Commercialization of Jazz Music in Leningrad during the Perestroika

Jazz performance in the USSR until the "thaw" period was perceived as a product of bourgeois culture and was prohibited by the authorities, and gained the right to official existence only during Gorbachev's "perestroika". Against this image of weakened state control over jazz art and the gradual monetarization of culture, this project raises the question of how the phenomenon of commercialization of art have affected the jazz music in Leningrad. The thesis provides such sources as memoirs and interviews of jazzmen of Leningrad, archival sources and periodicals. The thesis concluded that despite the falling demand for the jazz music because of growing popularity of the pop-culture, during the period of perestroika jazz developed into the special cultural phenomenon and divided commercial and philharmonic types for those who are interested in. Also it concludes that commercialization creates the new way of every-day life of citizens and new thinking.