[stephenhuey]

Pretty fascinating niche. On one of my trips over there a Czech cousin told me how they had to be careful even dubbing Michael Jackson tapes in the 80s since American media was not allowed at all. These games seem a lot riskier.

Edit: Thanks to the comments on this it seems things weren't so dire in the 80s. My cousin was a kid then--perhaps he was recounting more 70s era stories from his older sister or something! In any case, it's fun hearing about all of your memories since my first visit over there was in 1990. :)

[Tade0]

It wasn't banned per se - it was just that with a non-exchangable currency getting hold of a copy of anything was difficult.

Some western productions would make it through the iron curtain, but they needed to be checked and usually censored beforehand. Politically correct (in the original meaning of the expression) poster art was a genre in and of itself:

https://www.fanthatracks.com/news/collecting/star-wars-poste...

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Woa. Those posters are really good. Totally different aesthetic than the film, but I think they draw from the Eastern Block's long tradition of Sci Fi that was more artsy and less action, far as I understand it.

[Tade0]

Ironically because of the political system back then - censors did only a cursory check whether the work meets the guidelines (no gore, nudity, positive depictions of "imperialist" America) and there obviously was no push to make the poster "sell" the movie - authors had a lot of artistic freedom, so they experimented.

[rebolek]

That must be some kind of joke on their side because e. g. Michael Jackon’s Thriller was released in CS in 1984 by Supraphon (LP monopoly at the time).

Access to the west music was certainly limited but not impossible, due to proximity to Austria and Germany it was very easy to watch and listen to their stations and as described above, some LPs were even released in CS. I remember drooling over Depeche Mode’s Music For The Masses back in cca 1988 but it was above may pocket money-grade.

But I’m talking about the eighties when the gerontocracy was unable to deal with people’s desires, the regime was certainly much tougher in 70’s.

[laviroman]

50s yes, 60s maybe, But in the 80's? Nah. 80s especially were the very best, my friend ;). Think of it like a more prosperous Cuba of 2021.

Check this out: Gumení chlapci (Rubber Boys) 1984 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFnmy6q9d8M

1987 Diskopríbeh (Disco story) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pac_Uabo-hY

1988 Kamarát do dešte (A friend through the rain) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-DC7GJIe8

I mean, unless your friend was into politics, it wasn't so tough in the 80s. At lest for the more commercial music. Punk or Metal people have it hard, but Jazz or Pop/Rock was ok.

This is one rock band from 1985 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz_y401AFOo

Paradoxically they made an anti communist anthem a few years later, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJucQNdBJo4

[rebolek]

Don’t forget 1987’s Bony a klid which had Frankie goes to Hollywood’s "Relax" as a main music theme (legaly) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg2w5uE-814

And then there are also Návštěvníci (The visitors) which is basically Daft Punk, just 30 years earlier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSjda4QF9wI

[dvh]

The visitors soundtrack was done by Karel Svoboda, my favorite piece from him is this: https://youtu.be/TexUnMWTk04

[_0ffh]

I really liked those Czecheslovakian-German coproduced kids movies quite a lot!

[laviroman]

Yeah, of course: https://youtu.be/BxIxvQgdR7Q?t=62