The Meltdown of Russia's Music Scene
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- čas přidán 14. 05. 2024
- Since the war with Ukraine, dissenting Russian bands have been "canceled" en masse, including many of the scene's original founders. Bands who faced censorship, harassment and intimidation during the Soviet days are now experiencing the same thing some 40 years later.
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Yuri Shevchuk's full interview with English subtitles: • Юрий Шевчук: «Родина, ...
A huge thank you to Nikita & Alexander for helping make this video possible:
Check out MelodyBuffet here: / @melodybuffet1184
And Moskva-Kassiopeya here: moskva-kassiopeya.bandcamp.com/
List of songs featured:
0:00 Kino - Gruppa Krovi
0:48 Aquarium - Каменный уголь
3:24 Aquarium - The Art of Being Humble (Искусство быть смирным)
3:42 Time Machine - Marionettes (Марионетки)
4:28 Kino - In Our Eyes (В наших глазах)
4:39 Alisa - New Method (Новый метод)
4:44 DDT - Hippany (Хиппаны)
6:04 Hugo-Ugo - I’m So Scared (Мне так страшно)
6:25 Kombinaciya - American Boy
6:43 Tequilajazzz - Cocaine (Кокаин)
6:51 Splean - Sugarfree Orbit (Орбит без сахара)
6:57 Postcolor - Ambient Maze
7:14 Time Machine - Our House (Наш дом)
8:00 Aquarium - Train on Fire (Поезд в огне)
8:24 Aquarium - Railway Water (Железнодорожная Вода)
8:34 Paul McCartney Live at Red Square - Two Of Us
15:26 Aquarium - Rastamany iz glubinki (Растаманы из глубинки)
18:06 Bi-2 - Colonel (Полковнику)
22:47 Kino - Change (Перемен)
23:08 Polina Gagarina - Cuckoo (кукушка)
23:20 Kino - I Declare My Home a Nuclear-Free Zone
25:13 DDT - Don’t Shoot (Не стреляй)
27:33 Moskva-Kassiopeya - Express ‘69 (moskva-kassiopeya.bandcamp.com/)
28:06 Boris Grebenshikov - Rusty Jug of Fate (Ржавый жбан судьбы)
Cover art by www.partykaleta.com/ - Zábava
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
It's insane to me that a war fought to "preserve Russian culture and values" can end up destroying so much Russian art. What a stupid war.
Don't kid yourself, the war was never about preserving Russian culture and values.
The war was started to preserve Putin's presidential place. To keep him in power. That's the only goal of this war.
@@georgeoldsterd8994 we knew. It's just hollow how the Kremlin pretends otherwise.
What if war and crime ARE the true Russian culture and values?
@@nuggers23 it is part of it, but it's not the full picture. There's always this small group of imperialist/fascist elites that control the nation and wage wars, and you have their supporters (mostly peasants, I mean, what do you expect, and some educated ones). They use either Russian nationalism or communist rhetoric to rally support. But that isn't everything about Russia. Almost every nation has a culture separate from its politics.
Literature, chess, some classical music, the very music this video is talking about, philosophy...et cetera...there's a lot of interesting stuff in Russia.
This is very much the same thing that happened to my country of China. The government wants to export Chinese culture but they can't stand the thought of modern Chinese artists getting inspired by the west. This is truly saddening to me and Chinese culture will continue fall behind her east Asian neighbors if this continues.
Yeah. It’s a great culture but communism and obsession of power corrupts a lot
Thank you very much for the mention. Love and peace to everyone in the world!
Absolutely! Thank you for all the help and to anyone else reading this, I highly recommend you check out MelodyBuffet after watching this video. You can go down a long rabbit hole on some truly wild underground post-punk.
Subscribed. Thank you!
Russian government be like: They cancel our culture on the west!
Also Russian government: cancels it’s own culture.
Thank you for this video! Russians have actually been protesting against all that shit that’s happening in our country. Hope the world could take it into account
These so called artists is NOT our culture as soon as they started to wish Russian soldiers to be dead or Russia itself to collapse.
@Long Long Time I oh yeah, and that makes it better right?
Who? You did what? You gotta be kidding, my ruzzian "friend"
@@mona.supremacy yeah dude tell me about being Russian, Russia’s politics and history
@Long Long Time I well recently a publishing house closed because of anti-lgbt law, many musicians can’t tour because their concerts get cancelled, a theatre in Moscow got closed, some plays get cancelled - and it happens because of artists’ political views
About cancelation: there is a russian term "phone law". It means that someone hireup call and demands something illegal but in line with party course. For example: regional police chief calls a venue owner and demands to cancel particular concert. If owner wouldn't comply, all his venues would be constantly harrased by endless audits, he would lose state contracts or even his leases would be terminated.
There is nothing in writing, but everyone understands the magnitude of problems one could receive.
I just wanted to clarify something about the Bi-2 concert before the Russian Football Supercup game.
It was the game between Spartak Moscow and Zenit Saint-Petersbourg, one of the biggest rivalry in the country. They were booed not because of their anti-war position but because Bi-2 were supporting Spartak Moscow.
And it's clearly seen on the video that the blue-white crowd went mad out of the fact that Lyova - frontman of the band, was wearing Spartak's red-white scarf, which was a truly provocative thing to do on an away field.
czcams.com/video/FSgEW9LFFw8/video.html
PS: Thank you for this great video!
Link doesn’t work
Ah Football a useless "sport" that only starts many fights... Just some idiots kicking a ball into a net.
thank you for this video. everything is correctly reported. one minor comment: Aquarium and Kino are definitely not niche, but very popular among all groups of society. Kino is probably still the most important rock band on all of the post-soviet space.
True, and almost everyone casually knows at least a few Kino songs.
Ask practically any person from the Russian-speaking post-Soviet space, and they'd probably quote at least some of the lyrics from Gruppa Krovi from memory.
Agreed. Kino to Russia is like Nirvana to US.
It's also unofficially banned from guitar stores similarly to Stairway to Heaven's forbidden riff
Thank you for your attention to detail, kindness and for sharing your knowledge
@@WIYD88 Kino would be more equivalent to Credence Clearwater Revival in the US, and The Tragically Hip in Canada.
Tsoi is essentially a Russian Gord Downie, his effect on the country is insane
Great! As a russian musician I really appreciate your work, it's unbelievably important for us!
аут рулит!
stay strong brother 💪
For those who dont know, Aut makes some cool ass music
💗, from California
same 🤘
Я пребываю в шоке от того, что многие музыканты стали вне закона, при чём, некоторые те же, что уже были вне закона 40 лет назад. 20 лет назад я был уверен на 100%, что такого больше никогда не будет, потому что это немыслимо в современном мире! Какое-то безумие!
putin has ruined a great nation
@@horvathsogranfume658 It is a sad truth
Music that is censored kills a band
When censorship grows to kill more bands its kills a genre.
When it kills a genre it kill 2 genres
It doesn't stop till all music genres are killed.
When music is killed at that point the culture is dead.
You cannot revive a dead corpse that is a culture without music.
Some of us Chinese think the same, after japan and wwii, that genocide would not happen again.
@@northerncassowary8567WTF are you talking about the Turk genocide?
watching this as a russian is blissful af.
even though it hurts to see my motherland once again being perceived as one big prison, your content is a rare case of talking bout russian culture with respect these days. thank you!
I find tyhat it's always an unique experience to see your home country's affairs appear on the international context of youtube
@@vicino. yep. but i guess living in russia is one hell of a unique experience anyway, more so in 2020s
Чел, мы с тобой в гараже выступали )
@@user-kt7li4le8s о кайф, с какого ты коллектива? я скоро снова там буду недалеко
Well it is one big prison, tovarisch, no misperceptions there!
Getting canceled in America: “oh no anyone who doesn’t agree with my actions or beliefs doesn’t want to give me money anymore, but I now have an enormous and loyal reactionary fan base and I guess all I’d actually have to do to get my old fans back is just apologize, take accountability and maybe a short break from the limelight”
Getting canceled in Russia: “would u like to try this not-poisonous sardine?”
It's funny how American conservatives complain about cancel culture, when one of the first and most high-profile cancellations in America were the Dixie Chicks, who got dragged through the mud after saying that they're against the Iraq War and they're ashamed to be from the same state as Bush.
Let me open that big window for ya.....dont fall out hahah.
So if you get cancelled in USA, it's your own fault, but if you get canceled in Russia it's the government's fault.
getting cancelled in America more like “let me divorce myself from the mainstream so I can milk this much more rabid and lucrative fan base”
@@enginerdy i think that is exactly how it works in Russia too
I'm a big fan of Shortparis for about a couple years, pretty sure they would have been really huge internationally by now if it wasn't for the pandemic and then the war :(
Shortparis is amazing!
I started listening to Russian rock in early 80s and even "attended" a famous cancelled show by Andrey Makarevich's band in Krasnoyarsk in 1984 (and another not so famous cancelled show by Voskresenie a bit earlier). There were some pretty memorable publications blasting musicians in the USSR but far less numerous and hateful than they are now. The current Russian authorities definitely pay much more attention to the musicians, although I can hardly remember any fan who started hating any band because they were proclaimed "traitors". Still there is some true hatred towards these people among the general public and Makarevich probably gets the largest share of it just because more people actually know him (due to the fact that he hosted a popular cooking show on the top Russian TV channel for many years).
«Макаревич-богатырь стал стряпухою» (с)
Не знал, что в Красноярске отменяли Машину. Причём за 30 лет до Behemoth. В один ряд с великими
They want the bands and musicians to be quiet long enough that everyone one forgets them or they become unfashionable.
Thank you for bringing light on those stories!
But honestly, similar events on Russian hip-hop scene are also deserving some attention.
As a part of russian music scene we are sadly confirm that all that was said here is true. Full circle. Right on.
Ничего. Хоть и кажется, что все идёт по кругу, но этот круг всегда отличается от предыдущего. Увидим что нам ждёт на новом повороте.
@@artemkhrulkov5498 "предназначенная другу ходит песенка по кругу.."
Have not it occurred to you, that if something “goes around”, the root of problem somewhere else - for instance in zoologic Russophobia of europe?
@@shoora813 has it occurred to you that the root of the problem is a dictator that breeds helplessness on the russian populace has it ever occurred to you that most of europe did not give a fuck if you were russian before the war in ukraine? Has it occurred to you that russia is European
And this is why I blame leadership instead of the people
The people try to give genuine feedback on how to improve the society while the leadership ignores it call it heresy have their entire police force chase after the person who made that peice of heresy and kill the heretic.
For a country to improve it must listen to the people instead of their close friends and people with money.
I participated in a Sign Language group (singing in RSL) and we had Victor Choi’s “Change!” in our set list. And though the idea of our performance was about bringing justice into the social treatment of the disabled, we got questioning looks and suggestions to change our performance, because the song has become such a sensitive topic for the venues.
24:35 this guys calm and resourcefulness is what you would expect from a wise old man, who has seen and lived in a similar climate and is living it again.
You are one of my favorite youtube channels. Thank you for showcasing music, its cultural context, and the innumerable stories behind it from all around the world. It's a pleasure, seriously. Keep up the fantastic work!
About the subject of this video specifically.. it's sad how Putin / the Russian government and some Russians even seem hellbent on ousting all of their own brilliant artists, musicians and other creative minds when they dare to speak out against war. They are destroying their own culture from the inside. What will be left once they're finished?
Funnily enough, Victor Tsoy said on multiple occasions that "Peremen" is NOT a political song or at least it wasn't intended to be one. It was a song about love and struggling relationships between people. The famous chorus line "Our hearts demand a change" was not referring to the political change but rather to the change on a personal level. It's a song about someone, who wants a change in relationship, yet fears it and by the end of the song they come to question this need. Basically, this line means "let's do something to stop our own melancholy, stagnation of our love".
I mean, just look at the last verse:
We can't brag about the wisdom of our eyes
Or about our skillful gestures
We don't need either to understand eachother
Cigarettes in hand, the tea on the table, that's how the circle comes full
And suddenly we are afraid to change anything.
Does it sound more like a political speech, or a like an intimate confession to a loved one to you?
The thing is, this song was quite misinterpreted by the general public because of the chorus and became basically an anthem of Perestroika. Tsoy wasn't very happy about how things turned out. I mean, I'm not blaming people, 'cuz the song 100% slaps, but still, I find it rather interesting tidbit of history, seeing how it is getting banned everywhere nowadays
To be honest, the rhythm is quite march-y, with a high drive, this doesn't sound to many like an introverted song.
Not saying you're wrong, just another perspective)
@@veraglauben yeah, I definitely not arguing with that. The song is very energetic for sure, passionate even
@Angelspawn There's not that much to "understand" about this song, or about most popular songs for that matter, as in "there's only one way to interpret it correctly". Its lyrics are extremely vague, minimalist and nondescript, and, as someone had mentioned up above, the music itself feels quite commensurate to the political reading those lyrics do receive ninety nine percent of the time. Not to mention that I also don't entirely "trust" the original songwriter here, because it's been well-documented throughout the entire history of art that artists often do change opinions about their own work after the fact or deliberately hide their true intentions. Aesopian language was an extremely common method for Soviet authors and artists to elude censorship and outrage of certain societal groups.
I'm so glad this episode came out! I guess our history is doomed to repeat but in new sophisticated forms. As always, brilliant work!
Check the CNN as their episodes are all similiar to this
We are all going in circles sometimes. But every turn in this circle appears to be a new one. Circumstances always change and we never know what we will see on the new turn.
@@artemkhrulkov5498 brother, it was clear that something like this will happen in 2008 earliest, 2015 latest. maybe it was clear for a Russian person living abroad and looking at it from the outside - maybe... but the stones for this path have been set a while ago. у меня родители двинули из Москвы когда какие-то губернаторы отобрали у них бизнес в 2008. с тех пор мы в европе. тут я познакомился с людми такой-же судьбы.
@@mishXY то что гайки закручиваются - было давно очевидно. Но, как показывает практика - не всем. Многие все еще поддерживают Путина и его власть по сей день. Но мало кто был готов в войне. Прям настоящей - с обстрелами, с жертвами, с кровью. Не знаю, Путин конечно своей жёсткой политикой довёл все это до ручки. Какой правитель, такой и путь у него. Выбрал жёсткий путь - готовься к тому что придётся пойти на всё чтобы этот жёсткий путь сохранять. Вот он и поставил сейчас все на кон. Что ни для кого хорошим не кончится.
I’m pushing 50 and I use to have a VHS copy of the Moscow Music Peace Festival and it is sad to think how far we’ve slipped as a species since then. There was this glimmer of hope there in the late 80s and early 90s where some of us thought totalitarianism was ending….oh how naive of me!
But you should do a video on that concert sometime because I think it was super influential at that time.
Thank you for the video! I'm from Russia and i'm against war and Putin's regime. It's very important to feel support from abroad. You doing a great and very important job. Great channel! Other videos are great too. Regional scenes from different corners of the world should have more attention! And you telling stories about them with sincere respect and passion!
I want to call this video great, but it's also so frustrating and depressing. Anyway, I still would love to see a similar one about Belarus.
Well, some Belarussians were included in this video anyway. I think our media sphere is tightly connected.
Thank you! It's nice to know that there are Polish people who don't hate us and can still see the good things in our culture despite everything that happened between us in the past. Hopefully when the war is over and Putinism is gone for good we can build better relationships
Didn't expect this vid to feature my favorite Hugo-Ugo song! They're a lesser known band even here in Russia.
You truly are a man of culture, thanks for another great video!
Thank you! Though I have to give credit to a subscriber who recommended that song way back in 2020 when I first posted about Russian punk. It's stuck with me ever since and is easily my favorite song in the coldwave/post-punk/whatever-you-call-it genre!
@@Bandsplaining Then you should definitly check out their discography, they nailed really unique sound and vibe. Togliatty had amazing absurd-rock scene in the 90s, and Hugo-Ugo is the pinnacle of it.
Also recommend to check out music videos on "collage museum" YT channel, curated by one of the main members of this scene, solid stuff.
Do you have a link to that YT channel? I tried searching "collage museum" but couldn't find it
Also, do you recommend any other bands specifically from the 90s Togliatty scene?
@@Bandsplaining @Bandsplaining www.youtube.com/@popsa00 Here is a channel.
Once again your video was great. Informative, interesting, well paced - an all around good job - and another deep dive into Spotify for new music to add to my world music playlists.
Cheers
These musicians are pretty brave. And it’s tragic people live in countries where they have to fear for their lives if they have a different opinion.
Kino doesn't perform since the death of it's frontman 30 years ago
Alisa band is kinda deprecated for at least 20 years, and musicians from it are openly pro-Putin
Polina Gagarina is pro-Putin
Frontman of DDT has supported Russian soldiers on invasion to Ichkeria and in the interview couple of years ago told, that he doesn't go to support them on Donbass only because he is too old
99% of the Russian artists and bands that i've seen have spoken out against this war, but there's still a handful of artists who are pro-Putin and support the invasion. Chicherina for example
thank you for talking about this, great vid!!
its kinda insane how some of the best musicians we ever had get blacklisted twice in their timeline (obviously you couldnt expect anything new from a kgb officer in rule so..), absolutely absurd how now profs who curate classes in universities about russian underground culture of 80s have to be cautious with even mentioning names. though now its even easier to talk about music with people of older generations, like damn we do have even more in common now than before
(calling tsoi russias most iconic punk is highly controversial tho i think not one rock/music/culture nerd from russia would agree on that considering 1) his continuous statements abt his songs being apolitical 2) a huge *actually* punk scene we had in siberia but thats another topic fr)
Gotta agree that kino and tsoy are more of a worldwide influence than a russian influence. The real underground is a thing ov beauty though, glad its getting some coverage no matter its "accuracy"- an outsider to any culture in any way can be off without being offensive.
"Without music there is no culture."
Glowtail 2022
@@antonioreconquistador tbf kino were influential here and they still are they're just not anywhere close to the punk scene of 80s dhdhdj but you're right any coverage is good and cannot be done perfectly when its a person who hasn't lived through it doing it
I mean, Kino were playing postpunk. It's just a genre of their music. So Bandsplaining is not incorrect in that sense
This is awesome. I have a LOT of respect for these artists who soldiered on despite the odds against them. That is the very definition of punk rock.
all the bands that left Russia were simply not needed there by anyone and decided to catch a hype, and by the way they are not punks)
@@bebra_hui that's bullshit
@@user-ns6fi9un9i то что я писал или то что он писал чушь?
@@bebra_hui ну зато у нас есть Шаман, Любэ и Газманов, лол
@@alexmurphy9919 шаман кал, а вот ЛЮБЭ отличная группа, кстати не только они ор
I always wonder if Kino would've been Rammstein before Rammstein (in terms of international popularity rather than sound) had Tsoi lived longer. That music was truly transcendent & the momentum was growing.
I would say the death of Tsoi at the peak of his fame actually boosted the popularity of Kino. I'm sure if Tsoi hadn't died, they wouldn't have made an idol out of him, and the band would have been remembered nowdays as just one of the pioneers of Russian rock. However, I think that Kino and Tsoi would have continued to evolve on the music scene after 1991, with more concerts abroad, therefore reaching some kind of international recognition.
Спасибо за видео, в нём есть неточности ( би-2 освистали фанаты спортивной команды Зенит, потому что фронтмен вышел в шарфе противника), но я апплодирую вашему детальному разбору и погружению в российскую музыкальную культуру и её историю последних лет
And the Ministry of Justice declared of "foreign agents" Macarevich, Face, Noize mc, Oxxxymiron, Zemfira, Morgenstern, Monetochka, not Duma
Oh damn. I sending this to ALL of my band buddies and music appreciators. Thank you for posting this. I'm so glad I just stumbled on this channel!! 💓
Wow this makes me feel so lucky. I saw Both DDT and Mashina Vremeni in Russia 2018 and then, three years later, Akvarium in Ukraine, a few months before the war broke out.
Amazing bands, amazing lyrics, too important to be banned or forgotten.
Спасибо! Нет войне!
Thanks! Stop a War!
War is good for no one but politicians and weapon manufacturers..
When you started saying the video is about the musicians and not politics, I figured it'd be impossible. I was right.
The systematic destruction of both the culture (especially any progressive aspects of it) and relationships to some of the close neighbors is truly heartbreaking.
Thank you for sharing this side of our current situation. Hopefully it'll get people to understand Russians a bit better. Even tho I am not a musician myself, this perfectly illustrates how people are treated these days. People with following, money and connections are being silenced left and right so you can imagine how helpless us ordinary folks are rn. Never before in my life have I been so scared to openly express my opinions as I've seen my friends get fined, beaten up and even losing their jobs for speaking up against our government's actions.
The bands and musicians who made anti-war statements have been a beacon of hope to so many people since (and before) the war began. I find it fascinating how the band Shortparis, also based in St Petersburg, whose songs and especially videos follow the tradition of the bands in the video and deal with issues of police terror, militarisation & violence, poverty, protests, and now the war, etc, have decided to stay in Russia and continue to tour there with the aim on "grieving together", as they put it
The bands that meant everything to me growing up were Alisa, Nautilus Pompilius, Kino, Piknik, also Aria and Kipelov, Cherniy Kofe on the metal side. The lyrics in Russian rock hit you deep. Now some of our rockers don't support Putin. Some do and I can't see them the same way anymore, but I still go back in time to those old songs that I grew up listening to. I hope there will be a better, post-war era for our music. 💖🎸 Also, happy to see Slaughter to Prevail getting the recognition in the West! 🤘
Found Aria while doing a project for my literature class for the book "The Outsider" by Albert Camus (you might know it as the stranger?) and first heard Noch Koroche Dnya (excuse my spelling), was almost a religious experience lmao. Ended up listening to their whole discography by the end of the week. I'm going to listen to some of the other bands you mentioned!
Hell yea new Bandsplaining just in time for my lunch break!
Fantastic journalism. Thank you for this.
About concert cancellation, DDT actually has a song with these lyrics:
"We play in the DDT, only it so happens that
Literally a day or two prior, concerts get cancelled"
This is from Chastushky, a song performed in Russian folk poetry style, and it was written back in the Soviet days, officially premiering in 1984. So yeah, nothing has changed in Russia since then, sadly.
amazing video. ive been learning russian for 2 years and fell in love with russian post punk from the 80s to today
Excellent video! I grew up in Russia on this exact music, these bands. Excellent job covering the horrific repeating of history. Thank you
your work is very special. nobody is talking about this. well done!
Russian Lo Fi house is doing pretty well worldwide, they have that nailed down, Welofi is one of my favourite record labels right now.
Is it because it doesn’t have lyrics?
@@Liusila There is lyrics
Im very curious to how lofi house got so popular there though, im sure theres a story behind it?
@@nocthene i'm also wondering. love lofi house!
@@mysteryY2K love lofi house to the point i started producing them. Long live the genre and hopefully we'll see another surge in popularity for the genre again 🙏
Thank you so much for this video. I often catch myself thinking of how hopeless and desperate the future of my homeland is because of war and honestly it makes me want to cry, because I love my culture from the very bottom of my heart... But if the history went full circle then maybe we will actually find peace some day once again. Any culture shouldn't be violated and destroyed by it's own goverment.
И что безнадежного ? Все изменениях в обществе идут через кровь, будь то хорошие и плохие. Чтобы заслужить свободу народу российской империи пришлось пережить первую мировую и гражданскую. В ходе развала СССР напрасно отдали богу души как минимум 9 миллионов человек.
А сейчас всего лишь локальное событие. Не впадай в безнадегу. Люди все больше стали интересоваться историей например. Все меньше верят популистам либералам. Если не умереть на фронте, то можно стать свидетели положительных изменений.
@@wederMaxim Ты совершенно прав. Слишком много чести, чтобы мир обрушился именно при нас, еще жить и жить)
@@wederMaxim хехе, возможно, мы ещё увидим и петроградский гарнизон, и ипатьевский дом
Great doc as sad as it is. Yuri Schevchuk is a really bright guy, strikes me as both wise due to age, compassionate and still a romantic hero.
In terms of these type of video's your channel is in the top 1%. Beautiful content. Doing great!
Not only did I learn a lot, but I discovered a lot of cool music from this video, including Postcolor. Many thanks!
I had the fortune and good timing to be able to see Mashina Vremini in concert in Atlanta. It was fucking 🔥, and there was a lot of support from the expat community for them.
I can not praise this video enough! Thank you so much :)
Kino is also very important for modern Belarus. Their song was a basis for arrest of DJs during our 2020 protests. I just hope during my lifetime I will hear it played loudly in the streets once again, when we are all free and there's peace....
Thank you for your reporting. This was very illuminating. To all the artists and musicians of the world: Keep the peace and keep on creating for a better world.
Thank you for this video. As for a russian person, this is very important to me, to see this kind of topics discussed on the western side of YT.
I have this really vivid memory of hearing Kino's Звезда по имени солнце last year after not sleeping because I saw the news of Ukraine situation when it all started. As a Latin American who had been appreciating Kino, DDT and other Russian music artists, and specially as someone who has always been interested in Eastern European and Russian culture, I felt really moved by the meaning that the song lyrics has and how it seems that nothing has changed that much since the last century.
Btw, specially Kino music has been with me for a while and each time I hear any song of them, I feel more close to the impact of their message. Hope more people can hear them and appreciate the lessons they gave to us with each of their lyrics.
Every now and then I need videos like these to get me so absorbed that I basically meditate where my state of nothingness is portrayed as your video and I am completely unaware of reality or even the toothache I have. Great content as always
Interesting video! Thank you for this.
Когда артист или группа становятся не угодны политической линии, они просто не могут снять концертную площадку. Представте, вы снимаете зал, продаëте билеты на свой концерт, а затем за пару дней до концерта директору площадки звонят из ФСБ и говорят либо отменять концерт, либо к этой площадке придут с проверкой и "случайно" окажется, что на этой площадке нельзя организовывать концерты. Либо эта конкретная группа не будет у вас выступать, либо на вашей площадке никто не будет выступать.
Fantastic video!
I had no idea of the richness and size of the russian scene. I shared this on my facebook and i'm very curious of what will be the impression of my friends here in Brasil. Do you think brazilian undergroud scene would be a nice topic for the future?
Sincerely, thank you so much for this video.
Спасибо!
Thanks for making this video. Peace and love from Scotland
Thank you very much for this video. I've uncovered many facts that I've been unaware of. When I was young I disregarded Russian rock, I thought it was all about lyrics and "meanings" and preferred more sophisticated progressive rock and metal genres. When the war broke out I suddenly realised how much these lyrics spoke out my own feelings.
Besides, my compliments to your work. As a Russian I acknowledge that you contemplated the topic great and delivered a detailed, precise and factful story.
I first learned of Aquarium and bands like them when I played Metro Exodus. One of the characters in game does a cover of the song with slightly altered lyrics while travelling across post-apocalyptic Russia on a train, no less lol. Great song.
Beautifully done. Even though I know well everything described here, I was really touched. Nyet voyne!
It is a wonderful video that captures the moment very well.
Unlike the others, Lazarev has changed his mind completely - the guy in the right down corner at 29:09. I feel the same about the whole situation. Thank you for sharing this info about Russian musicians in English.
I find it rather ironic that you used NTV report at ~12:00. Because back in the old days it was one of the most prominent opposition channels, critiquing the government left and right. Which regretfully became basically state-led afterwards. Really common fate of the Russian media
Goood shit! I also watched your soviet underground videos a few years back, I always recommend them to friends.
This was surprisingly accurate reporting, thank you! Well done
Awesome video. Really enjoyed and will share. The bravery of these musicians is a miracle. “All things perish, art alone endures”
Yuri's words at the end of the video were so emotional
the part about the babushkas selling potatoes got to me
Impressive video, thank you very much.
Thank you for this video :)
So as insane ad it has gotten in the USA, and there certainly has and will be people harassed, oppressed, and silenced, its nothing close to Russia, people literally put their lives at risk by making jokes about the government much less outwardly criticizing it. And for those those that don't understand what its like to try and live life as an ordinary citizen there, this video, although about the music and musicians, really exemplifies the everyday political struggles there. A really good upload.
Or Hungary, or Poland
As a russian, and I musician myself I should say - thank you for covering this topic
Thank you so much for covering this topic. I grew up on all these artists, most of them have a palce in every important memory that I have. My heart is broken, because my country is sick with the plauge of ignorance and anger. It is broken because the culture that embodies my country - of persevierance, hope and resistance - is being uprooted, twisted and burned down. I wish for peace with all my heart. I wish for us to be human again
Neat. Glad i discovered this channel.
When i was a kid, my father sang Boris Grebensikov. Thanks a lot, it's a very atmosphere video for me.
Now, a lot of great artists banned in Russia. A person could be fired from his job for supporting such musicians. This is how censorship works in Russia.
P. S. : i am not good at English
seeing someone outside of russia talk about BG is so surreral. he is so important to all of us, even now
Thank you. Thank you for shedding light onto the cultural disaster which is often left uncovered. It's heartbreaking to see the legends of the Russian music industry who have inspired and moved generations be ridiculed and canceled in such a dirty way. Though not much can be done to help, it brings some comfort to hear it being talked about. I never imagined I would have to whitness this madness, let it all be over.
It is great work! I am very much grateful to authors of this vide. This is my life. I left Russia 29 years ago, I understood the future in 1993. Thank you so much!
This is a very interesting and at the same time sad topic. Thanks for bringing it up. Rock music of the 70-90s was really protest, and was expressed in a radically different sound, freedom of thought, the protest could be expressed literally or in a veiled way, but it was. The new generation of rockers in its full sense is gone, rap has become protest music, which is not very close to me, but there are interesting works there too. Only the old guard remained, who are not afraid to speak out and have great respect for this. There are those who used to be engaged in such protest music, but are now on the sidelines for one reason or another (for example, Vyacheslav Butusov from the group Nautilus Pompilius). There are those who have never particularly expressed their views on this matter, but one way or another, through their work, one can trace the position "for peace." For example, the "Auktyon" group, the same old group as DDT, used to be more specific in their songs, but now they have moved to a more metaphysical level. The "Picnic" group has always been in this direction, which has always been distinguished by mysterious, mystical texts, the meaning of which could only be guessed at. There are many groups left that are not happy with the current situation, but not everyone dares to speak out, because, unfortunately, this leads to sad consequences. There are, of course, those who have joined the wrong side. But the most interesting thing is that such bands have never been attractive to me, and now they will not be. It is sad that such a situation is developing when "in the name of saving Russian culture" it is being destroyed. This is an endlessly stupid war, where there are victims on all sides. Rock music has always been on the side of the world, but it has failed to reach out to those who made these ugly decisions.
I'm new to your channel so I don't know if you do requests, but I'd love to see you discuss both the Siberian and Indonesian punk scenes.
Indonesia has a red hot punk and d-beat scene, good call
For sure! I'd love to hear your recommendations if there's any specific bands from those scenes you love and/or think I should start with.
I’m from America and love listening to groups like Grazhdanskaya Oborona and individual singers like Yanka Dyagleva and Alexander Bashlachev. But it makes me sad when all the stuff I find about them is only in Russian so I’d love to hear you talk about those people, especially since you reference people like Egor Letov but never talk about them a lot. That’s what I’d like to see next. Love your videos keep it up.
@@masonknox2003 I did an overview of Egor/GrOb/Yanka in this video czcams.com/video/_22NTHfiZs4/video.html (about 22 minutes in)
Honestly it was made a long time ago as a bit of an experiment. I'm not super proud of it from a technical standpoint. But it is otherwise what you're asking for 😂
I'm old enough to remember MTV adding Boris Grebenshikov's "Radio Silence" to the rotation on MTV in '89 (I think). Pretty sure "120 Minutes" did a brief bio on him, describing him as "the Bruce Springsteen of Russia." I had the album on vinyl. Good stuff. I have that track on my Spotify playlist to this day.
❤
thank you for this video!
Большое спасибо за такой качественный материал о русской музыке. Желаю творческих успехов!
Thank you very much for such a high-quality material about Russian music. I wish you creative success!
Ruzzka
@@mona.supremacy 🤡
bring banned currently as an artist is a strange place to be in.
I am an engineer at mmmesss records - i have my own space to be safe at, and record other artists.
but as a performer and drummer of uvula band - i miss the time of seeing all the young kids having fun and dancing. they inspire me as much as i do them, i believe.
Much to learn, thanks for it...
Pretty good video on such a niche topic!
Wouldn't call it a silver lining, but we got so many russian anti-war bangers during last year of war: DDT, Bi-2, NoizeMC, Monetochka, Vladi(Kasta), probably a bunch of others I haven't heard about.
In bad times music always acted as a therapy, helping you process things and realizing you're not the only one feeling it.
And these folks have absolutely stepped up when people needed them the most 🤘☮🤘
That's a great video! And a sad one too. Well, if we're in a good timeline, these bands will eventually become Russia's pride
so glad i found this channel
Liked and commented before I watched the vid because I already know it'll be great
Bi-2 was booed by the crowd for wearing the guest football team scarf during performance, not for their position. It is obvious, since the crowd only started it once one of the bi-2 guys put the scarf on. The rest of the video is accurate
This is great, but I wish you had mentioned Igor Talkov. A man who very openly and directly criticized the USSR and paid with his life in the 1991. His song "Russia" is genius and I honestly think Shaman, an awful new singer, supported by Putin's state, sings a song called "I'm Russian" as a terrible version of Talkov's song. Except Talkov criticized the government, while Shaman praises it - that's the irony. I've heard several folks who buy into Russian state propaganda refer to Shaman as the new Talkov unironically. All of it is so devastating. The only hope is that with this war Putin has signed his own death sentence.
Dear Bandsplaining, I have ALWAYS wondered about the music/rock scene in the Soviet Union and now in Russia. This fantastic documentary really sums up the repression going on then and now. Bravo boys! Thank you.-Paul
IDK about rock, but metal is pretty alive here (Grima, Леший, Уводь, etc...). It's a small underground bands for sure, but they existing. Turns out, if you don't wanna be cancelled in Russia, just don't speak up against your own country and president, and don't go into politics immediately after the start of the war. Like isn't this obvious? Just make songs like you need do to. It's such a bizarre concept for americans, i know, but it is what it is.
I was very surprised to see a video about russian music in english!! great content keep it up
This is awesome content man. A cool video idea would be for you to cover music anywhere in Latin America. Very rich revolutionary history there👍
Such an underrated YT channel
Understatement of the century.
this channel is a gold mine! Is the intro music from Miles Davis "in a silent way"?
Well, as a part of scene I can say that we are in dark times. But, we’re gonna survive and go fully punk.
been to a show recently, it literally was shut down in the middle by officials