VIA (music)

National anthem of Russia VIA (Russian: ВИА) is an abbreviation for Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble (Вокально-инструментальный ансамбль, Vokalno-instrumentalny ansambl).

In Yugoslavia, the abbreviation VIS (Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: ВИС), meaning vokalno-instrumentalni sastav (вокално-инструментални састав), was used in the same context.

They performed youth-oriented (but officially approved) radio-friendly music, which combined contemporary Western and Soviet trends.

Due to state censorship, the lyrics of VIAs were family-friendly; typical topics were universal emotions like love, joy, and nostalgia, or idealized vignettes from daily life.

[1] Russian bands from Moscow and Leningrad (such as Zemlyane and Tsvety) were more oriented towards Western pop and rock music.