Soviet Rock Research Articles

РАДЯНСЬКА ПОПУЛЯРНА МУЗИКА В 1960–1980-х рр.: ЗАГАЛЬНА ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА Й ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ РОЗВИТКУ

The article is devoted to the development of Soviet popular music in the 1960s – 1980s. The author analyzed the song’s characteristics, identified the distinguishing features of the performer’s image and identified the main development trends. Internal and external influences on popular music are also highlighted. On the one hand, this is a factor of the penetration of Western pop culture, and on the other hand, the traditions formed under the influence of ideology within the USSR. For a long time, the official pop music was almost the only permitted option for musical creativity in the totalitarian system. It was characterized by a high level of performance skill and an orientation to the academic tradition, a predominance of a clear and refined melody, patriotic and intimate lyrics, as well as restraint and modesty of manners and a generally conservative image of the artist. At the same time, there was a search for new musical and textual forms, manifested in an appeal to more pronounced melodism, and artists’ experiments with their own style, when typical and strict clothes were replaced by bright and original outfits, the work of VIA was a vivid expression of this. As an alternative to the pop music, an amateur author’s song appears and develops. For the author’s song of the romantic direction, which arose during the period of Khrushchev’s liberalization, idealization of military achievements, travels and life trials, which were full of lyricism and light humor, was inherent in the romantic form; however, later, with the beginning of the collapse of the liberal course, the protest work of bards came to the fore – the themes of exposing cruelty began to dominate, irony and sarcasm appeared in the texts, and in some places the vocabulary was reduced. The image of a Soviet bard was formed – a poet-musician with a guitar. During Gorbachev’s socio-political transformations, the state, which used to be the main actor in musical culture, conceded its positions to young representatives of amateur creativity. That’s when disco and rock music become popular. Disco was characterized by an orientation towards rhythmic textures and themes of urban romances, while the manner and image of the performers were dominated by looseness and extravagance. Soviet rock was based on «big beat» and the social themes of the lyrics, and the artist’s style stood out for its simplicity and freedom. Pop music begins to depart from the formed tradition, adopting certain features of disco and even rock. More electronic music is appearing, lyrics are becoming less serious, expressing simpler meanings, and artists’ styles are becoming more casual.

We created neformaly, and we will… love them? Soviet rock music in the newspaper Moloda Hvardiia during perestroika

The article analyses the materials of the Kyiv Komsomol newspaper ‘Moloda Hvardiia’, dedicated to Soviet rock music. The author examines how this newspaper reproduced the official Komsomol discourse during Perestroika, which proclaimed the need to establish a ‘dialogue’ with ‘neformaly’. The author identifies how the newspaper discussed the ‘neformaly’, how it proposed to perceive them, and how it proposed to work with them. The author describes how the newspaper created a positive image of Soviet rock bands after years of “bans”. The author examines how the newspaper presented the problems faced by Soviet rock bands and how Komsomol was held responsible for them. The author outlines how Kyiv rock music was perceived in ‘Moloda Hvardiia’ in comparison to other Soviet rock music, as well as how the editors of the newspaper began to promote Ukrainian-language rock music. The author suggests that in describing rock music, the newspaper ‘Moloda Hvardiia’ adhered to the “progressive” Soviet discourse of the Perestroika period, while the editors may have also had their policy of supporting Ukrainian-language songs.

Stalin's Houses on Lenin Street: Late Soviet Underground Rock in Patriotic Discourse (1981-1991)

The subject of the study is the late Soviet underground rock song both in the general context of Soviet popular culture and in the context of patriotic discourse in the Soviet popular song of the 1960s-1980s. The correlation of various segments of Soviet popular music and their access to mass communication media, the phenomenon of the transformation of rock music from a marginal subculture into one of the segments of popular Soviet song is considered. Concrete examples demonstrate the content versatility of an uncensored Soviet rock song, in particular, its contribution to patriotic discourse. The duration and stability of the existence of the considered variations of patriotic discourse are considered. The main conclusions of the study include: -the development of mass/popular songs is directly dependent on the development of mass communication and access to them; -in the 1960s-1980s, the Soviet state lost its monopoly on the ownership of means of delivering music content to the listener; - by the early 1980s Soviet rock music ceased to be a copy of the Western model and became a Soviet/Russian song genre based on domestic melodics, Russian literary poetic tradition, etc.; -the access to the means of delivering song content turned rock song into a segment of Soviet popular music, both censored and in uncensored versions; -the socio-political content in general and the patriotic theme in particular were not an attribute exclusively of the official Soviet song, but found their expression in the work of the authors of the underground rock scene; - the Soviet popular uncensored song made the patriotic discourse much more diverse, rich, sharp, etc. - the identified interpretations of patriotic discourse have a stable existence, being actualized in the modern media environment.

Категория свободы и формы ее воплощения в творчестве поэта-музыканта Виктора Цоя (на материале избранных произведений)

Viktor Tsoi is one of the most famous, key, iconic and mysterious figures of Soviet rock music and Soviet rock poetry; the founder and leader of the cult rock band “Kino”, singer and songwriter, poet, actor, artist, the symbol of the struggle for the freedom and the symbol of change, the idol of millions. The present article is an attempt to “break” into the art world of Viktor Tsoi’s philosophical rock poetry and to identify and discuss its main themes and motifs, among which the category of freedom and the category of freedom of choice occupy a special place. Particular attention has been paid to Tsoi’s point of view on the moral choice between material and spiritual well‑‑being (“to have or to be”) and between action and inaction (“to be, or not to be”). Selected Tsoi’s songs‑‑poems are the subject of the analysis in this paper. There are: A Star called Sun, The War, Mother, all of us have serious illness…, The Sadness, Blood Type, Night, Song without words, Close the door behind me, I’m leaving, We are waiting for change. The philological analysis (including the philosophical context) of the selected poems made it possible to draw the conclusion that Tsoi’s philosophical reflections on the concept of freedom, on the dilemma of the choice and on the need of change (in the broadest sense of the last word) are still current and in the context of geopolitical events become particulary important. The lyrical subject of Tsoi makes a choice in favor of moral values and tries to achieve inner freedom and inner harmony in the “unfree” and “unharmonious” world.

Self-quotation as Reinterpretation of the Past in the Russian Rock Band DDT

This article discusses the use of lyrical, musical and visual self-quotations in the works of DDT, one of the most important Russian rock bands. After the collapse of USSR, the legacy of Soviet rock movement has been the object of a nostalgic approach both by its protagonists as individuals and by the society as a whole. Supported by different methodological approaches (Genette, Yurchak, Boym, Chion, Veselovsky), the author examines how Yury Shevchuk, DDT’s leader, uses self-quotations as an artistic tool to re-interpret the past, his own past and at the same time the past of the country. Self-quotations can also act as a kind of dialogue between the author and the society, helping to stress the mainly intertextual character of popular music and position it in the cultural field between the individual and the social.

Music geography in Russia: non-auratic places and institutionalization “in becoming”

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the Tsoi Wall in Moscow, an iconic place on Russia's music map that appeared in Moscow in 1990 in memory of the cult Soviet rock musician Viktor Tsoi, to develop a framework for studying non-auratic music place – that is, places that are not connected with the biographies of musicians or musical events, but emerge directly from the experiences of visitors and fans. These places are constantly negotiated and only lightly formalized, but are nevertheless enduring. To analyze this type of place, we propose a concept of institutionalization “in becoming”. The case of the Tsoi Wall reveals that light formalization (vague and changing positions and rules, and openness to different interpretations of a place and ways of using it) leads to the recognition of the place as a significant one and to its popularity. We put institutionalization “in becoming” in a wider context and juxtapose it with well-studied musical places in Europe and the US.

The Stiob of Ages: Carnivalesque Traditions in Soviet Rock and Related Counterculture

This paper discusses the humorous tradition of Russian stiob in light of Bakhtinʼs carnivalesque theory and his theory of speech forms. In it I try to show the mechanics of stiob, the theoretical platform beneath it and the mechanics of construction of stiob utterances. In this article I provide a short historical overview of stiob as it is encountered in the Russian folk-humorous tradition from the early Middle Ages to modernity. Showing how deeply stiob permeates modern Russian cultural discourse I give examples from political life and dwell in detail on manifestations of stiob in Russian rock music. Here I focus my attention particularly on the creative findings of the Moscow rock band Zvuki Mu, and analyze the bandʼs humor in light of the tradition of Russian Holy Fools (iurodivye).

Prehistories and Afterlives: The Packaging and Re-packaging of Soviet Rock

In Russia today Soviet rock music is a consumer product. The record industry, publishers, and the media place a particular emphasis on groups connected with the Leningrad Rock Club (founded 1981) and magnitizdat recordings such as those made in the studio of Andrei Tropillo. This article deals with the material culture of Soviet rock, through an exploration of the fate of recordings made by Boris Grebenshchikov and his group Akvarium during the 1970s and 1980s. It begins by examining these recordings in their original incarnation, looking in particular at the convergence of creativity, commercial value, and fragility in magnitizdat as a medium. During glasnost, recordings of rock were subjected to appropriation by other parties, notably in Joanna Stingray's compilation Red Wave (USA, 1986) and Melodiia's release on vinyl of Akvarium's White Album (1986), which contributed to a re-working of the music's status in society. In contemporary Russia magnitizdat is again being revisited, through compact disc reissues, discussion on the station Nashe Radio, and the publication of memoirs and other literature, including works by Aleksandr Kushnir and Il'ia Stogoff. The final section discusses the role of this form of nostalgia in securing Soviet rock's canon and in presenting Russian consumers with a view of the recent past.

“Crucified on the Cross of Mass Culture”: Late Soviet Genre Politics in Alexander Zhurbin's Rock Opera Orpheus and Eurydice

Alexander Zhurbin's Orpheus and Eurydice (Orfei i Evredika) (1975), the first Soviet rock opera, recasts Orpheus as a popular singer corrupted by the excesses of contemporary youth culture: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The history of the creation of Zhurbin's important work—together with its reception by Soviet critics, officials, and listeners—has been little discussed. Interviews with Zhurbin, contemporary Soviet primary and secondary sources, as well as more recent appraisals of late Soviet culture, reveal the changing estimations by Soviet critics of “high” and “low” and “popular” and “art” that Zhurbin's genre-blurring composition helped instigate.

Translation, Authorship and Authenticity in Soviet Rock Songwriting

Soviet rock songwriters were deeply concerned with the difficulties involved in adapting rock music – a form they perceived to be ‘foreign’ in its very essence – to the demands of their own culture. Soviet rock fans had a certain limited access to Western cultural products and they often found fault with what they regarded as misreadings and distortions in the criticism, rewriting and appropriation of rock music by the official Soviet media and cultural institutions. The idea that rock music had to be transferred and translated correctly in order to retain its authenticity was central in the unofficial rock journalism during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Russian musicians and songwriters called upon a ‘canon’ of Western rock authors when making claims about the meaning of the genre. This article discusses the forays of Leningrad’s rock community into theorizing and thematizing the relationship between Soviet and Anglophone rock music and investigates ‘translation’ as it appears in songs by Boris Grebenshchikov (Akvarium) and Maik Naumenko (Zoopark). The article thus reveals the ways in which referring to or reworking a prior text could constitute a creative strategy, either as a satirical tool, or as a means of entry into a tradition of rock authorship.

'After All, You're a Rock and Roll Star (At Least, That's What They Say)': Roksi and the Creation of the Soviet Rock Musician

In 1977 a group of rock musicians and fans from Leningrad began producing a samizdat periodical, Roksi, in which they gave voice to debates about the influence of Western rock on the development of the local music scene, and about the possibility of rock stardom in the Soviet context. This article examines the construction of the figure of the rock musician as revealed in articles written for Roksi, as well as on the album Vse brat'ia - sestry, recorded in 1978 by two of the journal's contributors, Boris Grebenshchikov and Maik Naumenko. Examining these contemporary texts enables a re-reading of the place of rock music in Soviet culture and the relationship between Leningrad's musicians and their fans.

Cultural Politics in International Relations by Paul Sheeran (review)

388 SEER, 8i, 2, 2003 their political sponsors. In an excellent account of media bias, Raskin scrupulouslydetails the partiality of the various television stations and how much more effective the pro-Unity and pro-Putin propaganda was. Raskin's analysis shows that legal frameworksensuring equality of access to the mass media arenot proof againstthe influenceof the powerful.This point isbacked up in the chapter by Richter. Richter shows that Russia has, thanks in large measureto El'tsin,an impressivearrayof legal actsto protect free speech, and the Law on Mass Media and Doctrine of Information Security are reprinted in the appendices. However, as he goes on to argue, there is a great gap between the spiritof the law and its operation. Privateinterestsand personal utility have ensured that there are gaps in legislation, and that there are discrepanciesbetween federaland regional statutes. There is a bit of repetition in some of the chaptersthat follow Vartanova's, particularlyrepetition about the ownershipstructuresof the media. However, the volume as a whole contains strong and well-made arguments, and Vartanova, Raskin and Richter's chapters are excellent empirical reviews of their subjects. Overall, this volume is an excellent introduction to media development in Russia. Department ofGovernment andSociety NEIL ROBINSON University ofLimerick Sheeran,Paul.Cultural PoliticsinInternational Relations. Ashgate,Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 200I. XXXi+ 192 Pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. X42.50. THIS book sets out to challenge establishedunderstandingsof the collapse of the Soviet Union. Criticizing the narrow scope of International Relations studiesin engagingwith thishistoricprocess,the authorPaul Sheeranseeksto highlight the role of what he considers the neglected sphere of grass-roots culture. Sheeran's publishersclaim that his investigation 'demonstrateshow seemingly insignificant acts propagated through music, humour and poetry can disturb official culture and initiate social change'; yet to the reader's great disappointmentthis assertionis misplaced. First,none of these areasreceives any sustained or original analysis. The Soviet anecdote is conferred scant attention, poetry is mentioned only in passing, and even Sheeran's favoured point of study, Soviet rock music, is explored in far from satisfying depth. Insteadof immersinghis readerinto the music and texts of the perestroikaera underground, instead of probing the environment and sensibility that it reflected and engendered, Sheeran glosses an entire cultural phenomenon and issues a seriesof sweeping statements as to its effect. Little or no attempt is made to quantifythe impact of rockmusic on Russiancultureand the world of young people. Instead, we are informed that '[t]he pervasive nature of unofficialSoviet rock and its appearance throughoutthe Soviet Union points to a social momentum that impairedthe acceptance and legitimacy of Soviet culture to young people' (p. I34); and that, furthermore,'Soviet rock music was pivotal in explicitly facilitatingthe shift in the prevalence of pre-political REVIEWS 389 opposition (operationalin everydaylife)to a force capable of causingpolitical reform'(p. I53). The second shortcoming in this study is thus that its observations are not supportedby sufficientargumentationand evidence. What little rawmaterial Sheeran does present -a few words from a record sleeve or a private individual'sopinion on an internetsite,forexample isusuallynot subjected to analysis: all too often it is merely deployed as a statement of fact that concludes discussion of the matter at hand. This tendency naturallyprevents Sheeranfromexploringfurtherthose avenues that he brieflyopens:no sooner does he suggestfor example that rockgroupsof the late I98os and early I990S were divided in their supportfor the 'democratic'movement, than the issue is closed. No sooner does he state that after the events of I99I 'the alternative view' disappearedfromRussian culture,than the chapterends. It would neverthelessbe a misrepresentationof Sheeran's book to suggest that it is solely concerned with expressions of a growing informal culture of the perestroika era. The author casts his net wider, and in order to contextualize what he refers to as 'alternative/counter-culture', he also considers the multiple institutional,economic, political and ideological crises confrontingthe Kremlin in (andindeed before and even after)the Gorbachev era. These important factors are not dealt with by a comprehensive introduction or by economical and instructive footnotes, and consequently the unpeeling onion of Russian culture overpowers and envelops the organizationof the entirebook. Having complained of scholars'overemphasis on global and external explanations for the demise of Soviet power, Sheeran findshimselfobliged to devote much of his...

Rocking the state: rock music and politics in Eastern Europe and Russia

Rock music in the GDR - an epitaph, Olaf Leitner the big beat in Poland, Alex Kan and Nick Hayes rock music in Czechoslovakia, Sabrina Petra Ramet rocking the State - youth and rock music culture in Hungary 1976-1988, Laszlo Kurti the rock scene in Yugoslavia, S.P. Ramet the Bulgarian rock scene under communism 1962-1990, Stephen Ashley the Dean Reed story, Nick Hayes the Soviet rock scene, S.P. Ramet et al rock music in Byelorussia, Maria P. Survilla rock music in Ukraine, Roman Bahry.

The Soviet Rock Scene

The Soviet Rock Scene

Soviet rock lyrics: Their content and poetics

(1987). Soviet rock lyrics: Their content and poetics. Popular Music and Society: Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 75-91.