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American University of Central Asia
IMPACT OF THE U.S. COUNTERCULTURE ROCK MUSIC ON SOVIET ROCK:
STUDYING KINO’s LYRICS
Bakyt Dzhenyshpekova
Bishkek
May 10, 2013
During the Cold War, the two biggest ideologies clash against each other: capitalism
versus communism. The two biggest cultures compete for the world leadership trying to seem
the best in every aspect of life, including cultural development. This project aims at finding out
what cultural impact the United States could have on the Soviet Union during these era of
unarmed fight, if the Soviet communist leaders simply banned the U.S. production on its
territory. Cultural impact here means the how American rock music influenced the Soviet rock
bands. Since rock music is an attribute of the counterculture, rather than dominant culture, the
study aims at revealing whether the counterculture can also be as influential as popular culture or
not.
In order to analyze how, when, who, and what exactly influenced the soviet band Kino’s
music, one should definitely know about the history of American rock music and its sub-genres
starting from the 1960s to the 1980s where major changes of genre occurred. It is the 1960s
when rock-n-roll is mostly identified as a genre of counterculture youth groups in the United
States. Famous American bands of the 1960s are the Doors, the Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds,
Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Jimmy Hendrix, and others. Mostly these enlisted bands and genres
come up to be the most influential and these rock groups find millions of followers in the world
who in their turn find their idols.
The 1960s of the rock music history is known for rock bands using different electronic
devices in order to make sounds different. Synthesizers are new electronic musical instruments
for that time. They are used as commonly as the guitars by many rock bands, but some of them,
punks for instances, do not use electronics. Concerning the text, the verse-chorus form is most
common in American rock. This textual technique is characterized by either regular replication
of the same chorus during the song or chorus changes its words and meaning but is repeated and
sung by the same musical notes. This verse-chorus form remains in other rock sub-genres too.
By the 1980s American rock gets sophisticated and differentiated by various sub-genres
and styles. Such sub-genres as post-punk, alternative rock and new wave occur in the 1970s and
1980s. Alternative rock stands for the idea that there is an alternative to common well-known
punk rock. The new wave is less chaotic, less rebellious, more romantic genre than the punk and
it has been more successful in the market. Different American record companies professionally
doing business in music industry cooperated more with the new wave bands rather than punks.
The 1990s and new millennium are considered the time period of decline of rock music in the
world according to rock amateurs and rock critiques.
The beginning of the triumphal popularity of this Soviet band starts in the early 1980s. In
the United States this period for rock music is known for new wave and post-punk genres
coming into light. According to sounds and lyrics of Kino, the new wave is genre that could best
describe Kino’s genre. Artemiy Troitsky, famous and legendary Soviet rock critique, journalist,
and writer from what is now Yaroslavle, Russia, also identifies Kino’s music genre as new
wave.1 Kino differs from previous Russian rock bands like Akvaruim, Alisa, and Mashina
Vremeni with creation of its own more westernized sounding and more romantic texts and lyrics,
which are again characteristics of the new wave.
First occurred in the United States, the new wave and post punk came to Soviet Russia,
and as a result of it Kino becomes a band of such genre. Kino chooses this genre according to the
trends of the west: people like new wave genre, thus there is a demand in bands performing in
this style. That’s why Kino plays songs like this and gets loved and famous: the easier is the
song, the more likely people like it. In cultural hegemony, there is no way someone forces to get
1
Liza Bochkareva, “Otvergaya Soblazny”, (March 2002) http://www.rockhell.spb.ru/musicians/kino/a29.shtml influenced by a superior culture, to apply other culture’s characteristics and habits to your own
culture and enjoy it. Cultural influence happens when many people accept foreign life style and
make it part of his or her own culture.
Troitsky also says that in the beginning of Kino’s formation in the late 1970s and early
80s, the founders of the band Victor Tsoy and Aleksey Rybin, excited and interested in creation
of unique Russian rock band, tried to follow the trends in rock music abroad.2 Then, Tsoy and
Rybin looked for the ideas for their new band from the United States. As Troitsky claims, the
young men were specifically interested in the Doors, REM, the Black Sabbath, the Smiths, the
Cure, T.Rex, whose influence can be seen in the sound and lyrics of the band3. The ideas that
they borrowed from the abroad brought them popularity. Kino uses techniques and technology
that other Russian bands had not being used. It is electronic instruments such as synthesizers and
drum-machines. This makes the sound of Kino different. This makes their music sound like new
wave punk with some elements of disco. Russian public reacts positively to this newness in the
Soviet concert arena; however, the band also faces the Soviet censorship of the 1985.
Soviet young people, the audience of Kino’s repertoire, accepts this new westernized
Soviet rock band. This can be due to the romantic, light, charismatic lyrics of the songs that are
easy to remember. Though, more sophisticated, abstract, and self-expressive themes are also
present in the lyrics, which makes the band thematically diverse and attractive not only for group
of teenage people but adults also. Thus, the lovers of Kino are young people both female and
male, punks and even people with pop-music preferences. Lyrics of Kino are also verse-chorus
styled. Tsoy and Rybin hit the jackpot choosing the romantic mood to be present in the lyrics of
the Kino.
2
3
Artemiy Troitsky, “O gruppe Kino”, http://victor-­‐tsoy.narod.ru/vosptroi.htm Trotskiy, http://victor-­‐tsoy.narod.ru/vosptroi.htm One of the most famous songs of Kino Peremen is an expressive song. This song could
be analyzed within the context of the events in the USSR during the 1980s. The song Peremen is
one of the latest pieces of Kino. It appeared in the album Posledniy Geroy (The Last Hero) in the
1989. In order to analyze the lyrics in the socio-political contexts, the historical review of the
Soviet Union during the 1980s should be done first. Still in the 1980s, counterculture groups in
USSR were under the tough governmental control because central power feared American
ideological influence: they feared the capitalism could replace the communism. Thus,
government decided to control the way of life of every individual, deciding for each what to
wear, what to listen, what to read, where to go, what to buy. The first target group, as the
potential threat to soviet ideology, becomes counterculture of Soviet Union. In other words,
people who liked western rock and had different viewpoints were under the control.
Kino’s existence was not welcomed by the government, and counterculture in USSR
faced rather more hardships than the counterculture groups of the United States because Soviet
political regimes was different. According to numerous researchers, the political regime of the
USSR (during the 1980s too) was authoritarian. This regime can be characterized as a political
system where central power is in hands of one or few strong rulers, who control executive,
legislature, jurisdiction, economy, and society and life of almost every men in a country.4 USSR
was a good example of such regime. One of those researchers who studied Soviet political
regimes Jay Bergman, an author of the article “Was the Soviet Union Totalitarian? The View of
Soviet Dissidents and the Reformers of the Gorbachev Era” claims that the most common way to
abuse the human rights in Soviet Union was censorship, and government tried very hard to
4
Jay Bergman, “Was the Soviet Union Totalitarian? The View of Soviet Dissidents and the Reformers of the Gorbachev Era”, Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1998): 252 interfere in private life of an individual in order to control the whole society. Government banned
many books, banned rock music, and other means that could resist government.
The banning western rock music in the Soviet Union was official, sealed and singed, thus
people who preferred foreign music, especially American rock, had to disobey laws, to hide
underground to enjoy music they wanted to listen to.5 This event itself, the censorship is one of
the reasons of emergence and development of underground groups in the Soviet state. As the
researcher Jolanta Pekacz claims, when government prohibits import of different things like
music, fashion, products, especially rock music, it is government who creates problems,
opposition, and disobedience in the state.6 That’s what happened to Russian government: by
banning rock music they only created unwelcomed underground culture, in other words the
Soviet counterculture.7 As a result, since numerous bands and artists’ compositions are banned,
the underground culture is appeared in the USSR in the 1980s. Moreover, as the researcher and
scholar Yngvar B. Steinholt has studied, the punk rock and influence of western rock music
didn’t diminished, but “was a leading musical culture” in the large cities of the USSR.8
According to his studies, the lyrics of the Russian rock songs attracted much more attention of
the government, since they tended to be self-expressive, which was not really welcomed by the
soviet government.
For example, the song Peremen can be analyzed in the political and social contexts.
Counterculture is always about self-expression and the lyrics and texts of the songs often reflect
words that need to be heard. Probably, the lyrics of the song carry more political meaning rather
than just psychological. The political and social meaning of the song then is expressing of the
5
Pryazhinskaya, Grishin, the electronic version of a document, http://forever-­‐rock.narod.ru/others/dirty_list.jpg Jolanta Pekacz, “Did Rock Smash the Wall? The Role of Rock in Political Transition”, Popular Music, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1994): 42
7
Pekacz, 43. 8
Steinholt, 91. 6
anxiety, dissatisfaction, and even grievances that people, especially the younger generation, felt
towards overly attached and overly controlling government. Society felt that changes were
needed. Communism did not work in the Soviet Union already in the 1990s. The song reflects
the worries of those times and expresses that people are ready for those changes.
The impact of the American rock music culture is reflected in the Kino’s lyrics. As a
result of the analysis, Kino the band took ideas on their music genre and it was a new wave postpunk rock. The sound is more Americanized for it has put the sound of synthesizers in their
repertoire. Therefore, the band Troitskiy’s classification of the band as western oriented can be
confirmed. However, the Kino was not totally Americanized. The traits of Russian poetry still
remain in the lyrics and manner of Tsoy’s singing. The spread of the western influence on Kino
is mostly seen on the genre of the band. New wave and post-punk, originated in the United States
as a sub-genre of rock, the most appropriately and accurately fit to Kino’s repertoire. Since the
band uses of synthesizers, drum machines, electro-bass guitars, and such themes as romantics,
love, melancholy, and overall expressiveness of the lyrics are the characteristics of new wave.
This is where we find impact of the United States’ rock music culture on Soviet band Kino. The
theory of cultural hegemony here applies accurately, because the western influence is present
even when the Soviet government interferes into its counterculture life, controlling every their
step, banning man rock bands. The American rock music culture prevails over communism
among the Soviet underground and counterculture groups without forces and dictatorship
involved.
Bibliography
Bergman, Jay. “Was the Soviet Union Totalitarian? The View of Soviet Dissidents and
the Reformers of the Gorbachev Era”, Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 50, No. 4
(Dec., 1998): 252
Liza Bochkareva, “Otvergaya Soblazny”, (March 2002)
http://www.rockhell.spb.ru/musicians/kino/a29.shtml
Pryazhinskaya, Grishin, the electronic version of a document, http://foreverrock.narod.ru/others/dirty_list.jpg
Pekacz, Jolanta. “Did Rock Smash the Wall? The Role of Rock in Political Transition”,
Popular Music, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1994): 42-43
Steinholt, Yngvar B. “You Can't Rid a Song of Its Words: Notes on the Hegemony of
Lyrics in Russian Rock Songs”, (Cambridge University press, 2003): 91
Troitsky, Artemiy. “O gruppe Kino”, http://victor-tsoy.narod.ru/vosptroi.htm