Silencing polo
Creators: name: Pasternak-Mazur, Renata J.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2017

description: Although, with the turn in the discipline since the 1980s, musicologists no longer assume their role to be that of arbiters of “good music”, the instruction of Boethius – “Look to the highest of the heights of heaven” – has continued to motivate musicological inquiry. By contrast, music which is popular but perceived as “bad” has generated surprisingly little interest. This dissertation looks at Polish post-socialist music through the lenses of musical phenomena that came to prominence after socialism collapsed but which are perceived as controversial, undesired, shameful, and even dangerous. They run the gamut from the perceived nadir of popular music to some works of the most renowned contemporary classical composers that are associated with the suffix -polo, an expression that comes from disco polo, the first genre that came to prominence after socialism collapsed and is commonly associated with poor taste and a business-inspired aesthetic compromise. Combining methods used in ethnomusicology and musicology, my study is guided by the questions: How does music become “bad” and why? What does it tell us about ongoing cultural discourses and social cleavages in Polish society after the fall of socialism?  The dissertation is structured around three case studies: (i) disco polo, (ii) Polish hip hop and hip-hopolo, and (iii) application of the term sacropolo to music with religious content, with an emphasis on rubikopolo. They are followed by analysis of patterns and schemes of silencing (as defined by Thiesmeyer 2003) experienced by these musical phenomena in confrontation with the dominant discourse in contemporary Poland, exposing the double and disguised nature of such silencing. The study is preceded by analysis of the cultural policy of the socialist state, which has profound implications for the functioning of music in Poland after its fall and provides a platform for addressing ideas about vision and mission of Polish culture, concepts regarding music and cultural hierarchies, assumptions regarding folk and popular music, and the myth of Poland.  The music discussed in this dissertation was linked to a specific socio-economic context. With its change, the prominence and relevance of music altered. Moreover, all of these controversial musical phenomena challenged the organizational and conceptual framework of music making in post-socialist Poland (which stems from the previous system and has been influenced by some nineteenth century ideas) and clashed with official discourses. Although reasons behind their silencing were multiple and varied from case to case, they all interfere with the official narration about the post-socialist transformation, which pictured the current transition to capitalism and merging with Western Europe as the best and only option. They bring a different perspective to Poland’s relationship to the West, both actual and desired, and emphasize a set of values alternative to the one promoted by the dominant discourse. On the other hand, music which experienced silencing in post-socialist Poland fits into categories enumerated by Lizardo and Skiles (2015) as safe for symbolic exclusion by the musically “tolerant”. Therefore the same mechanism that sanctions the rejection of music associated with what cosmopolitanism is not and with communities and cultures that are perceived to promote intolerance in the discursive configuration which celebrates openness to cultural diversity, may be at play here.