Media assessments have often projected an erroneous, undialectical image of the GDR political song scene in which art and creativity were simply sacrificed to censorship. On the one hand there are Wolf Biermann, Bettina Wegner, Gerulf Pannach, and Stephan Krawczyk who were banned and — albeit under varying circumstances — forced to leave the GDR for the West. On the other hand there is the Oktoberklub, showpiece of the FDJ-Singebewegung, which performed for years in the ideological service of the state. But just as in the GDR literature scene, the reality of the Liedermacher was more contradictory. Between the dissidents and the loyal Singeklubs there existed a substantial middle ground of critical Liedermacher in the GDR who cannot be slotted into these opposing categories of rebels and conformists. These include Hans-Eckardt Wenzel and his group Karls Enkel, Duo Sonnenschirm, Udo Magister, Pension Volkmann, Gerhard Gundermann, Gerhard Schöne, Barbara Thalheim, and many more.

From the 1960s right up until the Wende of 1989 political song was a popular and important cultural force in the GDR. The attraction for many fans lay in the singers' exploitation of a basic contradiction within GDR cultural policy. On one hand political song was nurtured at an official level as a proudly coveted Erbe of revolutionary tradition. On the other hand it was constantly viewed with suspicion due to its potential as a means of subversion. Faced with this contradiction, GDR singers trod a precarious tightrope between prohibition and tolerance.