{"product_id":"audible-states-socialist-politics-and-popular-music-in-albania-9780190467814","title":"Audible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Nicholas Tochka\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Ethnomusicology\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the Cold War, state-sponsored musical performances were central to the diplomatic agendas of the United States and the Soviet Union. But states on the periphery of the conflict also used state-funded performances to articulate their positions in the polarized global network. In Albania in particular, the postwar government invested heavily in public performances at home, effectively creating a new genre of popular music: the wildly popular light music. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eAudible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania\u003c\/em\u003e, author Nicholas Tochka traces an aural history of Albania's government through a close examination of the development and reception of light music at Radio-Television Albania's Festival of Song. Drawing on a wide range of archival resources and over forty interviews with composers, lyricists, singers, and bureaucrats, Tochka describes how popular music became integral to governmental projects to improve society--and a major concern for both state-socialist and postsocialist regimes between 1945 and the present. Tochka's narrative begins in the immediate postwar period, arguing that state officials saw light music as a means to cultivate a modern population under socialism. As the Cold War ended, postsocialist officials turned again to light music, now hoping that these musicians could help shape Albania into a capitalist, \"European\" state. Interweaving archival research with ethnographic interviews, Audible States\u003cbr\u003edemonstrates that modern political orders do not simply render social life visible, but also audible. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIncorporating insights from ethnomusicology, governmentality studies, and post-socialist studies, Audible States presents an original perspective on music and government that reveals the fluid, pervasive, but ultimately limited nature of state power in the modern world. A remarkably researched and engagingly written study, Audible States is a foundational text in the growing literature on popular music and culture in post-socialist Europe and will be of great interest for readers interested in popular music, sound studies, and the politics of the Cold War.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47890270355607,"sku":"9780190467814","price":12440.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780190467814.webp?v=1781179326","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/audible-states-socialist-politics-and-popular-music-in-albania-9780190467814","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}