©2017 Renata J. Pasternak-Mazur ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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©2017 Renata J. Pasternak-Mazur ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SILENCING POLO: CONTROVERSIAL MUSIC IN POST-SOCIALIST POLAND By RENATA JANINA PASTERNAK-MAZUR A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Music Written under the direction of Andrew Kirkman And approved by _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Silencing Polo: Controversial Music in Post-Socialist Poland by RENATA JANINA PASTERNAK-MAZUR Dissertation Director: Andrew Kirkman Although, with the turn in the discipline since the 1980s, musicologists no longer assume their role to be that of arbiters of “good music”, the instruction of Boethius – “Look to the highest of the heights of heaven” – has continued to motivate musicological inquiry. By contrast, music which is popular but perceived as “bad” has generated surprisingly little interest. This dissertation looks at Polish post-socialist music through the lenses of musical phenomena that came to prominence after socialism collapsed but which are perceived as controversial, undesired, shameful, and even dangerous. They run the gamut from the perceived nadir of popular music to some works of the most renowned contemporary classical composers that are associated with the suffix -polo, an expression that comes from disco polo, the first genre that came to prominence after socialism collapsed and is commonly associated with poor taste and a business-inspired aesthetic compromise. Combining methods used in ethnomusicology and musicology, my study is guided by the questions: How does music become “bad” and why? What does it tell us about ongoing cultural discourses and social cleavages in Polish society after the fall of socialism? The dissertation is structured around three case studies: (i) disco polo, (ii) Polish hip hop and hip- hopolo, and (iii) application of the term sacropolo to music with religious content, with an emphasis on rubikopolo. They are followed by analysis of patterns and schemes of silencing (as defined by Thiesmeyer 2003) experienced by these musical phenomena in confrontation with the dominant discourse in contemporary Poland, exposing the double and disguised nature of such ii silencing. The study is preceded by analysis of the cultural policy of the socialist state, which has profound implications for the functioning of music in Poland after its fall and provides a platform for addressing ideas about vision and mission of Polish culture, concepts regarding music and cultural hierarchies, assumptions regarding folk and popular music, and the myth of Poland. The music discussed in this dissertation was linked to a specific socio-economic context. With its change, the prominence and relevance of music altered. Moreover, all of these controversial musical phenomena challenged the organizational and conceptual framework of music making in post-socialist Poland (which stems from the previous system and has been influenced by some nineteenth century ideas) and clashed with official discourses. Although reasons behind their silencing were multiple and varied from case to case, they all interfere with the official narration about the post-socialist transformation, which pictured the current transition to capitalism and merging with Western Europe as the best and only option. They bring a different perspective to Poland’s relationship to the West, both actual and desired, and emphasize a set of values alternative to the one promoted by the dominant discourse. On the other hand, music which experienced silencing in post-socialist Poland fits into categories enumerated by Lizardo and Skiles (2015) as safe for symbolic exclusion by the musically “tolerant”. Therefore the same mechanism that sanctions the rejection of music associated with what cosmopolitanism is not and with communities and cultures that are perceived to promote intolerance in the discursive configuration which celebrates openness to cultural diversity, may be at play here. iii DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEGEMENTS To Paweł and Nanette iv Portions of Chapter Three, “Where Did Polish Hip Hop Go? Polish Hip Hop: a Voice of the “Solidarity” Generation or Hip-hopolo?” were published as “The Black Muse: Polish Hip- Hop as the Voice of ‘New Others in the Post-Socialist Transition,” Music and Politics 3, No. 1 (Winter 2009) http://www.music.ucsb.edu/projects/musicandpolitics/archive/2009- 1/pasternak.html Portions of Chapter One, “Cultural Policies of Socialist Poland: Music Making Under the Socialist Regime in Theory and in Practice,” were published as “What did Folk Music (Muzyka Ludowa) Mean in Socialist Poland?” Symbolon (Rumunia) 1 (2011): 94-100. Portions of Chapter Four, “Sacropolo: The Sacred in the Marketplace,” were published as “Sacropolo or Sacrum in the Marketplace.” In Polish Music since 1945. Edited by Eva Mantzourani. Kraków: Musica Jagiellonica, 2013: 348-357. Portions of Chapter Two, “Disco Polo: the Culture of the People Comes to the Marketplace,” were published as “Identités indésirables: le disco polo, l’enfant terrible de la culture populaire polonaise postcommuniste.” Translated by Olivier Borre. In Politiques des musiques populaires au XXIe siècle. Edited by Elsa Grassy and Jedediah Sklower. Paris: Éditions Seteun, 2015: 139-159. A NOTE ON TRANSLATION AND SOUND RECORDINGS Translations are by the author unless otherwise noted. Song texts have been translated literally rather than poetically. Unless otherwise noted, recordings and texts of the songs mentioned in this dissertation can be found online. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of the Dissertation …………...…………………………………………………………. ii Dedication and Acknowlegements …………………………………………………………….... iv Table of Contents ...……………………………………………………………………………… vi List of Illustrations …………………………………………………………………..…………. viii Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Overview ………………………………………………..……………………………… 13 Chapter One: Cultural Policies of Socialist Poland: Music Making Under the Socialist Regime in Theory and in Practice …………………….…………………...………….…. 16 An overview of the cultural policies of a socialist state ...…………………………….. 17 Culture not subject to market laws or audience taste ………………………………….. 27 No country for sheer entertainment ……………..……..…………………………….… 33 The socialist vision of the folk and popular culture ……………………………….…... 42 The difference between the official (formal) and operative (informal) levels of the socialist ideology with reference to music making …………….…………………….… 52 Conclusion of Chapter One …………………………………………………………….. 63 Chapter Two: Disco Polo: the Culture of the People Comes to the Marketplace ………………. 70 A short history of disco polo? A herald of the new system becomes its enfant terrible....72 Bottom-up acculturation rejected: why the intelligentsia is afraid of disco polo …….... 91 Unwanted identities: Polishness and the West in disco polo …………………….…... 107 “There is no village in the countryside”. Is disco polo folk music? ………………..… 121 Conclusion of Chapter Two …………………………………………………………... 135 Chapter Three: Where Did Polish Hip Hop Go? Polish Hip Hop: a Voice of the “Solidarity” Generation or Hip-hopolo? ……………………….….………………………. 150 How to write a history of Polish hip hop ……………...………………………..…….. 152 Hip hop as a misfit for the cultural needs of the Solidary movement of the 1980s …………….......……………………………………………………….. 154 vi Are the elements of hip hop sufficient to speak of a “hip hop culture”? …..… 157 Blokowisko. Hip hop’s location and its inhabitants ………….…………….... 164 Polish hip-hop’s road to mainstream: from nielegals to hip-hopolo and back . 167 I represent poverty? Hip hop discourse and its participants. ………..………………... 179 Polish hip hop as a patriotic genre ……………...…………………………………….. 200 Conclusion of Chapter Three …………………………………………………………. 219 Chapter Four: Sacropolo: The Sacred in the Marketplace ………………..…………………… 227 From anti-systemic counterculture to the mainstream and sacropolo: music on religious topics in Poland after the Second World War ………………………………………… 231 Rubikopolo: between popular and classical music and the issue of moral coercion …. 245 Sacred music, kitsch, and sacropolo …………..……………………………………… 259 Kitsch ………………………………………………………….……………... 269 Sacropolo …………………………………………………….………………. 274 Conclusion of Chapter Four …………………………………………………….…….. 287 Conclusion: Silencing Polo ………………………….…………………………….……………296 Organizational framework of music making in Poland after the fall of the socialist state and its alternative in disco polo, Polish hip hop and Christian music ………………... 300 Conceptual framework confronted with disco polo, hip hop, and sacropolo ……….... 306 Patterns of silencing, its double nature and disguises ………………………………… 313 Polo phenomena in confrontation with the dominant discourse ……………………… 318 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………...… 325 Filmography …………………………………………………………….…………………..…. 345 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figures 3.1. Solidarity logo Solidarność…………………………………………………………………………157 3.2. Polska Walcząca [Fighting Poland] …………………………………………….…………158 3.3. Toruń, Skarpa district, view from one of high-rise buildings. Fot. Pko., 2006………...….164 3.4. Magik’s Osiedle. A picture from the book Paktofonika. by Maciej Pisuk (Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, 2008), 102 .......................................................165