The leaders of the Soviet bloc were no fans of Western pop music. To their mind, musical innovations from the cultural grassroots of capitalist democracies threatened core values of socialist civilization. As popular genres and rising subcultures still found their way into bloc societies as a result of public demand, state authorities sternly disapproved of U.S. trends throughout the Cold War era: Rock-and-roll inspired delinquency, disco promoted hedonism, and, worst of all, punk called for disrespect of authority. One Western form, however, had the bloc's cultural guardians scratching their heads collectively and revising their rhetoric repeatedly. Jazz originated from the world's capitalist superpower, but it was intimately connected to African Americans’ emancipation from the shackles of exploitation. Unlike any other Western popular style, the soundtrack or the Progressive Era in the United States caused confusion and dissent among socialist elites. Helma Kaldewey has crafted a comprehensive study of how the...

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