Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland
From November 14, 2014 to August 30, 2015, the Museum of Communication in Bern is offering an overview of 60 years of pop music in Switzerland, from the rock'n'roll of the 1950s to the electronic music of today.
Structured in five time frames, the main room of the exhibition spans an arc
from 1954 to the end of the millennium. Here you can see who played a role in pop music: the dance orchestras of the early 1950s, the Hawaiian bands from Basel, then the "Halbstarken" and Les Sauterelles. In the second half of the 1960s, the beat bands established themselves throughout the country and conquered the Swiss hit parade. The exhibition then shows the development of the various rock scenes. A separate module is dedicated to the Swiss dialect scene, which continues the legacy of Mani Matter. From the mid-1980s, private radio stations and the founding of DRS3, Couleur3 and Rete3 brought a breath of fresh air to Swiss pop music. Finally, in the1990s, hip hop, Eurodance and techno came into their own. The exhibition gives Swiss pop music from the year 2000 onwards a stand-alone appearance, with a separate room dedicated to it, in which the leap into the digital age becomes visible: Three large projection screens show 42 music videos by current Swiss bands and artists.
Many original objects and over 400 minutes of sound and film material from all decades can be discovered. Pop radio pioneer François Mürner gives an acoustic tour of the rooms. To accompany the exhibition, Chronos Verlag Zurich is publishing an illustrated book with 200 pop photos from Switzerland. The photographs, some of which are rare, bring together national and international artists. A supporting program with short films rounds off the offer.
Guided tours and workshops can be booked for school classes from year 5 to upper secondary level. Didactic materials are also available free of charge for music teachers.
Information: www.mfk.ch/ausstellungen/oh-yeah/
