Audible States, Tochka Nicholas

In Audible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania, author Nicholas Tochka traces an aural history of Albanias government through a close examination of the development and reception of light music at Radio-Television Albanias Festival of Song. Drawing on a wide range of archival
resources and over forty interviews with composers, lyricists, singers, and bureaucrats, Tochka describes how popular music became integral to governmental projects to improve society--and a major concern for both state-socialist and postsocialist regimes between 1945 and the present. Tochkas
narrative begins in the immediate postwar period, arguing that state officials saw light music as a means to cultivate a modern population under socialism. As the Cold War ended, postsocialist officials turned again to light music, now hoping that these musicians could help shape Albania into a
capitalist, European state. Interweaving archival research with ethnographic interviews, Audible States demonstrates that modern political orders do not simply render social life visible, but also audible.