Full Description
This book explores the album 'Külmale maale' (To The Cold Land, 1989) by J.M.K.E. - the most legendary punk rock band in Estonia - concentrating on the meaning of the album in different sociocultural contexts from its release until today. In 35 years, the album has not lost its relevance: It was selected by 102 music critics as the best Estonian album of all time in 2014 and is listened to by all generations of punks.
The story of J.M.K.E. illustrates the subcultural organization not only in Estonia but in the Soviet Union in general, where pop music and the existence of subculture was more or less censored for 50 years. Broadly, it presents the influential role of pop culture in the transition from a totalitarian society to early capitalism and from subcultural to post-subcultural society.
Contents
1. 'Jesus Mary, shrieked the hag': Lyrics, sound, and memory
The beginning
'To the Cold Land'
2. 'I am the censor!': Bounded subcultures
Prequel: Pop culture under siege
Punk arrives in Tallinn!
Songs about oppression: Censorship and psychiatry
3. To the Cold Land: from war crimes to the fear of disappearance
Escape as a form of protest
Immortal sadists
The fear of disappearance
4. 'They don't know my name': pacifistically about anarchism
The butterfly and the atomic bomb
Militancy in the sheepskin of pacifism
Phosphorite - no thanks!
5. 'Hello Perestroika!': The Estonian punk movement at its peak
Perestroika scepticism
Hello perestroika!
The journey to the album - a view from Finland
6. 'Endless Saturday': J.M.K.E. in the midst of different ideologies
Illustrations
Bibliography
Index
