Dechovka: Czech Brass Band Music as a Modern Folklore

During first years/decade of 21st century, the Czech society media was surprised by fact, that despite almost no presence on mainstream media the most selling Czech musicians became duo Eva & Vašek. They‘ve became nicknamed as teleshopping stars as their records are sold only in the TV. Complete box of theirs recordings outnumbered about five times the average top Czech albums in record sales in 2006. (Kerles, 19) The duo is a best known representative of a batch of this kind of bands, popular over Czech for playing on weddings and other family parties, which are playing a modern version of dechovka (or lidovka) style music with electronic keyboards mixed with a live instrument(s).
The brass-band music (called dechovka) was a dominant popular genre during the 20th century. The development of this music style is related to the modern development of the Czech lands. Although modifications of the role of dechovka in Czech society closely followed shifts of regimes, the sound and the main characteristics of its music stayed broadly unchanged.