THROUGH THE IRON CURTAIN: ICELANDIC POP MUSICIANS TOURING THE COMMUNIST EAST IN THE FINAL DECADE OF
THE COLD WAR

In autumn 1982, the Icelandic pop star Björgvin Halldórsson toured the Soviet Union with a full band for an entire month. The Bo Hall dorsson Ensemble travelled from Moscow to cities including Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Sochi, Yerevan, and Tbilisi, playing twenty-seven concerts for about fifty thousand people in total. In 1986, the Icelandic pop band Stuðmenn — or Strax, as they were called at the time — travelled to the People’s Republic of China and gave ten concerts in seven cities. These two tours are analysed in the context of recent research about popular culture and popular music in relation to the cultural Cold War. Theories about the “porous Iron Curtain” or the “Nylon Curtain” are introduced in order to chal lenge the dominant Western view that Soviet and Chinese citizens lived in complete cultural isolation during the Cold War. Soviet audiences in particular had a certain degree of access to both Western and Soviet popular music, even if it was strictly controlled and monitored by the relevant Soviet au thorities. Sources from Moscow reveal a tenacious paradox in Soviet cultural propaganda and indoctrination. While inviting Western pop mu sicians to tour the Soviet Union and thereby wanting to appear open and welcoming, Soviet authorities also worried about the damaging influence of Western pop music on Soviet youth. Communist ideologues saw Western popular culture as a threat to socialist culture and values — ultimately worrying that it would undermine the rule of the Communist Party. By the mid-1980s, when Stuðmenn/Strax went to China, the international discourse had changed somewhat, and the band paved the way for other Icelandic musicians who advocated for peace and dialogue during the Cold War. Both the 1982 trip to the Soviet Union and the 1986 trip to China received much attention in Iceland, and there were high hopes about these tours opening up new market opportunities for Icelandic music. Even if that did not turn out to be the case, the tours were well received by their audiences and show a dimension of the Cold War in which popular culture and personal advocacy played an important role.