The Turnarounds

Anotace: The swing-rock revival band The Turnarounds can be considered one of the significant examples of the music and dance activities in the contemporary Czech Vienna field. This study is a music anthropology contribution about the identity of the third and fourth generations of the descendants of Czech migrants to Vienna. The study responds to the questions of whether and how The Turnarounds’ members refer to their Czech identity and to their own, (if partial) Czech roots, to their ancestors’ migration experience, and to their own (in)activity in the associations created by other members of this minority. Drawing from an analysis of the activities of The Turnarounds, the study shows the relationship between third- and fourth-generation Viennese Czechs’ sense of belonging, their subjective concept of their homeland, and their aim of targeting an audience in the majority society of Vienna and thereby situating themselves in Austria’s intercultural music scene.