ABSTRACT
This section is devoted to the history of estrada in what is now Uzbekistan. When estrada arrived in the region in the early twentieth century, the term denoted not a musical genre, but an entertainment format, similar to music hall or vaudeville. In the early socialist era, this kind of entertainment was solidly wed to education and propaganda and in the 1930s, estrada began to be institutionalised in the Uzbek SSR in various state organisations. During the Second World War, Uzbek estrada artists, among many others from all parts of the Soviet Union, provided frontline entertainment to soldiers. The 1950s saw the founding of various estrada-symphony-orchestras in the Uzbek SSR and the emergence of the first Uzbek estrada star, Botyr Zakirov. In the 1970s and 1980s, Uzbek estrada appropriated pop and rock idioms, the band Yalla being the most famous representative of this kind. By now, the term had begun to denote a musical genre. The 1990s saw an explosion of the estrada scene in Uzbekistan, and the historical sketch ends with an exploration of the estrada scene in contemporary Uzbekistan and its place in the country’s wider musical life.
