The previous power structure and its official cultural and art policy was geared toward indigenous authors and it was hostile to the avantgarde artists of Europe and America. The early socialist leaders banned, later suppressed certain artistic works they considered offensive to the new ideology. In the later years, the authority was merely resigned to the foreign arts, still the effect on the people was a perpetual misconception that there were still controls on what could and could not be

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... or seen. Most artists during the 80's worked and created freely with no outside political control. They were looking at real values of the society and were untouched by what some called "compulsory taste". During this era, I had the opportunity to analyze the reception of two of our well known artists, Béla Bartók and István Örkény. The power structure had been intolerant of both of them for decades, but by the mid-70's, international pressure and the voice of the national opposition forces became too strong to control their works any longer. I do not attempt to discuss the relative merits of their artistic work, but focus on the consequences of their unfair repression to Hungarian people. In the 70's, music teaching in the schools was in a defensive posture, which affected the students significantly. Moreover, this denial of some of our great historical artists had an effect on mass culture. The sociological cause and effect was analyzed extensively by Hungarian intellectuals such as Elemér Hankiss, Ágnes Losonczi, Zsuzsa Ferge, László Cseh-Szombathy, Tamás Szecskő, György Csepeli, and Zsolt Papp. There were also quite a few theoretical and critical analyses done (Éva Ancsel, Ágnes Heller, Iván Vitányi), however they did not follow through with direct surveys or observations of their theories. Some considered the results of the Kodály method of musical instruction to be defective in instilling an appreciation of music and in developing musical taste. One of the studies in this era analysed the "Hits" of the time and the factors that made them popular in many cultures throughout the world.