A jazz politikai és társadalmi megítélése az ötvenes és a hatvanas években

Absztrakt

This essay focuses on jazz from the time it was banned by the cultural administration after 1948 to its integration from the 1960s and onwards. In the age of the Cold War, the ethos of freedom permeating jazz music was fuelled by the American political hegemony and consumerist mass culture on the one hand, and the America-phobia of the communist regime on the other. These factors shaped the often heroic image of the genre in many recollections. In the beginning of the 1960s, jazz gained a legitimate status as part of bothnew youth and cultural politics, and became partially institutionalised. However, due to the fact that music was monopolised by the organisations of classical music, which enjoyed the full support of the offi cial cultural administration, jazz continued to be unrecognised as an autonomous art form. The legitimisation of jazz brought about the loss of its revolutionary myth. Controlled by the Communist Youth Organisation (KISZ), attempts were made to re-ideologise jazz and use it to counterbalance rock and roll and beat music among young people. However, modern jazz arriving in Hungary witha 15–20-year delay was unsuitable for this purpose. Moreover, by this time, young audiences had lost contact withthe outdated forms of jazz. The revolutionary myth, thus, was transferred to beat and rock music. The irony in the post-1945 history of jazz is that the genre had lost its potential audience by the time it was tolerated by the regime.