Estrada (music)

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Estrada in the 1920s: Alexander Wertinski

Estrada (also: Estrade ; plural: Estraden ; Russian Эстрада , literally translated: "stage") is a term for the popular light music in the former Soviet Union and other countries in Eastern Europe. Originating in the first third of the 20th century, the Estrada was the Soviet variant of international popular music or the equivalent of German hits . In terms of style and time, the Estrada encompasses a broad spectrum of different genres and fashions; it ranges from the 1920s variety singer Alexander Wertinski to the currently very popular singer Kristina Orbakaite . After the collapse of the Soviet Union , its importance diminished in favor of the currently popular variety of styles from international pop , rock music and newer, country-specific forms of pop music such as popsa . The Russian hit is still very popular, especially among the older part of the Russian population.

Term and genre

Estrada after 2000: Elena Vaenga
Map of Russia and surrounding countries
Distribution of the Russian language (dark blue = official language, turquoise = widespread)

The origin of the term Estrada is not entirely clear. According to one theory, the Russian term for stage was adopted because there was no suitable word in Russian for hit or pop music. The similarities with the Schlager as well as the popular entertainment music of other European countries are very great, but for historical and geographical reasons there are some specific features:

  • Stylistic influences . Due to the location of the Soviet Union , its importance and the composition of its population, the Estrada was fed from a specific mix of national and international music genres: Russian classical music (especially popular, light classical music , including operetta in particular ), popular folklore , contemporary circus , vaudeville , salon and coffee house music as well as music and dance fashions such as tango , waltz , gypsy romance, foxtrot and Charleston, emerging at the beginning of the 20th century . Other sources of style were the urban Russian chanson , jazz , contemporary forms of international hit (especially its variant cultivated in the Mediterranean countries) as well as march , military and agitprop music. In the course of the last few years there have been other influences - especially those from international pop and rock music.
  • Culture and country-specific influences . Some influences of the Estrada can be traced back to cultural peculiarities or national preferences - influences that distinguish the Russian Estrada from the popular music of other countries. One influence is, for example, the choral singing culture of rural Russia and Russian folk dances. More modern influences include special topoi such as the figure of the circus clown - a motif that recurs in Soviet films as well as in well-known Estrada songs.
  • Historical influences and manifestations . The ups and downs of contemporary fashions also had an impact on Russian, later Soviet hits. A specific feature here were different degrees of artistic and stylistic freedom of design. Before the October Revolution and during the NEP era, a wide variety of styles coexisted. The 1930s and 1940s, on the other hand, were marked by a strong homogenization with clear contrasts between apolitical, light entertainment and propagandistic agitprop music. The Second World War resulted in temporary liberalization . The late 1940s and early 1950s, on the other hand, were marked by strong isolationism . In the later decades - during the thaw period and in the subsequent Brezhnev era  - western influences gained more and more ground. There are also clear differences with regard to the type of performance: until the 1960s , static, heroic forms of presentation based on high culture models predominated, later productions were increasingly based on the dynamic, colorful appearance of western pop music productions.
  • Economic basis . Unlike in Western countries, the Soviet Estrada was a form of entertainment promoted by the state. On the one hand, the state guaranteed a comparatively high level of musical craftsmanship through state training for musicians , various professional associations and the music recordings , venues and tours, which are largely operated under state aegis . In addition, there was the merger of record production in a state-owned monopoly , Melodija , which was completed in 1964 . On the other hand, the different institutions certainly offered leeway - also for expressing difference.
  • Monopoly position . On the one hand, the Estrada system guaranteed a certain musical diversity. On the other hand, dissident tendencies or politically undesirable styles have been pushed into the semi-legal sphere by the system of monopoly and censorship . This made it difficult to establish commercially independent niche markets such as those in developed western countries. This affected jazz, Russian chanson, the opposition and socially critical Bard songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Russian variant of rock music, so-called perestroika rock, to varying degrees .

As a style name, the term mostly refers to the classic Estrada in the Soviet Union - less to the popular music that is common there today or even special genres such as rock or hip-hop . On the other hand, the term also includes today's versions of corresponding music - both in Russia as the most important successor state of the Soviet Union and in former Soviet republics such as Ukraine , Belarus and the Baltic countries . There are also national versions of the Estrada in culturally closely related countries such as Bulgaria .

history

The history of the Russian Estrada can be roughly divided into four phases: the development of different styles of popular music from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the Stalin era, a heroic phase strongly influenced by politics, which is roughly synchronized with the Era of Stalinism, a post-Stalinist phase characterized by greater openness and finally the Estrada in today's Russia and in countries strongly influenced by Russian culture such as Bulgaria, the Ukraine or the Baltic states.

1860–1928: the Estrada was built

Stage art by Leon Bakst for the Ballets Russes

Similar to other European countries, serious music and light music became more and more differentiated in the Russian Empire of the 19th century. Between the two poles of classical music and folk music , a third form of music was increasingly establishing itself: the entertainment-oriented urban popular music culture. The first beginnings of the Estrada can be seen as early as 1860. In Russia, too, the classical composers largely followed the general trend towards the light muse. Similar to their Western European colleagues Giuseppe Verdi , Robert Schumann , Georges Bizet and Claude Debussy , Michail Glinka , Modest Mussorgski , Mili Balakirew , César Cui and Georgi Rimski-Korsakow increasingly resorted to elements of folk art. A typical national aspect of this enthusiasm for the music of the common people were professional choirs , which scientifically recorded the folklore and presented it in a professionalized form. The best-known exponents of this form of folklore were the Pyatnitsky Choir , founded in 1911 under its director Mitrofan Pyatnizki, and the Balalaika Orchestra of Vasily Andreev . An innovator in the field of ballet was Sergei Dyagilev . In 1909 he founded the Parisian ballet ensemble Ballets Russes , which soon enjoyed an excellent reputation worldwide due to its modern, innovative approaches. In the period before the First World War, the influences of New Music  - especially the works of Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schönberg - also proved to be style-defining, especially in the area of ​​social elites .

Despite these modern influences, the musical culture of pre-revolutionary Russia was marked by a strong polarization. On the one hand there were the musical folk traditions - in particular rural Russia with its vocal-oriented choral culture. On the other hand, there was the classically shaped culture of the social elite . This polarization was overlaid by the old dispute between Slavophiles and Westerners . The underlying question was: Should Russia focus more on its own traditions or should it orientate itself more towards the West? In the meantime, popular urban music styles also gained ground in Russia. Gypsy romances , marches, waltzes and polka pieces, Neapolitan hits as well as vaudeville and circus songs were already enjoying great popularity around the turn of the century. As technical developments progressed, commercially sold tin-pan-alley hits, sheet music and gramophones became more and more popular. Forerunners of jazz such as ragtime , foxtrot and cakewalk as well as other modern ballroom dances such as the one step, found numerous followers, especially in the urban centers. In 1914, the European tango enthusiasm finally reached the tsarist empire. In addition, a special style of urban folklore developed more and more in the southern centers on the Black Sea coast - the Russian chanson with its metropolitan and semi-world ballads.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1920)

The (predominantly) urban light popular music had gained a firm place in Russian society by the October Revolution of 1917. The leaders of the Bolsheviks, however, were usually shaped by classic bourgeois high culture. As far as cultural policy is concerned, they usually maintain an accompanying conception of music. Lenin, for example, was an avid supporter of Ludwig van Beethoven  - especially his famous piano sonata Appassionata . The cultural and political ideas of the Bolsheviks, however, were by no means uniform. During the civil war , the relevant decrees focused primarily on the consolidation of power and the requirements of the fight against the White Armies : on April 7, 1919, for example, it was announced that all musicians had to go to the front . On August 26, 1919, the party announced that the entertainment was under the sovereignty of the state. Finally, on April 19, 1920, a law was passed that linked music performances to the requirement of state permits.

Pyotr Lechenko

The cultural policy of the Bolsheviks during the 1920s was shaped by two different approaches. During the civil war and in the years after, the actionist agitprop concept was in the foreground, which primarily focused on the elements of education and role model function. Workers' choirs formed a means of practically initiating the targeted agitation of the population. Primarily assigned to support the troops , these choirs were already used during the civil war. Their repertoire consisted largely of traditional workers' songs ; In addition, there were current or situation-related agitation songs. After the civil war, a broader discussion began about the path that Soviet cultural policy should take. The radicals formed around the RAPM, the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians. The (cross-art) proletarian cultural movement (also known as the Proletkult for short ) was able to initiate a number of campaigns in the 1920s. However, the main cultural-political direction within the party, including Lenin, pushed a different path: the adoption of bourgeois , classical culture as well as making it generally accessible. For pragmatic reasons, the party mainstream was also willing to allow a certain amount of apolitical entertainment culture.

A rather superficial form of control was characteristic of the first decade after the October Revolution. Apart from occasional undertakings such as the Agit Prop campaign, the party intervened little in musical life. Benefiting from the New Economic Policy (NEP) after 1924, which gave private initiatives more space, the variety of existing styles was able to develop further without objection. Somewhat delayed by the civil war, after 1922 jazz (Russian: jass ) increasingly gained a foothold. In addition, there were new, strongly jazz-based fashion dances: Shimmy , Black Bottom , Two Step and, from 1923, the Charleston. The cult around the South American tango proved to be a long-running favorite well into the 1930s. The diversity of Russian popular music was reflected in the Estrada hits of the 1920s. Two popular songs of this era about - that of Jewish klezmer -music influenced Bublitschki as well as the well-known crooks ballad Murka  - come from the pool of urban Black Sea coastal chansons. Other songs were closely linked to the fate of the emigration - for example the hit Dorogoi dlinnoju , the first recording of which was by the emigrated singer Alexander Wertinski. The singer Pyotr Leschtschenko , who came from near Odessa and was known as the “king of tango” with his sentimental ballads and gypsy romances , was also very popular in the 1930s.

1928–1953: Estrada during the Stalin era

Leonid Utjossow (1930s)
Classified jazz as "the music of the fat": the writer Maxim Gorki

The standardization of Soviet popular music took place at the same time as Stalin's rise to the position of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU-B) and finally to the Soviet dictator who was present everywhere. A major result of the state's control of music established in the 1930s was the typical Soviet Estrada division into politically motivated battle songs on the one hand and non-political entertainment songs on the other. From a cultural and political point of view, the upheavals of the 1930s had three consequences: a shift towards more traditional values, a departure from the avant-garde art forms of the 1920s, and finally the endeavor to find catchy, mass-compatible forms of performance. From the point of view of many party activists, the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1930s was far from having a socialist exemplary musical culture. Evidence for this assessment was a sample taken on the occasion of the celebrations for the anniversary of the October Revolution in 1930 in Moscow's Red Square . According to the survey, 44 percent of the musical performances are of a bourgeois-bourgeois nature. 19 percent classified the study as pseudo-revolutionary, 19 percent as purely folkloric and only 18 percent as politically unobjectionable. Maxim Gorky had also expressed dissatisfaction with the state of Soviet popular music two years earlier . In the April 24, 1928 edition of Pravda , the writer, who returned from exile in 1927, subjected jazz music to a devastating criticism. Gorki's text made jazz responsible for manifestations of sexual degeneration and, in contrast to the young, future-striving workers' state , dismissed it as "the music of the fat" .

Dealing with the "Jass" was in many ways symptomatic of the Stalinist cultural policy of the 1930s. In practice, the term was a collective term for very different repertoires, playing styles and combo combinations. What they had in common was the orientation towards contemporary western entertainment styles as well as a sometimes more, sometimes less “swinging” style of play. The two band leaders Alexander Zfasman and Leonid Utjossow became figureheads of Soviet jazz music . Both enjoyed immense popularity. Through touring events, radio concerts , commissioned compositions and film music , they were firmly integrated into the official Estrada of the 1930s. There were some differences between the two in terms of professional focus and repertoire. Zfasman led various bands, including from 1939 to 1946 the jazz orchestra of the USSR Radio Committee. Utjossow, on the other hand, was more into musicals and film music. Significant nuances there were also musical terms: While Zfasman with his style closer to the repertoire of American Swing - Bands leaned, aimed Utjossow on a synthesis of international influences and Russian popular music. Nonetheless, the role of jazz remained contradictory in the 1930s and 1940s. Due to the resistance in the party and state apparatus, the “stars of red jazz” could only maintain their position on the basis of protection and artistic concessions. The personal favor of Stalin often played a decisive role in this system of privilege and verdict. A constellation that occasionally led to compromising situations: band leader Ulyossov, for example, was forced , in the presence of a few censors, at a concert in the Kremlin by Stalin to play gangster chanson titles - music from a genre that, also at Stalin's behest, was made in the 1930s Years under verdict.

The composer Isaak Dunajewski

Until well into the 1950s, concerts were the primary form in which the Soviet population came into contact with the Estrada. Another important medium was film . The music film Circus from 1936 became a prime example of the state of the art in Soviet entertainment - a melodrama that addressed , among other things, racism in an American circus (including a happy ending in the USSR). The music for the film came from Isaak Dunajewski , a composer who was primarily skilled in forms of light, cheerful entertainment. In terms of cultural policy, Dunajewski made use of his influence for a more independent, politically free Estrada. This is the only way, according to his argumentation, that the high technical and artistic level demanded by the party can be achieved. Dunajewski's activities for an Estrada that conformed to the ideas of socialist realism but was not fully regulated led to repeated conflicts with the cultural dogmatists in the RAPM, but in 1939 the first Estrada contest of the Soviet Union took place, largely co-initiated by Dunajewski. Song composers and lyricists played an important role in the Estrada system. Their genre and style emphases were different. As a lyricist in the field of mass song, Wassili Lebedew-Kumatsch should be highlighted. Isaak Dunajewski contributed the music for some of his songs. In addition, Dmitri Schostakowitsch was influential in the field of film music , a form-defining composer in the field of classical music, who despite occasional critical tones held the role of a state artist. Dmitri Pokrass , a soldier in the cavalry army during the civil war , was mainly involved in military marches (well-known piece: the Budjonny March ), film music and popular songs. Matwei Blanter , another composer, came from dance music . In addition to Stalinist praise - example: Pesnja o Staline (song about Stalin) from 1938  - he wrote popular hits such as the World War II success Katyusha .

Lidija Ruslanowa (1930s)

The range of performers was also heterogeneous - within the given framework. The repertoire of the singer Isabella Jurjewa , for example, was strongly attached to the style of the 1920s . One of her most famous pieces is the title Sasha , which is still interpreted today . The songs of the "Tango King" Pyotr Leschtschenko , who has meanwhile moved to the Romanian capital Bucharest , also served the sophisticated style of the past . In addition to Isabella Jurjewa, three Estrada artists in particular were immensely popular and successful in the 1930s and 1940s: Wadim Kosin , Lidija Ruslanowa and Klawdija Schulschenko . Kosin, a tenor from Leningrad , sang a number of successful titles, including the piece Druzhba (Friendship) from 1938. Lidija Ruslanowa, born in Saratov on the Volga , had made her first appearances at troop concerts during the civil war and was at times with a Chekist in a relationship. She has been a professional singer since the mid-1920s and, with her strongly emotional presentation, bridged the gap to rural , traditional Russia. Traditional peasant costumes, headscarves and a predominantly folkloric repertoire were an integral part of their performances. Two of her well-known pieces: the folklore ballad Na Muromskoi Doroschke (On the way to Murom) and Walenki. Finally, Klawdija Schulschenko, who was born in Moscow in 1906, tended to use a metropolitan, Soviet-oriented form of easy listening . One of her most popular titles was the pre-war ballad Sini Platotschek (Blue Headscarf), which was updated in 1942 . Other singers of this period were: Mark Bernes , Arkadi Pogodin and the tenor Georgi Winogradow.

Red Army Choir (1952)

That of - Character defining beyond the end of the Soviet Union, a choir was established in 1928 soldiers was Alexander Alexandrov launched chorus of the Red Army . Stalin saw the ensemble for the first time in 1931 and has supported it continuously ever since. In 1937 Alexandrov was commissioned to compose a new party anthem . Individual performers of the ensemble also appeared as Estrada artists. Example: the soloist Wladimir Bunchikow with the mass song Marsch entusijastow (March of the Enthusiast), composed in the early 1940s . The mobilization hymn Wstawai, strana ogromnaja (The Holy War) advanced to become the most famous song of the choir and one of the best-known Soviet songs during the Second World War . Written by Vasily Lebedew-Kumatsch in collaboration with the choir founder Alexandrow, it was premiered right after the start of the war - at the Belarusian train station in Moscow when volunteers were sent off to the front. The song Katyusha also played an important role in the mobilization in the Great Patriotic War , which was also used when the soldiers said goodbye in the first months of the war. Already interpreted in the pre-war period by various singers (including Lidija Ruslanowa), Katyusha advanced to become one of the most famous Soviet hits.

One aspect of the troop mobilization in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 was the strong presence of Estrada interpreters directly at the front as part of the troop support. The Alexandrow Ensemble, Leonid Utjossow with his band, Wadim Kosin and numerous other well-known artists completed a four-digit number of performances during the war. Klavdiya Schulschenko performed numerous concerts for Red Army soldiers in besieged Leningrad . Lidija Ruslanowa also showed a permanent presence in the troop support. As a member of General Georgi Zhukov's army corps at the Battle of Berlin , she was the first Russian singer to give a troop concert on the steps of the destroyed Reichstag building in early May 1945 . During the war, the advance of the Red Army was flanked by numerous mobilization songs such as Marsch sovetskich tankistow (March of the Soviet tank drivers), the Pessenka frontowowo schofjora (song of the front drivers ) or Kasaki w Berline (Cossacks in Berlin), a snappy, strong from American swing influenced piece. From a cultural point of view, the Second World War resulted in temporary westernization . This affected both the music itself and its audience . Due to the contact with residents of other countries as well as soldiers of friendly armies, millions of records ended up in the USSR. The regime had accepted a certain freedom of movement during the war years. After the war the pendulum swung in the opposite direction. For the Soviet Estrada, the closing of the Iron Curtain in 1946/1947 ushered in an era of years of stagnation. The period, also known as the “lost years”, was shaped primarily by the activities of Andrei Zhdanov - a follower of Stalin who appeared as a hardliner in international diplomacy and initiated a repressive cultural policy at home.

Eddie Rosner

The "Zhdanovshchina" that began in the post-war years was not only directed against recognized writers such as Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova . Numerous established Estrada artists were affected by the campaigns against cosmopolitanism and other purges in the post-war years - including the popular singers Wadim Kosin and Lidija Ruslanowa, the "Tango King" Pyotr Leschchenko imprisoned in Romania and the jazz musicians Eddie Rosner and Alexander Zfasman. Leschtschenko, now based in Romania, was initially banned from performing. In the early 1950s he was interned in a camp. Wadim Kosin was arrested as early as 1944 - presumably for not fulfilling a music request. He was released five years later. However, his career was at an end. Lidija Ruslanowa, an acquaintance of Marshal Georgi Schukow, was also one of the system's upper elite officials. In addition, she was married to an officer from Zhukov's army who had been honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union . When the latter was arrested and Ruslanova refused to sign a declaration that her husband was guilty, she was sentenced to ten years of labor in the Vladimirovka prison camp .

The wave of repression of the post-war years that went hand in hand with the campaign against cosmopolitanism and which lasted until Stalin's death in 1953 had different features. Alexander Zfasman's orchestra was disbanded in 1947. Zfasman himself was able to continue working to a limited extent, but de facto withdrew into early retirement. The swing trumpeter, band leader and native of Berlin Eddie Rosner, however, that after the invasion of Nazi - Wehrmacht in Poland in the Soviet Union exiles had sought, was first patronized by Stalin. After the end of the war, however, he fell out of favor and was interned in a camp in the East Siberian region of Kolyma in 1946 . Other Estrada artists such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Matwei Blanter, Klawdija Schulschenko or Mark Bernes survived the years of repression unscathed or, like Shostakovich, Blanter and Bernes, were honored with the Stalin Prize. Professionally, the careers of those involved in the pre-war Estrada varied. Lidija Ruslanowa, released from camp imprisonment immediately after Stalin's death in 1953, was physically marked by the stress of imprisonment. Nevertheless she tried to get back to her old career. Together with Mark Bernes, Leonid Utjossow and Klawdija Schulschenko she took over the patronage of the First Festival of the Soviet Song; in addition, she gave occasional concerts until her death in 1972. The jazz musician Eddie Rosner rose to head the camp orchestra in Magadan . After his release in 1953, he was a sought-after musician in the informal sector of the 1950s to 1970s Soviet Union. Frustrated by the constant disregard for his music, he left for Germany in 1973 , where he died impoverished and forgotten in 1976.

1953–1990: Estrada in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union

2. World Youth Festival 1951 in Budapest

The death of Stalin in 1953 and the thaw that began in the mid-1950s marked a significant turning point for the Soviet Estrada. While popular music in the Stalinist period was strongly characterized by mobilization and mass songs, it played a dual role in the thaw and Brezhnev era. On the one hand, it became more and more synonymous with growing prosperity and consumption . On the other hand, as the music historian Ingo Grabowsky put it in his contributions to the Estrada, it increasingly functioned as the “engine of westernization”. Westernization took place partly underground and in the informal sector , but in the longer term also in official light music. In the informal sector, a western-oriented subculture had formed since the early 1950s: the Stiljagi (roughly translated: style hunters, style addicts). Socially, the Stiljagi were largely recruited from sons and daughters of the nomenklatura . Essentially a phenomenon of the big metropolises , their music and clothing were based on jazz, the American Zoot Suiters of the post-war years and later the mods . The dissemination of unwanted music or music that was not available on normal channels took place partly through unconventional means such as "records on ribs": Instead of the hard-to-find vinyl , X-ray images were used for the pressing of sound carriers.

Parallel to the thaw period started by Nikita Khrushchev , the Soviet hit also opened up to new influences. While heroic compositions were still in the foreground in the post-war decade (example: the march W put , composed by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi and played to this day ), popular music of the post-war decades increasingly approached western forms. An indication of the more liberal attitude in the field of culture was the film Now Strikes 13 from 1956. Staged as a humorous criticism, it placed an overly narrow, unpopular understanding of entertainment at the center of the plot. The comedy , in which the formerly ostracized jazz musician Eddie Rosner participated, became the best-attended film in 1957. The 1957 International Youth Festival in Moscow proved to be a significant turning point . The World Festival not only led to an unusually close exchange with young people from other countries. They also promoted the career start of a new generation of Estrada stars. The singer Edita Pjecha made her debut at the World Festival . In 1957 she was still a member of the Druzhba (Friendship) formation, and became one of the icons of the sixties Estrada. One of the most famous Soviet hits of all became the signature tune of the World Festival - the song Podmoskownyje Wetschera (Moscow Nights) composed by Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi .

Vladimir Putin with cereal Maqomayev (2002)

The thaw caused, among other things, a temporary acceptance of the previously ostracized jazz music - or, according to state culture officials, its positive, "life-affirming" part. Overall, the period was marked by ambivalence . On the one hand, even after the fall of the Soviet Union, artists recognized the professionalism of the post-war Estrada. The singers, according to one of them, were real singers, the composers real composers. On the other hand, there was an attitude that was heavily influenced by work values ​​and geared towards conformity . Even so, Western influences were clearly on the rise in the 1960s. The Polish-born singer Edita Pjecha became the icon of this modern form Estrada. Instead, as was previously usual, her songs to be interpreted in a static way, she used the expression of dance - her best-known work: the French Ye-Ye pop-pop-held style Nash sosed from 1968. Influences of Western popular song, especially its French and Italian variants were unmistakable even with the Baku- born singer Müslüm Maqomayev . Maqomayev, a classically trained baritone , did not switch to light music until the 1960s. As a kind of Soviet version of Elvis Presley , Maqomayev enjoyed a cult status in the 1960s and 1970s that hardly any other Soviet singer could match. Many of his successful pieces were strongly influenced by international fashion dances such as Kuba - ljubow moja (Kuba - Meine Liebe), or by influences of the French Nouvelle Vague such as the 1972 title Gorod Moi Baku (My City Baku).

The composer Alexandra Pachmutowa (bottom row, second from left)

Parallel to the success of Pjecha and Maqomayev, a generation change also took place on the level of composers and Schlager suppliers . The most successful female composer of the 1960s and 1970s Estrada was Alexandra Pachmutowa . Born in 1929 near the former Stalingrad , she was versed in a broad spectrum, which included classical compositions as well as popular Estrada songs. Some of her pieces became classics - for example the Komsomol anthem Pesnja o trewoschnoi molodosti (1958), the song Neschnost, written as a reference to the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin , the piece Kuba - ljubow moja, interpreted by Müslüm Maqomayev, or the popular farewell song of the Olympian Summer Games 1980 in Moscow, Do swidanija, Moskva (goodbye, Moscow). Most of the texts for Pachmutova's compositions, over 400 titles, came from her husband Nikolai Dobronrawow . Well-known Estrada compositions in the field of film music were provided by the Armenian composer Mikael Tariwerdijew  - for example for the films Ironie des Schicksals (1975) and The Apprentice of the Medicus (1984). The composers and lyricists listed have received numerous honors for their work. Alexandra Pachmutowa in particular, with her work, is still considered to be a key composer of the post-war Estrada.

Lev Leschchenko (2009)

Overall, the image of the Estrada in the 1960s and 1970s was mixed. On the one hand, a number of artists of the thaw era orientated themselves more or less clearly on western styles. For example, the singer Larisa Mondrus , who moved to the West in the early 1970s , named Italian hits and easy-listering stars like Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand as essential role models. Lyudmila Gurtschenko , made famous by the comedy Jetzt geht's 13, increasingly turned to the genres of jazz and chanson , later also to the crossover to international pop music. The Polish-Russian-German singer Anna German , who represented Poland at the Sanremo Festival with the song Gi 1967, also represented a modern, western version of the Estrada that is open to the influences of the West . On the other hand, many continued to orientate themselves towards the official canon, which placed socialist values ​​and the glorious past in the foreground. An example of this form of Estrada was the singer Lev Leschtschenko , a soloist in the Red Army Choir, who had great success in 1975 with the World War II memorial song Den Pobedy . A prime example of the constant censorship of Estrada in the 1960s and 1970s was a hit song by singer Eduard Chil from 1976. Because those in charge considered Chill's lyrics about a cowboy who is happy to return home to be too "American" Yes otschen rad, wed ja, nakonez, voswraschschajus domoi in a vocalized form. The TV clip in which Chill performed his song with an unnatural-looking permanent smile finally advanced to an Internet hit in 2010 with millions of hits under the keyword “Trololo Man” .

Eduard Chil (2009)

When Leonid Brezhnev came to power , the liberalization of the 1960s passed into a new phase of restoration . Strong efforts to clean the Estrada of non-conforming influences showed in particular Sergei Lapin  - from 1970 head of the state radio and television . Lapin not only exchanged numerous executives in the institutions concerned. He also expressed his orthodox, anti-Semitic prejudice culture in a Pravda article published in 1973 . According to Lapin's summary, the people of the Soviet Union lived not just for the moment, but rather for five-year plans . Another change was economic. As early as 1964, the various regional record companies had been combined into a state monopoly - the state-owned Melodija group. From 1964 to the mid- 1980s , Melodija was the only point of contact for the recording and distribution of light music. In addition to Melodija, the Soviet cultural bureaucracy began to promote national variants of rock music from the mid-1960s. The vocal-instrumental ensembles (Russian: ВИА , abbreviation: WIA ) were synonymous with this . On the one hand, the WIA system took into account the fact that Western pop, beat and rock groups enjoyed immense popularity - especially the Beatles , and later heavier bands such as Led Zeppelin . On the other hand, the WIA system had a channeling function. Regardless of the mainstream-oriented, conventional orientation as well as the smoothed pop music forms that were promoted in this way, the WIA system served as a career launch pad for numerous artists. The formations Iwerija , Pesnjary , Pojuschtschije Gitary , Zwety , Wessolyje Rebjata , Semljane and the strongly folk-oriented band Yalla from Uzbekistan operated under the label WIA .

Estrada singer Alla Pugatschowa in East Berlin in 1976

The singer Alla Pugacheva, born in Moscow in 1949, became the outstanding star of the Soviet hit of the 1970s and 1980s . In retrospect, Alla Pugacheva is considered the mother of Russian pop culture and an icon of Russian pop music; According to a Russian joke that has been circulating since the perestroika era, Leonid Brezhnev is the CPSU general secretary who was in office during the Pugachev era. Stylistically, Alla Pugacheva served a broad repertoire. Her expressive style of staging, inspired by international show stars such as Liza Minnelli , became her hallmark . Their popularity established in 1975 the title Arlekino  - the story of a clown who has to hide his emotions behind a mask of smile. Another well-known piece by Alla Pugatschowa is the ballad Mne nrawitsja tschto wy bolny ne mnoi (1976) - a literary-inspired chanson, which has the merits of imperfection and is unusually short at around one and a half minutes, even for a popular song. In the 1980s Alla Pugacheva also made numerous appearances in the West, including the USA and Israel . Her example was not only very innovative musically. When it comes to socially controversial issues, Alla Pugacheva sometimes also kept his distance from the political establishment - for example on the occasion of a charity concert for the victims of the Chernobyl reactor disaster in 1986 .

Alla Pugacheva's willingness to experiment and success also had an encouraging effect on other artists. Compared to the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet hits of the late 1970s and early 1980s were much more oriented towards the standards of international pop music. With regard to the performers, another changing of the guard had taken place in the meantime. Other well-known singers of the late Estrada period were Lili Ivanova , Irina Allegrowa and Laima Vaikule as well as the singer and songwriter Igor Nikolajew , who also worked with Alla Pugatschowa, among others. In the wake of the perestroika initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev , the Soviet Estrada came even closer to international pop production standards. At the same time, western influences increasingly came to the Soviet Union - for example in the form of the disco wave . Ironically, some Russian themes returned to the country in the form of pop productions - for example, the Boney-M. -Title Rasputin or the disco piece Casatschok, a free adaptation of the Soviet World War II hit Katyusha. The pop music crossover of the late 1980s was supplemented by Western sound carriers and concerts by Western performers. At the same time, an independent rock scene was formed in the informal area, which established its own Russian version of rock music - so-called perestroika rock. Important rock bands of this phase were DDT , Aquarium and the group Kino with their charismatic singer Wiktor Zoi , who died in 1990 . As in the West, popular music in the Soviet Union expanded into different segments - a process that was dramatically intensified by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated establishment of a market economy .

Since 1991: Between an independent genre and international pop music

Laima Vaikule (2010)
The Popsa Duo tATu (2006)
Kristina Orbakaite (2010)
The Popsa Singer Valeria (2006)
Filipp Kirkorow (2013)
Sofija Rotaru (2009)
Lyudmila Gurchenko (2010)

The upheavals associated with the dissolution of the Soviet Union were a significant turning point for the state-sponsored Estrada. The period of upheaval in the late 1980s and early 1990s had both cultural and economic effects. A cultural one was that western pop products could now enter the country unhindered. A special consequence of this was the strong enthusiasm for disco music - especially the Europop , Eurodisco and Eurodance categories . There was particularly strong demand for German discopop productions such as the popular modern-talking hit Cheri, Cheri Lady . Russian interpreters and bands are also increasingly orienting themselves towards the appearance of western synth-pop productions. At the same time, the state support structure that had previously supported the Soviet Estrada collapsed. The state-owned company Melodija, for example, remained state-owned for the long term. Operating without subsidies and getting into the headlines negatively due to controversial marketing practices with regard to the extensive classical repertoire, the company quickly lost its former importance.

The establishment of a market economy in the light music sector had different aspects. On the one hand, new players appeared. The Russian offshoot of MTV  - MTV Russia, established itself as an important platform for music video clips . The station not only focused a high proportion of domestic productions. In addition, he promoted the Russian pop music market with awards such as the Russian Music Award . Russia's participation in the annual Eurovision Song Contest also had a stimulating effect on the international reputation of the domestic pop market. Video productions became more and more a typical trademark of Russian pop music. Another aspect was dubious machinations , some of which were semi-criminal or criminal , as well as the orientation of the market towards short-term successes that neglect the development of artists. Many actors also considered the insufficient copyright protection for musical works to be problematic . One effect of this: a wide range of Internet portals that offer Western music as well as traditional and modern Russian pop music for download .

State TV programs in particular remained a domain of the classic Estrada. Artists who peaked in their careers in the 1960s and 1970s - such as Iossif Kobson , Valeri Leontjew or Lev Leschtschenko - and are therefore particularly favored by an older audience are still very present . The Estrada artists of the 1980s also had a strong TV presence. Pop icon Alla Pugatschowa is widely present in the media and has made a number of new releases in the new millennium. Pugacheva's daughter Kristina Orbakaite is also very present on TV as a singer and presenter. In 2002 she received an award as the best-selling musician in Russia. Filipp Kirkorow , born in 1967 in the Bulgarian city of Varna , was temporarily married to Alla Pugacheva. He began his career in 1995 as a Russian participant in the Eurovision Song Contest. Having made the headlines through a series of scandalous appearances, Kirkorow now maintains a cross-generational repertoire of international crooning , folk , blues , Spanish rhythms, musicals, Estrada classics and echoes of electronic music .

The moderately pop music-oriented Estrada style of 1980 was also continued by other established singers from the times of the Soviet Union. The weekly magazine Ogonyok , a flagship of perestroika, raised as a continuity factor for Estrada of the post-Soviet Union, especially the oeuvre of the singer Laima Vaikule praise out. Singer Sofija Rotaru, dubbed the “Queen of Pop”, also achieved high places in the charts . The same applies to the singer Larisa Dolina, who was born in Baku in 1955 . Unlike other Estrada interpreters, Dolina focused more on an international, crooning and jazz repertoire, which includes Gershwin songs as well as romantic pieces by Tchaikovsky . Younger performers, on the other hand, increasingly favored a style oriented towards international pop productions - examples: the singers Natascha Koroljowa ( Scholtyje tjulpany; 1999), Anschalika Ahurbasch ( Ja budu schit dlja tebja; 2006) and Tatjana Terjoschina .

The current spectrum of entertainment hits is quite heterogeneous. It ranges from classic Estrada artists in the style of the old Soviet Union to Russian Pop to borrowings from electronic music, house and dance . An example of the last variant is, for example, Aljona Apina , ex-lead singer of the electropop formation Kombinazija, who had a bigger hit with Elektritschka in 1997 and admits that musically she is mainly influenced by disco music. With Popsa, a special Russian discotheque pop has established itself among younger audiences with its own stars such as the duo tATu, which is also known in the West, or the singer Valerija . In addition, nostalgically romanticizing or patriotically charged recourse to the repertoire and forms of post-war Estrada have also enjoyed commercial success . An example of this is the singer Jelena Wajenga , whose music consists of a mix of chansons and folk-pop - combined with set pieces from the Soviet past and a corresponding staging. Jelena Wajenga is one of the top acts in Russian show business. Wajenga repeatedly took conservative positions on political and social issues. They supported the 2012 presidential candidacy of Vladimir Putin . Like several other Russian musicians and writers, she also expressed herself critical of the western protests after the arrest of the Pussy Riot musicians and characterized their “punk prayer” in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior as “ blasphemy ” and " Hooliganism ".

Feedback and reviews

It is not unanimously determined which forms of interpretation and which epochs are subsumed under the term Estrada. The cultural historian David MacFadyen, for example, uses the term quite broadly. In his three-volume work on the subject, he sets the beginning of the Estrada in the second half of the 19th century. According to MacFadyen, the Estrada is still current; the third volume of his book series is devoted exclusively to contemporary manifestations after the end of the Soviet Union. In addition to this broad definition, there are those that emphasize a closer connection with the political culture of the Soviet Union. Again, there are differences. The German Eastern Europe expert and cultural historian Ingo Grabowsky, for example, focuses very much on the Soviet hits of the post-war decades in his specialist articles on the subject. For him, the aspect of "westernization", which the genre has promoted in the long term, is particularly in the foreground. Other texts on the subject, however, bring the term more into connection with the culture of mass and agitation songs of the Stalinist era.

In terms of style, too, the delimitations are not clear. There is general agreement that the dissident musical forms of the Soviet era that were pushed into the informal space do not belong to the Estrada - for example the Russian chanson, the bard song or even perestroika rock. However, differentiations from current Russian pop music productions or from Popsa and the associated disco culture are difficult or only possible selectively. The general tendency here is to count towards the Estrada rather those forms of performance that were typical for the hit at the time of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, boundaries play an important role. Filipp Kirkorow, for example, one of the stars of the new Russian pop, has now decidedly differentiated himself from Popsa productions and emphasizes that Estrada is an independent direction.

Due to the stylistic diversity that Russian popular music now has, Estrada is just one of many styles. Due to its special history, it is strongly linked to nostalgic feelings. In terms of audience, Estrada is more of the music style of the older generation. In the West, especially in Germany, interest in music from Russia has increased significantly since the opening of the Iron Curtain . The majority of the publications, however, focus on the dissident directions of the past or on the current club and underground scene as well as individual acts. In terms of distribution, the preference for Estrada is still limited to the Russian-speaking area as well as the Russian communities in other countries. Russian pop and estrada do not currently have a worldwide acceptance like international pop music, which is dominated by English. Nevertheless, interest in Russian songs, including Estrada hits, has been increasing in the West since the opening of the Iron Curtain, especially in urban centers - a process that is being promoted by globalization , among other things .

The question of how conformist or resistant the Soviet hit was to the system is still answered differently. The Schlager and Estrada expert Ingo Grabowsky identifies two different character traits in the Estrada repertoire: songs that served as agitation and non-political songs that served as diversion. A third type has also developed: songs that glorified the system, but were (re) interpreted by the audience according to their own ideas and wishes. Accordingly, the rulers' distrust in the hit was great. Grabowsky: “Schlager always had a bad reputation among those in power. For example, they were often considered to be inspired by the decadent , capitalist West and inferior to the real culture of classical music from the point of view of those in power. But with people, hits were much more popular than operas, for example . And that's why the communist rulers had to give space to this social need. "

The focus of dissidence versus conformity is also reflected in the point of view of individual interpreters. The composer Alexander Schurbin, for example, explicitly emphasizes the international influences on Estrada music. On the one hand, you can hear immediately that Estrada is a Russian or Soviet form of music. All Soviet songs have a certain stamp that identifies them as songs from the Soviet Union. On the other hand, Russia has always been open to influences from other countries - such as France , Italy , Germany or the USA. Ultimately, all of these influences would have been reflected in the Estrada. The singer Lev Letschenko, on the other hand, emphasizes above all the political, system-compliant aspect. Letschenko: “Of course every country had its pop music. But we in Eastern Europe were united, so to speak, by a common mood, common themes. The Estrada was oriented, aligned to a socialist format. Hence there were many songs about work . There were many songs about life today, about the workers , about the working people , about miners . I don't know how it is with you, but we did. With us the songs praised the work. They were relevant. "

Well-known Estrada titles

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 5.
  2. ↑ a b c Russia: Popsa and "Russian Chanson" , Irving Wolther, eurovision.de, March 28, 2008.
  3. ↑ Time span and rough subdivision are based on the three-volume overall presentation by David MacFadyen (see also section "Literature").
  4. ↑ Russian folk music and its meaning ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Hubl Greiner / WDR , music history. Contributions to music history and musicology, 2003. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hg11.com
  5. ↑ The famous Pyatnitsky Choir celebrates its 100th anniversary , Maria Strelkova, radio feature on radio Voice of Russia, March 6, 2011.
  6. ↑ a b S. Frederic Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917–1990. Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 1990, ISBN 3-85445-062-1 , p. 27 ff.
  7. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 56.
  8. ↑ Lenin, Love, Lust and Passion. An eroticism of power , Elke Suhr, Deutschlandfunk, December 30, 2008.
  9. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 11.
  10. ^ S. Frederic Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917–1990. Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 1990, ISBN 3-85445-062-1 , pp. 15-16, 42-43.
  11. ^ S. Frederic Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917–1990. Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 1990, ISBN 3-85445-062-1 , p. 79 ff.
  12. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 40.
  13. ^ Mourning in Russian hits from 1931 , short TV feature about Pyotr Leschtschenko on dctp.tv, accessed on December 25, 2013.
  14. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 14.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f Ingo Grabowsky: Motor of Westernization. The Soviet Estrada song 1950–1975. In: Monthly Eastern Europe , April 2012 edition, pp. 21–35.
  16. ^ S. Frederic Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917–1990. Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 1990, ISBN 3-85445-062-1 , p. 82 ff.
  17. ^ S. Frederic Starr: Red and Hot. Jazz in Russia 1917–1990. Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 1990, ISBN 3-85445-062-1 , p. 115 ff.
  18. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 32 ff.
  19. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 17 ff.
  20. ↑ a b c d Lidia Ruslanova , russia-ic, accessed December 25, 2013.
  21. ↑ Russia's Singing Weapon , Irina Wolkowa, Neues Deutschland, June 22, 2011.
  22. ↑ Katyusha (song) , music source comparison site TopShelfReviews, accessed December 25, 2013
  23. ↑ "Stalin Organ" and Katyusha. History of a song and a weapon ( Memento from May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Wolf Oschlies , shoa.de, accessed on December 25, 2013.
  24. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 151 ff.
  25. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 127 ff.
  26. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 96.
  27. ^ Underground-Dandy alias Pop-Zar , Gregor Auenhammer, Der Standard, March 9, 2010.
  28. ^ David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English), p. 202 ff.
  29. ↑ Gertrud Pickhan , Maximilian Preisler: Expelled by Hitler, persecuted by Stalin. The jazz musician Eddie Rosner. be.bra Wissenschaft verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-937233-73-4 .
  30. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 127 ff.
  31. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Call of Freedom? - Politics and hits in the Soviet Union , radio feature by Micky Beisenherz with Ingo Grabowsky, beisenherz.de, October 6, 0213
  32. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 116 ff.
  33. ^ "Trololo man": Russian hit from the 1970s, new internet hit , krone.at, April 2, 2010.
  34. ↑ Uli Hufen: The regime and the dandies. Russian crooks from Lenin to Putin. Rogner & Bernhard, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8077-1057-0 , p. 96.
  35. ↑ Russian Culture. Modern Russian Music ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , guidetorussia.org, accessed December 1, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.guidetorussia.org
  36. ↑ Allas rock concert - prayer for salvation , Johannes Grotzky, Die Zeit, June 6, 1986.
  37. ↑ Music Special Russia: Ground Zero of Russian Rock , laut.de, October 2, 2012.
  38. ^ Russian musical cultures in transition ( Memento from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Mischa Gabowitsch, kultura, May 5/2006: Popular Music in Russia, May 2006 (PDF file; 508 kB)
  39. ↑ a b Music Special Russia: Pop Between Omas and Lolitas , laut.de, October 5, 2012.
  40. ↑ Music Special Russia: Music for 140 million , laut.de, October 5, 2012.
  41. ↑ The History of Russian Rock ( Memento of the original from December 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Michail W. Sigalow, Neue Musikzeitung , online at www.cccp-pok.com, accessed on August 5, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cccp-pok.com
  42. ↑ Analysis: Russian glamor and the Putin era , Birgit Menzel, bpb.de (website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education), June 3, 2013.
  43. ↑ a b David MacFadyen: Estrada?!. Grand Narratives and the Philosophy of the Russian Popular Song Since Perestroika. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2002, ISBN 0-7735-2371-5 (English), p. 23.
  44. ↑ David MacFadyen: Estrada?!. Grand Narratives and the Philosophy of the Russian Popular Song Since Perestroika. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2002, ISBN 0-7735-2371-5 (English), p. 19.
  45. ↑ a b c Russian Pop Music Today: Struggle for Independence ( Memento from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), David MacFadyen, kultura, May 5/2006: Popular Music in Russia, May 2006 (PDF file; 508 kB)
  46. ↑ Putin: “Pussy Riot shouldn't be judged too harshly” , Ilya Kharlamov, Voice of Russia, August 4, 2012 (Eng.)
  47. ↑ Sources unclear for year of first publication
  48. ↑ Text and music (not 100% verified): Jakow Jadow and Oskar Strok
  49. ↑ year: year of admission; Part of Isabella Jurjewa's repertoire: probably in the late 1920s

literature

  • Ingo Grabowsky: Motor of Westernization. The Soviet Estrada song 1950–1975. In: Eastern Europe. 4/2012.
  • Ingo Grabowsky: It is particularly aimed at the janz spicy ones. The Soviet hit of the 1960s and early 1970s. In: Boris Belge, Martin Deuerlein: Golden Age of Stagnation? Perspectives on the Soviet order of the Breznev era. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-16-152996-2 .
  • David MacFadyen: Songs for Fat People. Affect, Emotion and Celebrity in the Russian Popular Song 1900–1955. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0-7735-2441-X (English); excerpts online from Google Books
  • David MacFadyen: Red Stars. Personality and the Soviet Popular Song 1955-1991. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2001, ISBN 0-7735-2106-2 (English); excerpts online from Google Books
  • David MacFadyen: Estrada?!. Grand Narratives and the Philosophy of the Russian Popular Song Since Perestroika. Mcgill Queens University Press, Montreal 2002, ISBN 0-7735-2371-5 (English); excerpts online from Google Books
  • Richard Stites: Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1992, ISBN 0-521-36986-X (English); excerpts online from Google Books

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on June 27, 2018 .