Central Europe, Baltic and Balkan

The mid-section of Europe we brutely gather under one chapter. Not because the music scenes of the individual countries aren't interesting but just for the reason we don't know enough artists to dedicate a seperate chapter to the countries. And historical there isn't much info of how the music scenes evolved as well. So we just have to do with bits and pieces.

Roughly the musical influences also overlap somehow. Traces of folk and gypsy culture as wel as traditional Bohemian polka can be found all around. It is what they did with that differs. The Czech republic music scene shows a lot influence from French chanson and american bluegrass. While the traditional Roma music still is very much alive in Romania and Bulgaria. The last gaining world wide popularity at the moment under the genre Balkan Beats.

On the more rock music side Hungary has a very active prog-rock scene that shows connections with Poland and former Yugoslavia. The rock scene in the Czech republic has a typical hang towards Zappa-esque rock music.

Something altogether different is the musical scene in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) linked together by their Russian dominance between 1945 and 1991 but very different in their musical scene. And currently strugling with (re)discovering their own social cultural identity.

On the web: