Building a Heavy Metal World: Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Polish People’s Republic

This paper explores how cultural entrepreneurs built a ‘heavy metal world’ in the Polish People’s Republic (PRL), focussing on the years 1980-89. By combining historical analysis with primary research to examine how both fans and artists alike acted together to overcome shortages, scarcity and repression, this paper supports definitions of cultural entrepreneurship which go beyond an economic orientation, and acts as case study to highlight the often uneasy co-existence between states and cultural production.