The book explores the development of popular music research in the Czech lands and neighbouring socialist states, a field that was institutionalised here well before it was in the West. Based on the analysis of previously unprocessed archival sources, the authors examine the preconditions for the early establishment of 'popular musicology' in the Czech lands in the context of Marxist music criticism and communist cultural policy, focusing on the milestones of 1948, 1968, and 1989. The authors discuss how popular music research was organised in the Czech lands, its protagonists, how their work was influenced by the environment of the respective countries behind the Iron Curtain, and how their approaches differed from the ones of their Western colleagues.