The Sound State of Uzbekistan: Popular Music and Politics in the Karimov Era

331 Pages·2019·7.206 MB·English

by  Kerstin Klenke

The Sound State of Uzbekistan
The Sound State of Uzbekistan: Popular Music and Politics in the Karimov
Era is a pioneering study of the intersection between popular music and
state politics in Central Asia. Based on 20 months of fieldwork and archival
research in Tashkent, this book explores a remarkable era in Uzbekistan’s
politics (2001–2016), when the Uzbek government promoted a rather un-
likely candidate to the prominent position of state sound: estrada, a genre
of popular music and a musical relic of socialism. The political importance
it attached to estrada was matched by the establishment of an elaborate
bureaucratic apparatus for state oversight.
The Sound State of Uzbekistan shows the continuing legacy of Soviet con-
cepts to frame the nexus between music, artists and the state, and e xplains the
extraordinary potency ascribed to estrada. At the same time, it c hallenges
classical readings of transition and also questions common binary models
for researching culture in totalitarian or authoritarian states. Proposing to
approach lives in music under authoritarianism as a form of normality in-
stead, the author promotes a post-Cold War paradigm in music studies.
Kerstin Klenke is an ethnomusicologist and head of the Phonogram Archive
at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
SOAS Musicology Series
Series Editors:
Rachel Harris, SOAS, University of London, UK
Rowan Pease, SOAS, University of London, UK
Board members:
Angela Impey (SOAS, University of London)
Noriko Manabe (Temple University)
Suzel Reily (Universidade Estadual de Campinas)
Martin Stokes (Kings College London)
Richard Widdess (SOAS, University of London)
SOAS Musicology Series is today one of the world’s leading series in
the discipline of ethnomusicology. Our core mission is to produce high-
quality, ethnographically rich studies of music-making in the world’s di-
verse musical cultures. We publish monographs and edited volumes that
explore musical repertories and performance practice, critical issues in
ethnomusicology, sound studies, historical and analytical approaches
to music across the globe. We recognize the value of applied, interdisci-
plinary and collaborative research, and our authors draw on current ap-
proaches in musicology and anthropology, psychology, media and gender
studies. We welcome monographs that investigate global contemporary,
classical and popular musics, the effects of digital mediation and trans-
national flows.
Becoming a Garamut Player in Baluan, Papua New Guinea
Musical Analysis as a Pathway to Learning
Tony Lewis
Music Theory in the Safavid Era
Owen Wright
Arnold Bake
A Life with South Asian Music
Bob van der Linden
The Sound State of Uzbekistan
Popular Music and Politics in the Karimov Era
Kerstin Klenke
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.
com/music/series/SOASMS
The Sound State of Uzbekistan
Popular Music and Politics in the
Karimov Era
Kerstin Klenke
First published 2019
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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© 2019 Kerstin Klenke
The right of Kerstin Klenke to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Klenke, Kerstin, author.
Title: The sound state of Uzbekistan : popular music and politics in
the Karimov era / Kerstin Klenke.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Series: SOAS musicology series | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019001408| ISBN 9781138486140 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781351046435 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Popular music—Political aspects—Uzbekistan. |
Music and state—Uzbekistan.
Classification: LCC ML3917.U93 K54 2019 | DDC 781.6309587—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001408
ISBN: 978-1-138-48614-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-04643-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Accepted in fulfilment of the requirements for the doctoral degree,
Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, 2015
Visit the eResources: www.routledge.com/9781138486140
To the memory of
Rüdiger Schumacher (1953–2007)
and
Irene Hilgers (1975–2008)

Contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xi
Preliminaries xiii
Entering estrada 1
Prelude: introducing estrada 13
1 Administering estrada: decrees, institutions and policies 30
2 Approaching estrada: opposition, affirmation and beyond 53
3 Staging estrada I: concerts, reyting and artisthood 73
4 Staging estrada II: competitions and other activities
“at the state level” 115
5 Nationalising estrada: the concept of milliy estrada 155
6 Authorising estrada: licences, certificates and the status
of milliy estrada 195
7 Mobilising estrada: independence ideology, nationalist
realism and the workings of milliy estrada 241
Exiting estrada 283
References 293
Index 311

Illustrations
Figures
I.1 Tamara Khanum and her musicians in the 1930s 15
I.2 A poster from the 1960s for a concert by the Estrada
Orchestra of Uzbekistan and its soloists 18
I.3 A vinyl single by Yalla on the GDR label Amiga, 1975 21
I.4 Botir Qodirov performs at a wedding, 2016 24
I.5 A jazz matinée at the Tashkent House of Photography, 2005 26
I.6 A tribute evening to Viktor Tsoi at the club Vertikal'nyy Mir
[Vertical World], 2008 27
I.7 A poster announcing a concert by Thomas Anders from
Modern Talking, 2006 28
1.1 The Turkiston Palace, 2005 31
1.2 The entrance to O’zbeknavo at the rear side of the Turkiston
Palace, 2008 32
1.3 The structure of O’zbeknavo and the organs linked to or
embedded in it according to PKM-272 2001 41
3.1 At the folk fair for Independence Day in Alisher Navoiy
National Park, 2008 82
3.2 The Palace of the Friendship of Peoples, 2006 100
3.3 A poster for a charity concert organised by O’zbeknavo
(second from right) between posters for a commercial
concert, for a circus show and for a printer on one of the
“Tashkent Announcements” boards in the city centre, 2005 101
4.1 Nihol laureates sing the Nihol hymn in the final minutes of
the awards gala show at Independence Palace, 2008 117
5.1 At the festival of Uzbekistan – Our Shared House, 2016 157
5.2 The State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, 2016 174
5.3 A singer and her playback DJ at the Bek restaurant, 2005 176
5.4 “In clothes there is a reflection of spiritual values”: girls in
milliy style and demeanour according to official standards
(Andijon, 2016) 184