The book compiles the extensive and distinctively regarded musical history of Switzerland in the 1980s and relates it accordingly to its specific issues. Six comprehensive and elaborately researched meta-texts and a complete discography offer the contextual foils.

Thomas Kern

The styles of music and the musicians involved, the changes within society, the art and youth scene, the development of cities in terms of “youth culture” as well as technical achievements and alternative distribution types serve as versatile backgrounds for the 1980s to have become the most formative part of Swiss cultural history. In the 1980s, the change, initiated by sections of the youth population itself, was supposed to bring about a fundamental shift in society. The term “youth culture” became defined and has been entirely embedded in the understanding of society. Fifty chosen key figures of the Swiss scene at that time provide the main emphasis of the planned publication. These include Alain Croubalian, Stefan Eicher, Vera Kaa, Kuno Lauener, Muda Mathis, Franz Treichler and Suzanne Zahnd who are portrayed by means of particular interviews.