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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