ABSTRACT
The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution all produced stirring and riveting music, usually marches. Political revolution is a powerful progenitor of certain kinds of music. In collectivist systems, a symbiosis of alternative culture and alternative politics is inevitable anyway because such systems define culture in political terms. The East European revolution of 1989 likewise had its music, and that music was rock. Rock music produced its share of revolutionaries. The revolutionary destabilization of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union had roots in economic discontent, the disaffection of the intellectuals, the spread of corruption at high levels, the loss of confidence within the elite, and so forth. Various Western rock stars have made a dramatic impact on the young people of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Rock music, which no one born before World War II seemed capable of ever understanding, is the music of the new generation.
