*Men
He doesn’t look happy about it.
I bet he’s angry because he knows the built in mics are crap and will pick up just as much noise as they will music, and then he got even angrier as he considered how Poland was part of the USSR and that there was no way he’d be able to pick up a high quality microphone for an affordable price.
Poland was not part of the USSR…
Correct, but the ruling party at the time was under the influence of the USSR.
Not influence, control. They were allowed to do their own thing only as long as they did nothing to annoy Moscow and followed all orders.
That’s a difference without distinction.
Most Polish people would disagree. Poland got pretty fucked in ww2, from all sides, but at least they managed to hold on to some of their sovereignty and not be forced to join USSR as a Soviet Republic.
This partially allowed the democratization movement to form in Poland in the 80s (with Solidarność) and eventually for Poland to get out from under Russia’s boot and join the EU and NATO, and avoid the faith of former Soviet Republics like Belarus and Ukraine.
Most Polish people would disagree.
As a Polish/American, that has not been my experience.
maybe he realised he didn’t like the music and he’s wasting his time
Tell me you’re recording this concert for your daughter without telling me you’re recording this concert for your daughter.
He’s really embodying “Be the stereo”.
Henry Kissinger for the win.
Kissinger can rest in piss.
I was disgusted when I realized he only just died. I just hope that I will live long enough that I know that I have lived longer after his death than during his life.
He died on 2023/11/29, so almost seven months ago.
And less resting more water boarding.
Looks like a JVC RC-660
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Hey ’20s Americans:
Look how freaking thin these people were
I really dislike this trend of making not so old photos black and white in an effort to make them seem older. It seems disingenuous and misleads people into thinking it was longer ago than it actually was.
Black and white photography was cheaper than color all the way into the 90s. It was widely used.
And still is. I shoot a fair bit of black and white film. It’s cheaper, I can develop it at home, it produces a silver negative that will last centuries. The medium itself had been around for a century, so it imparts a sense of timelessness. I appreciate a good photo that you can’t tell if it’s 1924 or 2024 until you notice some dude with a cellphone in the background.
Poland was actually in black and white all the way up to 2004 when they joined the EU.
Kissinger?
Killinger
Not enough blood on his hands.
I really dislike live recordings.
Like here is your favourite music, but in bad quality and you can’t hear half of it because people are screaming over it.
sometimes they get it from the board which is great
You have to realize that popular culture was very tightly controlled and restricted by the Polish communist government at this time. This photo was taken at the Jarocin festival, which was a rare chance to see many bands play that otherwise had no radio play or record contracts and often played styles of music that were viewed with great suspicion by the establishment. Recording these live performances and trading tapes was often the only way people got to hear many of these bands.
I grew up in a neighboring country during this time, but I wasn’t much into the rock scene then - I was into folk music, which had a similar scene in my country - many folk artists were straight up banned by the government, so it was impossible to hear them on the radio or buy their records, but tape recordings of live performances existed and were traded among the fans. Same of my favorite music from this period only existed in this form. There were even recordings of shows that got shut down by the police mid-set.
The 80s were a period of economic stagnation in eastern Europe, resulting in a lot of pent up anger and angst in the youth, and at the same time, the establishment was slowly losing its grip on the population. As a result artists were getting increasingly bold in channeling this anger and dissatisfaction, of pushing the boundaries of what was allowed, sometimes crossing them and getting slapped down - but you never knew what could happen at a large gathering of the youth back then - taping was an important tool to document and spread this to the wider population.
Thank you.
I remember hearing a live version of some Garth Brooks song years ago on the radio during a car ride where the audience was so loud, Garth stopped singing and basically told everyone to STFU. It’s always the first thing I think of when I hear the phrase ‘live recording.’
*men
Now that you mention it, it looks like this was a concert exclusively for men. I don’t know how concerts worked in Poland at that time, but I’d expect at least some women. I was super involved in my local punk and metal scene growing up in the early 2000s and the crowd was always around 50/50.
I think OP was mainly referring to how there appears to be more than one man recording.
That’s how I read into it as well - I just also thought it weird that there were no women (at least not obviously) in the picture.
Well check this out, there are literally zero women there. Interesting.
That’s bonkers! What is this - the annual meeting of Polish Men and Their Tape Recorders?