Silly's Februar

A portrait and analysis of East German band Silly's popular music masterpiece, Februar, that mirrors the collapse of socialism.

To this day, Silly continues to be one of Germany's most influential and successful rock acts. Founded in 1978 in East Berlin, the band released its magnum opus, Februar, in early 1989. The album is both an artistic masterpiece and an outstanding contemporary document. It captures the fundamental political changes, the collapse of socialism in Eastern Europe, and illustrates the global interconnectedness in rock.

Februar was the first German-German coproduction realized by a socialist record company and an international major label. This book describes with analytical sharpness the thrilling story of the creation and impact of a record that may still provide food for thought for the debate about the ties between East German identity and popular music today. Written in close collaboration with the masterminds of Silly, this account is based on a wealth of never-before-published archival documents and in contradiction of clichés around socialist state propaganda.