Rock Music during Communism in Romania

During the Romanian communist period, rock and metal music faced censorship but still thrived. Secret police monitored rock party-goers’ attire, misunderstanding band slogans as political messages. Western radio and approved concerts offered rare opportunities for music. Bands like Pheonix, Olympic, Pro Musica, Timpuri Noi, and Iris contributed to Romanian rock’s evolution and resistance.

March 20, 2024

3–4 minutes

Recently, CNSAS (National Council for Studying the Security Archives), the institute studying what the Secret police (“securitate” or exact translation security) did during communism, released photos from rock parties during communism. Imagine going to the police because you went to a party dressed up in an ACDC vest…

image of young people captured by the Romanian secret police

Text below says: Alina a pupil at the industrial highschool (redacted), 10th grade, living in Bucharest street (redacted). Military vest and shirt with multiple writings.

The secret police didn’t know these were rock bands written on the vest.

image of a highschool student from an industrial highschool, photographed by police during communism

Text below says: Mircea a pupil at the industrial highschool (redacted), 10th grade, living in Bucharest street (redacted), sector 2. Military vest and scruffy jacket with a drawing “Beware of Death”

improvised ACDC shirt by a highschool student caught by the police during communism

An interesting detail would be that the western part of the country had access to radio broadcast channels from the west, as even the devices were limited to the frequencies they had access to. So the best-case scenario was to get a foreign radio to listen to the cool stuff.

Joi ale tineretului – Young People Thursday

Another option for listening to good music was to go to concerts that were organized on Thursdays by the party. If you were lucky, you could find some youngsters that would be playing rock or jazz.

They would have to be approved by the censorship institute, an institute that would approve movies, events, books, or anything that could possibly influence the masses. Jazz was viewed as a type of music against the regime, so it was approved only in certain circumstances, while rock music was accepted as long as it had patriotic themes to it.

The most chosen theme was generally the haiduc, the robbers that fought against the Ottomans or the empires that occupied us, viewed in a way as patriotic revolutionaries. The party accepted the theme as it was patriotic, and rock musicians liked the themes of revolution, but in a context that the party was ok with.

Bands that played rock or metal during communism.

An issue overall is the fact that the early work of rock bands has not been recorded. So the songs you will see towards the end of the article are, in essence, songs that passed through the cracks and managed to be recorded(also what I was able to find online).

Quoting Adevarul

Rock music made its appearance in the Romanian music scene in the early 1960s. For approximately 15 years, it evolved in relative connection with what was happening in the international music scene. By the late 1970s, Romanian rock music entered a crisis caused by the detachment from the external musical context, under increasing pressure from the political regime. Consequently, the following decade saw much weaker achievements, with Romanian musicians being forced to retreat musically due to the desynchronization from productions made beyond the country’s borders. The metal genre was only superficially touched upon by Romanian bands in the 1980s. Additionally, Romanian punk music was very poorly represented in socialist Romania.

Pheonix

They had many changes, they even left the country at one point, by crossing the border illegally, but from 1962 on, they sang the most and are considered the most prolific rock band to this day. More info: Wikipedia

Olympic

They started off in 1961 with students from an art school and a Greek school playing together. Most of their work was done in live concerts and the album Olympic ’64 is one of the few works published.