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| A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROMANIAN ROCK 02/01/2010 |
| (2010-01-02) |
| Last updated: 2010-01-05 16:54 EET |
Diversity, originality and a unique message make rock music perhaps the most interesting musical phenomenon of popular culture. Rock music was shaped in the 1960s, but its roots go back to the 1940s and 1950s. The rock phenomenon had influences from various other music genres, such as Rock'n'Roll, R&B, country, folk, jazz and classical music. The most common instruments used in rock music are the electric guitar, the bass guitar, the drums, the keyboards and synthesisers.
Rock is, by definition, the music of free spirit, protest and non-conformity. In rock music, lyrics and sound are equally important. Famous songs like Stairway to Heaven, Blowing in the Wind and Yellow Submarine have touched the hearts of dozens of millions, and have influenced attitudes for decades to come. The genre's vitality has led to the birth of numerous sub-genres: pop rock, blues rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, hard rock, punk rock, heavy metal, grunge, alternative rock, dance rock, emo and electronic rock along with other combined and underground styles.
Since the beginning rock has been a music of protest, and even found its way into communist Romania in the early 1960s. Totalitarian regimes have always been opposed to rock music, but no borders, walls or censorship have been able to stop it. In the beginning, Romanian rock songs conveyed messages that were more subliminal rather than explicit and hard-hitting. Rock music was aimed against the ruling power, and was the most persecuted form of Western culture in our country. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 brought freedom to rock musicians, who went on and paid homage, through their songs, to the heroes who had fought for that freedom. They were the bands Pro Musica, Rosu si Negru, Phoenix, and folk-rock singers Valeriu Sterian, Doru Caplescu, Cristian Paturca, Victor Socaciu and many others.
Early Romanian rock bands were made up of students and high-schoolers in Timisoara and Bucharest: Uranus, Pioneers and Phoenix first stepped onto the stage between 1961 and 1962. They were followed by bands such as Cometele, Entuziastii, Sfinx, Olimpic '64, Sideral and Sincron. Their music took after British rock, but was called “electric guitar music”, to avoid the western word ‘rock’. That was back in the days when Stalinism still manifested its oppressive ways. Rock bands in our country had few compositions of their own, mostly performing songs from the repertoires of international artists such as Cliff Richard, the Shadows, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. At first, Romanian rock bands mostly performed at high-school proms and college festivities, and later got to know more fame with the development of Romanian television.
The 1970s are considered to be the Golden Age of Romanian rock music, as it was then that our bands matched western music best. The 70s were characterised by a bigger openness towards rock music compared to previous years. Hence, Romanian musicians started to find more sources of inspiration in psychedelic, progressive and hard rock. Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the Doors, the Moody Blues and The Animals inspired Romanian bands like Phoenix, Sfinx and Mondial. The only major sub-genre of rock that was considered to be too rebellious for Romanian bands in the 1970s was punk rock, with flagship bands The Sex Pistols and The Ramones being only listened to.
The most noted Romanian bands and musicians of the 1970s included Phoenix, led by Nicu Covaci, Sfinx, headed by Dan Andrei Aldea, along with FFN (translated into “The Band with No Name”), Dorin Liviu Zaharia, Mircea Florian and Paunita Ionescu. That was also the time when the Flacara festival was born, spearheaded by poet Adrian Paunescu, promoting the works of talented young artists. During the 1980s however, Flacara turned into a disgraceful promoter of communist propaganda.
The openness of the 1970s was followed by a return to oppression, to Ceausescu's neo-Stalinist regime. The ideological edicts of July 1971 again muzzled cultural influences from the west. In the 1980s, music sung in English was banned from television and radio, and the regime used these media to promote its favourite ideas and initiatives, such as the struggle for peace. Due to the pressure of censorship and Romania's informational isolation, the rock music trend started to move away from the capital city. Among the most noted Romanian bands of the 1980s were Iris, Holograf, Semnal M, Voltaj, Metropol, Celelalte Cuvinte, Pro Musica, Cargo and Timpuri Noi.
After the Revolution of 1989, it took some time before Romanian rock music was able to get back up to the standards set by western music. This was because, while audiences now had direct access to music from abroad, Romania was late to develop its own music industry. While most bands with tradition kept their style, some, like Voltaj, had a complete makeover and took on a new genre – dance-rock. Post-Revolution Romanian rock bands include Sarmalele Reci, Vank, Vama Veche, Omul cu Sobolani, Zdob si Zdub and Luna Amara.
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