Norwegian Farm Culture - Culture and Counter-culture

Culture and Counter-culture

The farm culture as such had to be preserved through idealism as years turned, and new music and other impulses reached Norway during the 20th century. Folk music in Norway and the nynorsk were symbols of Norwegian counter-culture for many years.

When radio broadcasting was started in Norway, the broadcasting company soon got their own folk music programme, and as this was welcomed in the rural areas (people gathered in silence each Sunday evening at the home of the one farmer with a radio), the folk music was resented in the urban areas. The tensions were great, and many angry readers protested the efforts of bringing hardanger fiddle into their homes. People in Oslo as a rule neither liked nor understood the music. The protests also resulted in casting stones through the windows of Eivind Groven, who was responsible for the folk music programs.

On the other area, Nynorsk, debates went on for many years, and had to be silenced through political agreement as late as 1959. Prejudice, mostly against Nynorsk prevailed for many years, and are still a prominent feature amongst teenagers in Oslo. The right-wing parties still are trying to get votes from young people using this argument.

The farm culture developed then into a strong political counter-culture, with a lot of different branches, like the layman-movement, the fight against alcohol, the fight for rural dialect and nynorsk, the fight for folk music and rural culture, and of course, the lasting fight against centralism. Norway's political landscape is based on the balance between the capital or city and districts.