Rock music in Russia

During this period, "rock clubs" were created, bands like "Kino", "Alisa", "DDT", "Bravo", "Nautilus Pompilius", "Aria", "Chaif", and "Grazhdanskaya Oborona" appeared and gained popularity, and already known groups, such as "Mashina Vremeni" and "Aquarium", began to publish albums officially.

According to various polls,[8][9][10] the most popular Russian rock bands include Kino, Aquarium, Aria, Alisa, DDT and Agatha Christie.

[15][16] The beat quartet "Integral" performed jazz music and compositions in the style of The Shadows and The Swinging Blue Jeans, and also composed their own twists and rock 'n' rolls.

The second problem was that after completing higher education, musicians had to make a choice: to leave to work in their specialty or join a professional band - VIA (Russian: Вокально-инструментальный ансамбль, romanized: Vokal'no-Instrumental'nyy ansambl', lit.

[35] At the same time, Mashina Vremeni in Moscow and Aquarium in Leningrad started as nominally amateur bands and soon became popular, performing underground concerts.

"Ruby Attack", "Argonauts", "Mify", "Successful Acquisition", "Mashina Vremeni", "Sankt-Peterburg",[49] "Rossiyane", "Vysokosnoe leto", "Autograph", and "Voskreseniye" were among the main groups of the 1970s underground scene.

Bands such as Voskreseniye, Alisa, Autograph, Kino, Mashina Vremeni, Nautilus Pompilius, Aquarium, Secret, Piknik, DDT, Krematorij, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, and Agatha Christie became influential in the development of the genre, with subsequent artists influenced by their style.

[59] In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a lot of amateur bands who signed labor agreements and contracts with various philharmonic societies of the USSR, such as "Mashina Vremeni",[60] "Zemlyane",[61] "Autograph",[62] "Cruise",[63] and "Dialog", among others, were able to break into professional scene.

[citation needed] The lyrics of the Soviet rock bands often dealt with the darkest sides of 1980s Soviet life,[citation needed] 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 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.

The monopoly for music publishing in the USSR belonged to Melodiya, the Soviet record label owned and operated by the Council of Ministers through the Ministry of Culture.

Bands from Sverdlovsk, such as Nautilus Pompilius,[73] Chaif,[74] and Agatha Christie,[75] produced more melodic music, making heavy use of keyboards and synthesizers.

[79] The Siberian rock scene began in the 1980s, with songwriters such as Egor Letov (Grazhdanskaya Oborona,[80] Omsk), Kalinov most, Alexander Bashlachev and Yanka Dyagileva.

The music mixes equal parts Western punk and traditional Russian influences, with gritty production and extremely charged and political lyrics.

It took years for the first Soviet rock bands to enter radio and television programs, tour in major concert halls over the USSR, and to release their albums officially on Melodiya, in direct competition with the VIA groups.

Moscow Music Peace Festival was held in Moscow featuring western rock artists, Gorbachev accepted Scorpions in Kremlin,[89] Brian Eno produced an album by Zvuki Mu, and Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) produced Radio Silence by Boris Grebenshchikov for the release in the western world.

The Canadian filmmaker Peter Vronsky travelled to Moscow and Leningrad in February 1988, and shot a series of music videos with Televizor, Aquarium, Nebo i Zemlya, Zvuki Mu and other bands.

In a series of articles devoted to the history of the Soviet Union, "Argumenty I Fakty" noted: "Young people plunged headlong into rock, which came out of the underground, which, as recognized by the best musicians of this direction, didn't have a creative agenda at that moment.

The horror punk band Korol i Shut managed to achieve a cult status and mainstream success using fairy-tale inspired lyrics.

This less lyrically loaded and more energetic style, frequently referred to as rockapops, which was also used by other notable musicians such as Zemfira, and became prevalent among the younger public.

In the mid-2000s, bands like Amatory, Tracktor Bowling, Grenouer, Slot, and 5 Diez were established, and were intensively promoted by the Russian television channel A-One.

The Russian instrumental rock scene, with bands like EXIT project, Disen Gage, Dvar and Kostarev Group, also received more recognition at that time.

[110][111] Konstantin Kinchev and his band Alisa, considered to be among the pioneers of Russian rock, expressed support of the move, and cancelled all of his concerts in Ukraine.

[113] Other prominent figures in Russian rock who expressed support of the move included Chaif,[109][114] Chicherina,[115][116] Alexander F. Sklyar,[107][117] and Vadim Samoylov (ex-Agatha Christie member).

[123] The musicians who didn't criticize the annexation, spoke against war in general, and called for peace between the peoples, were prominent figures such as Boris Grebenshchikov (Aquarium) and Vyacheslav Butusov (Nautilus Pompilius).

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).

The Eastern influence in the Russian rock is heard in soundtracks from movies like Day Watch, which has Tamerlane's legend of the Chalk of Destiny at its roots.

[127] Здесь надо понять, что когда мы говорим о русском роке, то имеем в виду целостное стилистически движение, русские тексты и особого рода музыку.

За неимением лучшего, этим термином обозначают направление в отечественном рок-движении, ориентированное на соединение традиций рок-н-ролла и русского мелоса.

При этом говорить, что они представляют собой сегодня какое-то мощное общественно значимое движение, как это было в 80-е годы, не приходится.

Волну подхватили молодые музыканты, тут же принявшиеся копировать зарубежные музыкальные тренды — эмо, инди, брит-поп, и пр.