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Rock and roll became known in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and quickly broke free from its western roots. According to many music critics, its golden age were the 1980-es (especially the era of perestroika) as the Soviet underground rock-music scene could release their records officially and break through to the television and radio.

Contents

History

The early '60s

The late '60s and '70s

The '80s

The '90s

The 2000s: Current Activity

Characteristics

External links

History

The early '60s

Prior to the late sixties, music in the Soviet Union was divided into two groups: music published by the Melodya, and everything else. Under this second group were the bards, underground folk singer-songwriters. Bards such as Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Gradsky and Bulat Okudzhava created the style that is referred to as "author's song" (avtorskaya pesnya), mostly played on unaccompanied acoustic guitar and characterized by a strong accent on lyrics that sometimes carried a subversive meaning. Their music was often suppressed by the government, and yet enjoyed massive popularity, with Vysotsky becoming a highly popular movie actor and an iconic figure of the times. Meanwhile, some Western music was either being smuggled across the border or released by Melodya as part of what essentially was state-run pirating of records, with the Beatles taking a firm place in Soviet popular culture, and artists such as Elton John, T-Rex and Deep Purple completing a somewhat distorted picture of Western music.
The first rock bands in the Soviet Union appeared on the scene in the early- and mid-sixties in Tallinn. The first, Virmalised, was formed by four highschool students as a copy of the Beatles. As the first and only band, Virmalised quickly gained great popularity despite the lack of official recognition. Rock music was seen - just like jazz in the 1930s - as an evil Western influence. Virmalised spawned a huge number of bands, including Optimistid and Mikronid; few rose to fame.

The late '60s and '70s

The first native bands appeared around 1966, and grew popular in spite of governmental restrictions. This continued into the 1980s, when amateur bands gained some success, but were still hampered by state regulators who would not allow them to be officially recorded, and placed restrictions on lyrical content. Underground bands evolved during this time, including Pojuschie Gitary (''the singing guitars'') and almost the same time Mashina Vremeni and Akvarium. These bands started the VIA (Вокально-Инструментальный Ансамбль Vokal'no-Instrumental'nyy ansambl' -- Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble) movement, and were followed by Tcvety, Golubiye Gitary, Pesniary and Sinyaya Ptica.
In the early 1970s, artists like Yuri Morozov invented a kind of Russian psychedelic rock, using elements of progressive rock as well.

The '80s

In the 1980s an underground scene of rock artists emerged that based their style on a mix of Western rock music (particularly the Beatles) and the Russian bard tradition. Such bands as Alisa, Agata Kristi, Kino, Mashina Vremeni, Nautilus Pompilius, Aquarium, Krematorij, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Voskreseniye, Piknik, Chizh & Co and DDT were influential in the development of the genre, with the consequent artists copying their style.
Big influence on Russian rock music make mitki,hippie and other movements.
In the early- to mid-80s, several so-called "rock-clubs" were founded in Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). These three cities had their own rock music scene, with friendly collaborations between artists commonplace. The Leningrad scene was probably the biggest one, featuring "classic Russian rock" by Aquarium, Kino, Zoopark. Bands from Sverdlovsk, such as Nautilus Pompilius and Agata Kristi, produced more melodic music making heavy use of keyboards and synthesizers. Moscow rock bands, such as Center and Zvuki Mu, were rather different from the others and sometimes more discreet.
The Siberian rock music scene began in the 1980s in Siberia, with such songwriters as Egor Letov (Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Omsk), Kalinov most, Alexander Bashlachev and Yanka Dyagileva. Their music varied from simple lo-fi punk to indie rock (sometimes unplugged), and the core of their songs were the lyrics. Many albums were first self-released and distributed among the fans via trading, then officially re-released years later. Lyrics were often obscene, and the musicians had major problems with the Soviet administration and KGB.
The lyrics of the Soviet rock bands often dealt with the darker sides of the 80s Soviet life such as domestic violence, alcoholism (an infamous song by Nautilus Pompilius contained the lines "Alain Delon drinks a double bourbon/Alain Delon doesn't drink eau de cologne" as a sarcastic contrast to the alcoholic daughter-raping father described in the song and an indictment of the escapist attitudes of state-run media) and crime, and often carried a hidden political message. These bands were consequently ignored by the mainstream radio and television, often reaching audiences only through word of mouth. Many of the 80s bands are still active and popular among Russian youth. The term ''Russian rock'' is often used to refer to the particular sound of these bands.
At that time Russian Heavy Metal scene was created thanks to bands like Aria, Chorny Kofe and Master (formed by a few ex-members of Aria). The glam metal band Gorky Park caught some attention of western auditory, though its popularity was short-lived.
It was not until the perestroika era that many Russian rock bands were able to tour and record for the first time in Europe and the USA.

The '90s

In the mid-late 1990s the radiostation Nashe Radio has been created to promote Russian rock artists, broadcasting in all major Russian cities. Nashe notably influenced the auditory taste and helped many artists to gain popularity. The radiostation founded Nashestvie rock festival, performed since 1999 and always headlined with famous rock acts.
Often aired by Nashe, bands like Splean, Nochniye Snaiperi and Bi-2 have created a refreshed Russian rock sound which adopted many elements from Alternative Rock.
At the same time, numerous punk, pop-punk and grunge bands, including Korol i Shut, Pilot, Lumen, Naiv, Tarakany, gained popularity in late 90's. Many of them developed an original sound and involvement of unconventional instruments like violin. Ska punk was brought to popularity mainly by the band Leningrad.
The western Pop Rock sound was introduced by Ilya Lagoutenko's Mumiy Troll, who made their records in the UK under the guidance of UK producers. This less lyrically loaded and more energetic style frequently referred to as 'rockapops', which was also used by other notble bands such as Zemfira and Zveri, became prevalent among the younger public.
The 1997 Russian extremely-popular films Brat (brother), which's (sicsic) soundtrack was compiled from the music of the classic Russian rock band Nautilus Pompilius, and its sequel Brat 2, which's soundtrack was compiled from music of many Russian rock artists, brought many new fans two Russian rock, mostly from the young generation.

The 2000s: Current Activity

The 2000s in Russian Rock are marked by both a continuance of the '90s and somewhat of a comeback for the classic '80s sound. In the years following the renaissance of Russian cinema and rock, rock in Russia seems to gain enough ground to differentiate widely in various genres.
Folk rock music was led to public attention following Melnitsa's rise from an underground act to a constantly radio-aired band.
Alternative metal and metalcore recently gained wider popularity. In mid-2000's bands like Amatory, Psychea, Jane Air were established and soon arose in fame, being intensively promoted by A-One channel. The channel awarded many of them with Russian Alternative Music Prize.
Russian Heavy metal scene continued its development with power metal bands like Catharsis and Epidemia, both founded in 90's, received more attention. Also, singer Valery Kipelov split from Aria and currently performs his own band Kipelov, compared to Aria in popularity. The undeground pagan metal scene, based on Slavic pagan traditions, has grew wide with such bands as Temnozor, Arkona, Butterfly Temple were noted by auditory outside Russia.
Though the Russian Progressive rock scene had existed since the '70s, it was the 2000s when it entered the public eye of Russian rock fans, with bands like Little Tragedies its most obvious representatives. The Russian instrumental rock scene with bands like EXIT project, Disen Gage and Kostarev Group also recived more recognisation.

Characteristics

Fans of Russian Rock would frequently refer to most of the music on Russian MTV dismissively as "popsa", a dichotomy that appeared in the '80s when government controlled radio and TV stations would air only politically harmless music by performers such as Alla Pugachova and Valeriy Leontyev. The lines are still quite clearly drawn, with bands such as Nogu Svelo - who recorded a song with pop-singer Nataliya Vetlickaya - being an anomaly.
Similarly to Western rock, it may be characterized by different drive, rhythm and lyrics. Unconventional instruments have often been used in addition to the standard electric guitars and drums (very often, a violin).
Another characteristic of Russian Rock is being partly Folk rock. Very often Russian Rock songs, and especially the once of the classic 80s bands, talk about national themes and feature national elements.
Considering its poetic roots, it is not a big surprise that lyrics play a far larger role in Russian rock than Western rock. Vocal melody is sometimes eschewed in favor of a more impassioned delivery (Viktor Tsoi, the lead singer of Kino, pioneered a characteristically strained, monotonous style of singing that has been imitated by many).
Russia has always been facing both East and West with its double-headed Eagle on the coat-of-arms. The Eastern derivative in the Russian rock came with soundtracks from movies like Day Watch that had Tamerlan's legend of the Chalk of Destiny at its roots. Russian rock expressively used and integrated elements from culture, as well as Western and Eastern (especially countries of the USSR).

External links

★ List of Russian bands

★ Russian Music on the Net: Site about Modern Russian music with lots of Rock bands (English)

★ History of Rock Music In Russia (English)

★ Russian Radio Many Russian rock radio stations