The ‘System of National Cooperation’ hit factory: the aesthetic of Hungarian government-commissioned songs between 2010 and 2020

Abstract This article addresses the relationship between popular music and populism through three government-commissioned songs, produced for occasions of national remembering during post-2010 Orbán regime in Hungary, namely ‘Barackfa’ (2013), ‘Egy szabad országért’ (2016) ‘Hazám, hazám’ (2020). All songs are one-off collaborations artists representing various genres. We ask, firstly, what aesthetic forms make these potentially suitable performance unity, solidarity ‘people’, secondly, how songs’ structure, production dissemination can be interpreted as attempts by government commissioners creators to gain popularity. Drawing on Ostiguy's performative approach populism, combined with notion collective speculation musical affordances, we identify main strategies constructing ‘people’ songs: singing together sound, legacy practice; pop ‘mega-event’; use folk ‘mother tongue’.