Phonographic music practice and socialist-centralistic authorities: Production policies of the GDR record label Amiga 1971–1990

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Christofer Jost
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 530949272

The project is dedicated to the production policies of the record label Amiga, which was one of six divisions of the GDR’s only phonogram producer, VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, responsible for producing, curating and publishing popular music. The term “production policies” refers to the creation of phonographic music offerings, which is guided by diverse interests and encompasses different fields of action. Amiga made the music offerings materially available, with decisions within the label having a significant impact on varieties of popular music such as rock, pop, Schlager and jazz. After the predominantly restrictive cultural policy of the 1960s, the change of power from Walter Ulbricht to Erich Honecker in 1971 and the subsequent development towards consumer socialism meant an opening of the music business, through which Amiga productions became further differentiated. However, this phase was still accompanied by interventions of the state apparatus, which in the 1970s and 1980s led to bans, expatriations and flight movements of artists. The aim of the project is to reconstruct the production policies of the Amiga record label on the basis of both documents and interviews, and to use their example to map socio-technical constellations in which phonographic music offerings are created. It will be examined how music publishing activities in the GDR attempted to gain influence on the shaping of the popular music field. On the one hand, the extent to which centralized guidelines interfered with media resources, administrative processes, constellations of actors, and artistic decisions will be explored. On the other hand, the focus is on the scope for action that developed beyond state guidelines and which gives insight into the logic of the production of popular music under the umbrella of the Amiga. In this context, special attention is paid to the manifold normalizations and standardizations that result from the organizational structures of a media institution (in this case, a record label) and the media arrangements in the recording studio, which are reflected on different levels in the musical-sonic realizations. The project is intended as a contribution to the reconstruction and interpretation of (media-)historical processes and constellations that – for example, due to ideological aspects – mark a difference from the historiographically and empirically well-documented market-based media-industrial complexes. With its focus on phonographic production contexts, the project also illuminates a section of media realities in the GDR that still appears underrepresented in media studies research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants