Michal Horáček / Michal Horacek

Since the 1980s, lyricist Michal Horácek has slowly transformed the way music is heard in the Czech Republic. Not long after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, Horácek made his way through guile and pluck through a tour of the United States, soaking in the culture and music of the early '70s along the way. He returned to Czechoslovakia, becoming a journalist (and specializing in horse racing news, contracted by Kentucky newspapers as the Eastern European correspondent). After some time spent in relative obscurity, Horácek turned to his other passion, songwriting. Modeling himself to some degree on his American idols (Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen), Horácek added more emotion and depth to his songs than the average Czech pop artist did. Rejection after rejection came as he worked his way into the music business, eventually getting his break with hitmaker and composer Petr Hapka. As a duo, the team proved unstoppable, pumping out hit after hit for artists across the Czech pop spectrum. Their music proved truly different from the pop effluvia because of the element that Horácek provided, adding lyrical depth to the otherwise fairly shallow music scene.