demusic1-7, Exercise 2: East and West

Model answer (check the details):

A similarity: both states had a large audience for German-language pop and Schlager, and both had young people drawn to rock and beat music from Britain and the United States.

Two differences:
1. Structure: the West had a commercial industry of labels, radio and television responding to the market, while the East had a state label (Amiga), state broadcasters and quotas for East German music.
2. Control: in the East performers needed licences and lyrics could be censored, so the state shaped what could be heard, as in the case of Wolf Biermann, who lost his citizenship in 1976. In the West, taste and the market decided, with only limited legal restriction.

Caution: the East's picture is not only repression. East German bands such as Puhdys and Karat had large audiences, and there were negotiated spaces for rock, so the record is mixed (check).