Popular music and social marginality during severe economic change: evidence from post-communist Romania

Abstract

Romania, as other post-communist countries, experienced during the last couple of decades one of the most profound social changes that have been historically recorded. Despite massive change, the general focus of transition studies was set on democratization and marketization. Away from the general discourse on Romania’s neo-liberal modernization and Europeanization, the critical analysis of popular music offers refreshing insights into processes of stratification, downward mobility, increasing uncertainty and poverty that accompany political and economic change. Although largely criticized from cultural elitist standpoints, the popular music products that are under scrutiny here tell the story of more profound changes in value orientations in a social context marked by deep economic crisis, harsh social competition, severe failure, deprivation and acute marginalization.