Rock and the Wall: American Music as Rebellion in East Germany

The Berlin Wall at U.Va
Date: 
Monday, November 3, 2014
Time: 
5:30 pm
Event Location: 
Auditorium of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

The hammer blows that brought the Berlin Wall crashing down were preceded by a rock-and-roll powered “sonic boom” – a series of legendary concerts in the late 1980’s. Grace Hale, U.Va. Professor of History and the Director of the American Studies Program, will focus on the “Concert for Berlin,” a show held in the West but designed to be heard far over the wall, and Bruce Springsteen’s unforgettable 1988 East Berlin show. In addition, Hale will examine how East Germans understood and responded to American rock as the product of African American and working class white rebellion – going back to the folk-blues tours in their homeland in the 1960’s and 1970’s and Bob Dylan’s East Berlin concert in 1987.