ABSTRACT
Allied cultural officers recognized early on the importance of popular music in two core areas of Germany's integration with the West: the re-education of Germans shaped by National Socialist ideology and the swaying of public opinion in the East-West conflict. In 1948, the US-founded radio and television station RIAS began broadcasting in the American sector under the motto “A free voice of the free word.” Its most important pop broadcasts were RIAS Treffpunkt (RIAS Meetingpoint), which featured live broadcasts from Berlin discotheques, and Schlager der Woche. Dance and jazz clubs in West Germany drew decidedly multinational crowds thanks to the many young French, British, and American soldiers in the country. The Norman Taurog-directed G. I. Blues is about the idiosyncratic connection between popular culture and military occupation, and it features scenes in which the King of rock ’n’ roll sings traditional German songs.
