History of Russian Rock

Rock-n-roll appeared at USSR after international festival of youth and students in

1957. At the beginning of 1960s, the rock music existed in USSR a half
clandestinely, which made it a kind of an aesthetic dessert for advanced musical
gourmands. They had an opportunity to get vinyl records of American rhythm-and-
blues and British big-beat music, those of Beatles and Rolling stones.
In the middle of 1960s the first Soviet beat-bands appeared, they were, in fact, the
first rock-ensembles (or rock-bands): Moscow Slavyane, Stranniki, Mify,
Skomorokhi, Leningrad Avangard, Lesnye bratya, Minsk Pesnyary. To
ensure legitimacy of their status, the first rock-bands had to hide/disguise
themselves as artists of Soviet stage as a result, there appeared a dozen of vocal
and instrumental ensembles (such as Vesyolye rebyata, Poyuschie gitary) or
quasi-folk ensembles (Pesnyary).
At the turn of the decade, the passion of Soviet youth to Anglo-American rock-
music became widespread (especially there was a craze to Beatles and Rolling
stones). In major cities (especially in Moscow and Leningrad) there began to
establish amateur rock-bands (usually quartets-three guitars and percussion). They
performed songs of their favorite foreign bands.
In 1971, the first in the history of USSR rock-festival was arranged, where
Moscow Skomorokhi under the leadership of Alexander Gradskiy and
Chelyabinsk Arielle succeeded the most.
During the 1970s rock remained a kind of a marginal phenomenon of Soviet
musical culture as well as works of so-called bards Bulat Okudzhava, Alexander
Galich, Yuli Kim, and Vladimir Vysotsky, continuing to be a half-forbidden
phenomenon. As the majority of rock-bands performances were arranged at homes
(kvartirnik), assembly halls, new rock-bands, mainly performing covers of
international hits gained popularity very quickly (such as Rubinovaya ataka,
Tzvety, Araks, etc.)
In Russian rock-culture of 1970s, there appeared such a specific phenomenon as
magnitizdat. It was the network of producing and
proliferation/dissemination/spread of home-made masters of amateur ensembles.
The magnet-albums were widespread among fans.
As rock-musicians had no opportunity to use high-quality instruments and the
newest electronic equipment for audio/sound recording and mixing, they instilled a
sense of so-called musical minimalism in their audience members. So, the rock
singers (from Makarevich, Grebenshchikov and Tsoi to Butusov-Kormil'tsev and
Shevchuk) succeeded due to intense socially critical and emotionally moralistic
lyrics.
Since the second half of 1970s, popular western music officially enters the USSR.
The only recording studio Melody starts to release albums Melodies and
rhythms of foreign stage, where singles of western pop- and rock-stars such as
Elvis Presley and Tom Johns had the place to be.
After the Olympic Games of 1980 (which became strong catalyst for legitimacy of
rock music) there was established the first amateur association of musicians, a kind
of a rock-club, where Akwarium, Tamburin, Mify, etc. belonged. At that
time there established the main genres of Soviet rock music, such as classic rock
and roll (Zoopark, Bravo), lyrical folk rock (Mashina vremeny, Chaif),
heavy metal (Avgust, Aria), punk rock (Avtomaticheskiye udovletvoritely),
jazz rock (Arsenal).
Eventually,in USSR there were established Ural rock, which was presented with
Urfin Juce, Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya, Siberian rock (Kalinov most),
Vladivostok rock (Mumiy Troll). At that time, the best albums of leading rock
bands appeared (Kino-Blood type, Posledny geroy, Alisa-Energy, JAZZ,
Televizor-Schestvie ryb, etc.).
In 1986 in USA, there was dual album Red Wave released. It contained records
of such Soviet bands as Kino, Akvarium, Stranniye igry and Alisa. This
album promoted Russian rock to be legalized abroad.
Thanks to A. Bashlachev, Russian rock appealed to Russian folk tradition, but from
time to time it transformed into a kind of a preen a la Rus (using of ushanka,
balalaika, garmoshka, tarpaulin boots, kosovorotka, etc.).
At the end of 1980s, rock-bands transformed into commercial projects, which
became possible due to holding of big tours in various cities, sold-out concerts and
legal albums release. At the same time, there was born pop-musical industry of
western model. The disco-group Laskoviy mai was a clear example of this genre.
1990s is a period of final formation of Russian pop-musical industry. Some time
ago, rock-music was full of social and moral protest but it transformed into
conglomerate of the most commercially successful companies later on. This
phenomenon has led Russian rock to dissolution in the flow of pop-music.