» Underground sucks – it’s stupid …
… is one of Zappa’s quotation regarding the many juvenile movements which started worldwide in the 60’s... and for the political upheaval in the socialistic countries Zappa had an easy explanation: “The Soviets have gone out to the country for the weekend - this made things easier.”
In fact the rejection of Zappa against underground movements applied to the beginning flower power culture in America. Here he dissociated himself shirty from those philosophies which were nebulized by drugs, while in the 80’s and begin of the 90’s he was deeply impressed by the cultural and political underground in the socialistic countries.
When did the turning set in? Was it the hundreds of thousands of protesters who obtained in October 1989 the dismissal of Erich Honecker? Or was it the politics of perestroyka and glasnost initiated by Gorbatschow in 1985? Or did it all happen already in 1965 at the beat protest in Leipzig, where two music fans spreaded pamphlets and mobilized more than 2000 teens to rebel against the governmental ban of beat music?
Definitely all of this together started the processes of democratization. And as impressive as the autumn revolution in 1989 in GDR took course, the roots reach back to the resistance of individuals who defied thought control despite governmental oppression.
When I, as ‚Wessi‘, started to occupy myself with the topic GDR I was very surprised to learn that the subcultural movements in East and West have developped in a similar way and that my original imagination that Frank Zappa has been unknown in GDR has been absolutely inapplicable.
In our exhibition we want to enlighten the ‘Unaware’ about the political system ‘GDR’, the leaders of the socialism and Zappa’s opinions regarding communism.
With reference to Zappa lyrics and quotations eastern bands and their fight with the power will be presented. We show how Zappa has been dealt with in GDR media and how fans managed to obtain sound carrier of the master in spite of the ban.
Because even in countries which are characterized by oppression and censorship applied and applies ‚MUSIC IS THE BEST’.
Robert Riedt
