Censorship, Dissent and the Metaphorical Language of GDR Rock

Abstract

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) rock industry was run by a network of agencies which monitored all acts which gained access to the media. These agencies, under the guise of trying to ensure high artistic quality in order to differentiate GDR music from the decadent pop of the West, in reality functioned as the censors of politically undesirable acts. This chapter examines case studies of prominent groups such as Renft, the Puhdys, Silly and Pankow to illustrate the difficulties of navigating a career within the GDR music industry. It will observe how a distinctive practice of metaphorical lyric writing emerged, on the one hand, to circumvent censorship and, on the other, to satisfy a public thirst for critically challenging art in the face of a dearth of oppositional culture in the public arena.