Post by Mr. FOLLARD on Jan 10, 2023 11:48:45 GMT
Stealing this thread idea from BCB - I always thought it was a good one...
I've been learning about agitprop ('agitation propaganda', basically). I'd heard the term used before, but by the NME in the 80s, referring to bands like Go4 (I think), which is a bit daft, but par for the course with the NME back then.
Anyway, as usual I got hooked in by the imagery. Well, you've got to start somewhere, haven't you?
"Want it? Join"
"1. You want to overcome cold?
2. You want to overcome hunger?
3. You want to eat?
4. You want to drink?
Hasten to join shock brigades of exemplary labor!"
Anyway - Vladimir Mayakovsky is your man. He was a poet, an artist, an actor. He started his career as a Futurist, before the Russian Revolution. He designed the posters the Soviets used to propagate their ideas after 1917. Start there - there's a lot of ideas, a lot of art. He wrote 'Talking With The Taxman About Poetry', which of course Billy Bragg named an album after, but don't let that put you off.
The agitprop 'machinery' involved distributing literature across the country to convince the population that communism was a good idea. Big trains with printing presses, radios to communicate back to base and inform whether particular regions needed more convincing, or different methods, or whatever. I find this fascinating. And digging a bit deeper leads to other things that are just as interesting (as is so often the case).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop
I've been learning about agitprop ('agitation propaganda', basically). I'd heard the term used before, but by the NME in the 80s, referring to bands like Go4 (I think), which is a bit daft, but par for the course with the NME back then.
Anyway, as usual I got hooked in by the imagery. Well, you've got to start somewhere, haven't you?
"Want it? Join"
"1. You want to overcome cold?
2. You want to overcome hunger?
3. You want to eat?
4. You want to drink?
Hasten to join shock brigades of exemplary labor!"
Anyway - Vladimir Mayakovsky is your man. He was a poet, an artist, an actor. He started his career as a Futurist, before the Russian Revolution. He designed the posters the Soviets used to propagate their ideas after 1917. Start there - there's a lot of ideas, a lot of art. He wrote 'Talking With The Taxman About Poetry', which of course Billy Bragg named an album after, but don't let that put you off.
The agitprop 'machinery' involved distributing literature across the country to convince the population that communism was a good idea. Big trains with printing presses, radios to communicate back to base and inform whether particular regions needed more convincing, or different methods, or whatever. I find this fascinating. And digging a bit deeper leads to other things that are just as interesting (as is so often the case).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agitprop
