – 13:00
Juliana Matasova: A Transformational Grammar of Joy. Ukraine and the Women’s Musical Stories of the 1990s

(Lunch break 13:00 – 14:00)

Panel 3: The transition of Music markets
Moderation: Detlef Siegfried (University of Copenhagen)

14:00 – 14:30 Patryk Galuszka (Leuphana University Lüneburg / University of Lodz): From Monopoly to Bankruptcy. The Story of Polskie Nagrania

14:30 – 15:00 Tom Koltermann (ZZF Potsdam): „Those were our Hits“. Marketing Strategies for Socialist Pop Music in Reunified Germany

15:00 – 15:30 Marijana Mitrović (HU, Berlin): Turbofolk Music and the Socio-Economic Changes in Serbia After 1989

(Break 15:30 – 16:00)

Panel 4: Spaces of Change: Club Culture in the 1990th
Moderation:    Rüdiger Graf (ZZF Potsdam / HU, Berlin)

16:00 – 16:30
Polina Gundarina (GWZO, Leipzig): Dancing through Transformation. Discotheques and Soviet Houses of Culture After 1991

16:30 – 17:00
Mathieu Guillien (University of Evry, Paris): Why the Berghain is in Berlin

17:00 – 17:30
Tomoko Takaoka (Ryukoku University): Communism Dances! The Transformation of the GDR Disco through the Effects of Gentrification after Reunification

Offer: Guided tour on the history of the building and presentation of the studio house
18:00 – 19.00
Team Flutgraben/Elke Kimmel

Evening event: Party „The Sound of Transformation“
From 19:30

Day 3 (17 Nov. 2023)

Panel 5: Pop between Westernization and National Identity II
Moderation: Kateryna Chernii (ZZF Potsdam)

9:00 – 9:30    
Ondřej Daniel (Charles University, Prague) & Katharina Alexi (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Hate Gone Pop. Racism and Popular Musical Memory of the 1990s – a Comparative Study of the former Czechoslovakia and East Germany

9:30 – 10:00  
Ekaterina Ganskaya (University of Turin): Sovietwave. the Soundtrack for Communist Nostalgia

10:00 – 10:30
Florian Völker (ZZF Potsdam): Neue (Ost-)Deutsche Härte. Rammsteinʼs re-interpretation of the German

(Break 10:30 – 11:00)

Panel 6: Pop as Memory
Moderation: Thomas Lindeberger (HAIT / TU, Dresden)

11:00 – 11:30
Daria Khokhlova: Generations of Irony and New Sincerity. Case of Russian Pop Music

11:30 – 12:00
Aleš Opekar (CAS, Prague): Museality and historicisation of Czech popular music and its research after 1989

12:00 – 12:30
Alexandra S. Kolesnik (Sorbonne University, Paris / ZZF Potsdam): Musical heritage in Ekaterinburg. Memory of the Sverdlovsk rock club

12:30 – 13:15
Round Table: Pop after Communism. Perspectives, Blind Spots and Open Questions
Moderation: Nikolai Okunew (ZZF Potsdam)

Podium: Juliane Fürst (ZZF Potsdam), Armin Siebert (Eastblok Music), Polly McMichael (University of Nottingham), Jürgen Danyel (ZZF Potsdam)