"Only Dictators Are Afraid of Rock"

Posted November 10 by Shawn Macomber

Let's rectify an injustice this Tuesday morning, shall we? A deluge of remembrances and celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week and not one reference to the band that showed us we could all chill together, Gorky Park? For shame, Comrades!

I kid a bit, of course, and can only hope I get points for not bringing a "Winds of Change" reference into it, like Al Jazeera did. And, yes, I know there are some who would prefer a revisionist history in which Michael Jackson is liberator, or even a gaggle of Westernized rodent insurgents (video evidence after the jump!):

But the fall of the wall was, in fact, at least a partial victory for the Metal Militia. As Hungarian ambassador Andras Simonyi explained during a 2004 speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recounted in Reason magazine:

"Given that rock already carried a revolutionary message in the free West," he says, "you can imagine what effect that music had in the un-free East." The message of rock was heard even by those who didn't understand English. "Nonspeakers instinctively felt that rock music was about freedom -- the freedom to form your own band, the freedom to create your own music, the freedom to choose and listen to songs you like best," Simonyi says. He believes it was only natural for those ideas to "spill over into politics, reinforcing the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the free dissemination of ideas," all of which, he says, "scared the hell out of the Communist establishment." Hungarian communism collapsed in 1989, and Simonyi, now 51, still believes rock can set you free. "Today, there is criticism that rock is imperialistic," he says. "Nonsense. Only dictators are afraid of rock."

It's not over, either: Now heavy metal is beginning to regain a beachhead in the similarly repressed Islamic world where fans of the genre have long been (and continue to be) persecuted, yet nevertheless still go to clandestine shows, trade tapes, fly the flag--despite very real risks. On a recent visit to Cairo, where only a few years ago metal fans were being arrested as "degenerates" and "Satanists," I not only heard rumors of the metal militia reforming and saw metal CDs semi-hidden amongst more pious fare in the souqs, but at the Cairo Hard Rock Cafe one of the featured exhibits was a Tony Iommi guitar. It's probably going to take much longer considering the religious circumstances, but I wouldn't bet against metal coming out on top in this fight eventually as well. 

Today, however, is for the East German metalheads of 1989. Hail!

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