The Beginnings of Popular Music Studies in Poland (Hernas, Balcerzan and Barańczak)

In their ‘pre-historical’ phase (1968–1983), Popular Music Studies in Poland displayed a specificity resulting from a different political and cultural history and, to certain extent, from cultural isolation during the period of state socialism. Adorno’s works on popular music remained probably unknown until the last two decades to the majority of Polish cultural historians, causing them to come up with their own ideas. The article aims at reconstructing how the first striking analyses of popular music in Poland came from the field of literature studies, in particular from baroque literature scholar Czesław Hernas, poet and scholar Edward Balcerzan, poet, translator and literary critic Stanisław Barańczak and from his wife Anna Barańczak.