tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5435789798969411622008-07-23T23:48:55.195+02:00dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-20028760946908083862008-04-25T13:05:00.000+02:002008-04-25T13:05:32.150+02:00

Founded 2005 Ost Klub has developed to one of the central venues of Eastern European music in Vienna. Nomen est omen also in this case, as the club's owner Matthias Angerer explained during an interview with me last July: “[D]er Name des Lokals ist so zusagen auch Programm, also osteuropäische Musik oder eben Russische oder Musik aus dem Balkan, aber auch weiter. Also die musikalische Achse für

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-66268622353514619132008-02-21T16:01:00.000+01:002008-02-21T16:15:24.209+01:00

by Yngvar Steinholt (guest post) Igor "Egor" Fëdorovich Letov 10. September 1964 -- 19. February 2008 On the morning of the February 19th, after nearly 25 years of intense and ever-controversial songwriting and performances, Egor Letov died at sleep in his Omsk apartment from a heart failure, aged 43. Grazhdanskaia Oborona, Letov's main and most long-standing band, were just starting to

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-84084369337195486402008-02-19T18:58:00.016+01:002008-02-20T13:40:54.782+01:00

With both Bashlachev and Kormil’tsev's death anniversaries just gone, another highly influential - while also problematic - musician linked to Soviet popular music just passed away: the poet and vocalist of Grazhdanskaia Oborona, Egor Letov died in his sleep due to a heart failure on February 19th, 2008. Born September 10th, 1964 in Omsk Letov founded his first group "Posev" in 1982. After the

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-72084938742666999342008-02-19T08:36:00.002+01:002008-02-18T22:16:49.525+01:00

While doing research for an article I am working on I stumbled across a rating of who belongs to the Russian Elite in 2007 published in the Russian daily Kommersant. While these rankings tend to be tedious, this one was quite interesting: While Putin topped first place both in 2006 and 2007, he was not followed by Ivanov (3rd place) nor by Medvedev (5th place). No, 2nd place has since (at least)

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-29294309635242373322008-02-18T18:20:00.002+01:002008-02-19T19:06:03.101+01:00

On February, 18th, in Krasnoiarsk there will be a charitable concert dedicated to the memory of Il’ia Kormil’tsev. Due to my many jobs and various duties it was difficult for me to honor the memory of this protagonist of Soviet and Russian rock at the proper time, who died on February 4th last year. The most famous Russian rock-poet, composer of several songs of such groups, like Urfin Dzhius,

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-91782556622615957012008-02-11T18:07:00.000+01:002008-02-11T15:36:06.344+01:00

In this blog, David-Emil and I have often mentioned Yngvar Steinholt’s dissertation "Rock in the Reservation: Songs from Leningrad Rock Club 1981-1986". My review of this important contribution to the study of Soviet popular music was recently published in the Italian online journal eSamizdat, 2007 (V) 3, pp. 384-6. Steinholt’s book is one of few academic studies of Soviet popular music - and

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-36105749881530836522008-02-01T13:14:00.002+01:002008-02-21T22:34:30.515+01:00

I am happy to announce that an article about Russian popular culture which Yngvar B. Steinholt and I co-authored was just published in the Danish journal "Den Jyske Historiker". This issue of the journal is thematically focused on Russia after the Soviet Union. In our article (written in Norwegian) we discuss different aspects of Russian popular culture spanning advertisement, cartoons,

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-42340671032609714682007-12-19T13:02:00.001+01:002007-12-19T18:01:53.325+01:00

The online magazine "cafebabel" featured a short article on the Tajik band "Shams". The article briefly discusses the band's history, style, market positioning and struggles to earn money emphasizing rampant music pirating. The article is a part of cafebabel's feature "The Chronicles of Homo Sovieticus" where I also found an interview from 2006 with the Estonian singer Vaïko Eplik. Eplik

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-60305530367387667392007-12-15T17:40:00.000+01:002007-12-15T17:22:03.615+01:00

Referring to ones native country is quite common when making music. But how are those references perceived - especially if that country no longer exists as with the Soviet Union? This post aims to examine some songs which either on a musical or a lyrical level have links to the Soviet Union. In the first part I will discuss reinterpreted versions of the Soviet anthem while the second part deals

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-78957481245521691882007-12-14T09:46:00.001+01:002008-02-11T13:03:35.102+01:00

just a short administrative note that you can leave comments at this blog with open id. that means you can use a single web identity on multiple platforms (to find out how to get an open id check out openid.net/get - you already have one if you are a livejournal, aol or wordpress user). on a personal note, you might have noticed that the posting frequency has dropped a little - this only means

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-10423007803817825812007-12-04T16:01:00.000+01:002008-01-28T22:18:42.149+01:00

Even after the second anniversary of Timur Kacharava's cold blooded murder by neonazis, right wing attacks on ska/punk concerts remain: On October 13th 2007 a bomb planted at the festival "Music of the Streets" (where i.a. Spitfire performed) at the St. Petersburg club "Roks club" failed to detonate (see xeno.sova-center.ru for more information). Furthermore, on November 27th, 2007 visitors

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-31015869572595958342007-12-01T15:31:00.000+01:002008-01-29T17:13:38.587+01:00

As I mentioned and discussed in an earlier post the St. Petersburg Rock critic Andrei Burlaka compiled a three volume encyclopedia on popular music in St. Petersburg from 1965 to 2005 titled "Rok Entsiklopediia - Populiarnaia muzyka v Leningrade-Peterburge 1965-2005". The third volume was finally published by Amfora in November: www.amphora.ru/book.php?id=1355. Вышел третий том Энциклопедии

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-18598242744594742492007-11-16T15:30:00.000+01:002008-02-11T12:55:27.932+01:00

The Russian newspaper Izvestiia published an interesting interview with Boris Grebenshchikov November 13th. The highlight is that Grebenshchikov thinks that things in Russia have gotten better and that the current government is on the right track ("И вот сейчас я вижу, как к концу его восьмилетнего срока Россия начинает чуть-чуть выправляться." He defines "его" more precisely as "линию, которую

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-46882451978343706012007-10-19T23:43:00.009+02:002008-05-30T13:39:51.400+02:00

We thought it might be useful to compile a list of academic publications on (post) Soviet popular music. This, of course, does not mean that we share the views and conclusions of all the mentioned authors. We will update this list continuously, so if you know of some missing publications, please let us know (last updated: 30.05.2008). Мы подумали, что было бы полезно составить список

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-75271112593370991472007-10-18T11:40:00.000+02:002007-10-19T13:35:44.591+02:00

Recently I’ve been visiting a quite interesting blog in English on Russian popular music which was launched January this year. The blogger who goes under the nickname "The Accident girl" (Devushka Avariya) got the idea for the blog because she collected a big quantity of Russian CDs. Without academic intentions she shares her opinion about Russian popular music and gives a lot of useful

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-69395280132088688832007-10-14T15:33:00.000+02:002007-10-18T13:51:47.455+02:00

The book “Percorsi della memoria (testo arti metodologia ricerca)” (Memory road – text art methodology research) was just published under the patronage of the university “Tor Vergata” in Rome. The book features two articles on Russian popular music (one written by me). Due to its limited circulation and language (it is written in Italian) I would like to briefly summarize the content of these two

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-26197092044701690642007-10-06T12:17:00.000+02:002007-10-12T12:25:22.607+02:00

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar (JCS) is probably the most famous example of rock-opera. When it appeared in the beginning of the seventies, the legendary English musical left an enormous impact everywhere. It was made into a movie, played at theaters all over the world and was quickly translated into foreign languages: among the first were versions in Swedish (1973)

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-89951831377717707602007-10-03T10:16:00.000+02:002007-10-04T10:17:03.362+02:00

The Russian radio station Nashe Radio features a weekly program called Letopis' (chronicle) where they discuss albums they consider important within Russian popular music (well rock) history. After revamping their website a couple of months ago they added an archive of their programs - including Letopis'. It can be found at www.nashe.ru/programm-archive. Летопись нашего радио русской популярной

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-22798990659373238672007-09-28T21:38:00.001+02:002007-10-02T15:53:30.181+02:00

Natalya Krainova's article "Kremlin Speechwriter Puts Words to Pop Music Tracks" (published September 11th in the St. Petersburg Times) traces the musical activities of some Russian politicians. As I wrote in a previous post (ps-popular-music.blogspot.com/2007/08/chernovs-choice-st-petersburg-times.html) it is quite known that in 2005 Vladislav Surkov, then the deputy head of the presidential

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-12998108652456587682007-09-25T21:00:00.000+02:002007-09-29T12:33:24.033+02:00

Yet another influential musician passed away. Monday, September 24th, 2007 one of Kolibri's founders, Natal'ia Pivovarova, died in a car crash on the Krim. Born July 17th, 1963 in Novgorod Pivovarova was active in Sergei Kurekhin's Pop Mekhanika before founding Kolibri in 1988/89. During her tenure with the group they released 6 albums. Kolibri has become a central band in the Post Soviet musical

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-13049099040384439862007-09-21T00:27:00.000+02:002007-09-21T21:02:21.141+02:00

The site http://www.russia-ic.com/ features a section on Russian music, including two genres that can be considered “popular music”: Author’s song (avtorskaia pesnia) and Rock music. It’s not easy to mark precise boundaries between these two genres; e.g. Aleksandr Bashlachev is presented in author’s song, even if a lot of critics consider him a representative of Rock music: “He was the first to

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-16304038824163943752007-09-18T15:32:00.000+02:002008-02-11T13:02:55.640+01:00

Dedicated to Il'ia Kormil'tsev who passed away earlier this year "Russkaia Rok-Poeziia - Tekst i Kontekst" (Vypusk 9) was just published in Tver' and Ekaterinburg (and arrived in my mailbox yesterday). Edited by Voroshilova, Domanskii and Chudinov it collects essays on (mainly) Russian rock music (specifically russkii rok). Divided into the subsections Rock-poetics, Rock-linguistics, Classic Rock

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-39047194786551698642007-09-12T02:06:00.000+02:002007-09-18T15:32:51.231+02:00

I would like to draw your attention to an article recently published in the Russian Journal “Arion”: Danila Davydov’s “V poiskakh utrachennogo russkogo roka” (“In search for the lost rock”). The author offers some reflections which avoid the commonly held view on “russkii rok”. It is not without a reason that the article is dedicated to the memory of one of the most “alternative” Russian

Sergio Mazzantihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12861396145349155494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-42891775366557350452007-09-11T22:36:00.000+02:002007-09-18T13:22:52.043+02:00

The St. Petersburg rock critic and editor of rock-n-roll.ru Andrei Burlaka just finished a three volume rock encyclopedia focusing on popular music in Leningrad and St. Petersburg: "Rok Entsiklopediia - Populiarnaia muzyka v Leningrade-Peterburge 1965-2005", Amfora 2007 (the announcement can be found at rock-n-roll.ru) - so far the first two volumes have been released. Interestingly, the articles

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-543578979896941162.post-76947856200585736782007-09-09T23:00:00.000+02:002007-10-05T15:19:13.464+02:00

The music style ska (in its different forms) has become increasingly popular in St. Petersburg, Moscow and also in the Ukraine, at least judging by some of the music I have heard (the rest of Russia is kind of hard to judge since I do not really have any ethnographic material). Ska originated in Jamaica and is closely related to the music style reggae. Rhythmically what roughly characterizes ska

dewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04916554929365846103noreply@blogger.com