This book is a result of decades-long research into declassified files, offering a unique perspective for writing post-Second World War cultural history through the lens of the political police.

This is the first in-depth, document-based monographic account of how secret services attempted to oppress dissent in popular music in post-war socialist Hungary. The documents reveal the goals, methods and means of the political police in their efforts to exercise control over the world of popular music, including musicians, fans and institutions. Through a series of case studies, the book sheds light on the activities of state security against various musical genres – ranging from jazz to beat, folk, religious music, rock, disco, punk, new wave and oi – and youth subcultures, such as hooligans, hippies, rockers, folk enthusiasts, punks and skinheads. The secret service operated following the resolutions and cultural policy of the communist party and employed a network of secret informants alongside its apparatus until the collapse of the regime in 1990.

Readers interested in a specific narrative of 20th-century pop and politics, culture and the Cold War, secret services and socialist countries, will find it essential reading. It will appeal to scholars and students of humanities, arts, music and European history, as well as professionals such as journalists, art historians, musicologists, musicians, curators, teachers and music lovers alike.

Table of contents:

Intro

CHAPTER 1: A Short History of Hungary, its Secret Services and Music Industry in the Cold War

1.1 Preface
1.2 Historical Background
1.3 The Goals, Methods and Means of the State Security Service
1.4 The Institutional System of Popular Music

CHAPTER 2: The 1940s and 1950s
2.1 The Sovietisation of Sounds
2.2 Singers Seeking Refuge in Exile

CHAPTER 3: The 1960s
3.1 Sorrowful Songsmiths under Surveillance
3.2 The Lure of the West
3.3 Beat Bands, Youth Gangs and the Long Arm of Law

Before and after 1968
4.1 Lefties, Hippies and Religious Rockers in the Crosshairs
4.2 Attempts at Disrupting Three Top Bands

CHAPTER 5: The 1970s
5.1 The Consequences of March Riots and Careless Words
5.2 Fear of the Folk Dance Houses
5.3 Fear of the Disco

CHAPTER 6: The 1980s

6.1 Policing the Crowd and Hunting for the Black Sheep of Hard Rock
6.2 New Waves of Dissent
6.3 Punks and Skinheads on Trial
6.4 Foreign Guests are Welcome and Watched

CHAPTER 7: Hungarian Musicians under Observation in Other Socialist Countries until 1989
7.1 Survival and Surveillance in the Socialist Bloc
7.2 Concluding Remarks

CHAPTER 8: Appendix
8.1 Archival Sources
8.2 Abbreviations
8.3 Index of Names
8.4 Acknowledgements

Tamás Szőnyei (1957) is a journalist and archivist, recently retired from the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. He is the author of monographs on new wave music (1989, 1992) and, based on research into declassified documents, on the interaction of state security with rock music and literature, respectively (2005, 2012). He published an illustrated catalogue of his Hungarian new wave poster collection, along with that of a fellow collector, featuring studies by multiple authors (2017). He lives in Budapest, Hungary.