Forbidden freedom: Rock music in the USSR and Soviet Lithuania (Part 1 of 5)

This might sound weird to you but in Soviet era music was really censored and rock music was strictly forbidden in Soviet countries in the past. As it was thought that rock music will encourage youth to seek freedom which will break the long lasting order of Soviet Union.

In this post I’ll talk about prohibition of rock music in Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (which had lasted until 1990) and a little about the situation in whole Soviet Union. Also, this year Lithuania celebrates 50 year anniversary of Lithuanian rock music. And I think, this fact encouraged me to write series of posts about Lithuanian rock music.

Lithuanian hippies, 1980's. This style of outfit and lifestyle wasn't tolerated in the Soviet Union. When they were caught by renegades or by militia, hippies were not only "fostered" with rubber sticks; their hair was compulsory cut off. They were discussed at schools, threatened to be thrown out of youth communist organisations, they had notes abut under-achievement in their books of grades.

MUSIC EMBODYING FREE SOUL

Let’s get to the roots of rock music. Although it has its roots set back in 1940s and 1950s, rock music as a style was developed during and after 1960s, particularly in the UK and USA. Firstly it was called as Rock and Roll before it got name as rock.

Rhythmic and energetic music of guitars, lyrics about freedom, love, personal happiness and problems were exactly what youth needed back then: rebellion against laws of society, ways to express their feelings and thoughts. People with traditional creed called this music as “Music of devil” and, because of that, rock music became more and more popular. After years rock became distinctive culture which symbolized a new outlook on life and society.

ROCK MUSIC FINDS THE WAY TO LITHUANIA

Girls' bigbeat band, Lithuania, 1968

When the whole world was crazy and possessed with fever of rock, Soviet Lithuania had only one accepted genre of popular music - the so-called “Soviet stage music” (“Estrada” in Lithuanian). It was music filled with Soviet ideology and totally incompatible with needs of youth. Rock music was forbidden or at least unwanted as a product of “rotten capitalism” which could cause major danger in society. However, in the end of 60’s, rock music reached Lithuania through the humming low quality radio broadcasts of foreign countries and smuggled records of rock music. The records of rock music were spreading from hand to hand; they were often illegally played in discotheques (as long as they were the only way to spend boring days and have fun back then). Shortly, every bigger town had its’ own rock band.

Soviet government realized that it is not possible to stop the spread of rock music, so they tried to control it strongly. As a result, reviews of bands were held on every soviet country. The compulsory repertoire of bands was stated. 75% of repertoire contained songs by Soviet authors, 20% - songs by authors from foreign socialistic countries and only 5% - own written songs. The way to fame and bigger gigs was closed for bands who haven’t come through the review or simply haven’t participated them. 

The band which sell themselves as they were playing songs on 60th anniversary of  LSSR