ABSTRACT
East European societies of the 1980s have often been described as beset by political turmoil, cultural ferment, and economic crises. This chapter explores two contentions with regard to the dynamic interplay between the music and the ideological contexts in which it is both created and consumed. First, that the emergence of an oppositional musical culture helped paved the way for the East European revolutions of 1989 in general and that of Hungary in particular, and second, that the alternative music was a vital component in redefining the nature of the music industry and the political structure it served. The state-run music business acknowledged the nature of the emerging crisis by resorting somewhat desperately to the rejuvenation of old stars and the reinvention of new ones. Contrary to state-supported popular music, the emerging new political music drew its source material from social malaise and its contradictions, from the family, and from the political system.
