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70s Superstars #1: Elton John

Educational Lecture
Rock and Roll Open University #45 – A lecture by Béla Szilárd Jávorszky
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2027/02/03
Wednesday
19:00 - 20:30
Multimedia Library & Club
Educational
Lecture
Genre:
Pop

Szervezés:

House of Music Hungary production
Series:
Rock and Roll Free University
Ticket type:
seated
In terms of record sales and concert attendance, Elton John was the most successful of the pop superstars of the seventies. His career was characterized by extravagant outfits and more conventional pop music; between 1972 and 1976, he released seven platinum albums, while sixteen of their hit singles made the Top 10. Since the Beatles, he was the first artist to have four albums in the U.S. Top 20 at the same time. The rise of punk temporarily pushed him into the background, too, but in the eighties he found his feet again. He divorced in 1988, openly embraced his homosexuality from then on, auctioned off his stage outfits and props, and then announced that he had given up drugs and alcohol. In 1997, he sang a revised version of “Candle in the Wind” at Princess Diana’s funeral (originally written in memory of Marylin Monroe); two billion people watched the performance, and it became the best-selling British single of all time. Over the past decade, he has slowed down, last releasing new songs in 2025.

In 2022, the MZH Pop Culture Club Library launched a regular monthly program entitled Rock and Roll Open University. The Rock and Roll Open University explores the most important developments and performers in international pop history. It sees rock and roll, somewhat simplistically, as the product of a distinctive cultural-historical union: the musical traditions of Black slaves brought from Africa (blues) and white settlers who emigrated from Europe (country) met and continually blended with one another on a third continent, in America. What’s more, all this took place in a radically transforming society shaped by technological progress and the industrialization and urbanization associated with it. The eleventh season of this series (spring 2027) will focus on four pop superstars of the seventies: England’s Elton John, Scotland’s Rod Stewart, America’s Bruce Springsteen, and Sweden’s ABBA. Each act began in a different musical environment, made it to the top in a different way, and experienced—and survived—the changing tides of fashion differently. Yet in the seventies, they all dominated the charts.

Dear Visitor, We kindly inform you that during the event, photographs, audio recordings, and/or video recordings may be taken. By attending the event, you consent to the recording of such materials through your implied conduct.

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Rock and Roll Free University

Rock and roll is, somewhat simplistically, the result of a particular cultural-historical fusion: that of when the musical traditions of Black slaves brought over from Africa met those of white settlers who had emigrated from Europe to the new world, the Americas. Moreover, all this took place in a radically transforming society, following technological progress and its associated industrialisation and urbanisation. In the second season of this series, we look at the social, cultural and musical events of the period from Elvis to the twilight of the rock and roll era in the Fifties.

2022/02/02 - 2027/02/03
Educational Program series Lecture Library Conversation Interactive
Genre: Pop, Rock, Interactive
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