RUSSIAN ROCK

The early '60s: Local bard music and first western influences

Prior to the late sixties, music in the Soviet Union was divided into two groups: music published by Melodiya, and everything else. Under this second group were the bards, underground folk singer-songwriters.
Bards such as Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava created the style which is referred to as "author's song" (avtorskaya pesnya), mostly played on unaccompanied acoustic guitar and characterized by a strong accent on lyrics that sometimes carried a subversive meaning. Their music was often suppressed by the government, and yet enjoyed massive popularity, with Vysotsky becoming a highly popular movie actor and an iconic figure of the times.
Meanwhile, some Western music was either being smuggled across the border or released by Melodya as part of what essentially was state-run pirating of records, with the Beatles taking a firm place in Soviet popular culture, and artists such as The Rolling Stones and Deep Purple completing a somewhat distorted picture of Western music.
The first "rock" bands in the Soviet Union appeared on the scene in the early- and mid-sixties in Moscow, and they were heavily influenced by the Beatles.

The late '60s and '70s: First signs

The native bands grew popular in spite of governmental restrictions. This continued into the 1980s, when native bands gained some success, but were still hampered by state regulators who would not allow them to be officially recorded, and placed restrictions on lyrical content.
Underground bands evolved during this time, including Pojuschie Gitary (the singing guitars), and almost at the same time Mashina Vremeni and Akvarium. These bands started the VIA (Вокально-Инструментальный Ансамбль Vokal'no-Instrumental'nyy ansambl' -- Vocal-Instrumental Ensemble) movement, and were followed by Tcvety, Golubiye Gitary and Sinyaya Ptica.In the early 1970s Yuri Morozov invented a kind of Russian psychedelic rock, using elements of progressive rock and Ethnic Russian music as well. His sound influenced DDT, Aquarium, Chizh & Co, and many others, while he worked with them as a sound engineer .
Another notable artist who started his activity at the same time is Alexander Gradsky, who created bard music using rock elements and sold millions of records all over the country.

The '80s: "Classic" Russian rock

Aquarium were one of the pioneering Russian rock bands
In the 1980s an underground scene of rock artists emerged that based their style on a mix of Western rock music (particularly the Beatles) and the Russian bard tradition. Such bands as Alisa, Agata Kristi, Autograph, Kino, Mashina Vremeni, Nautilus Pompilius, Aquarium, Krematorij, Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Voskreseniye, Secret, Piknik, Chizh & Co and DDT (band) were influential in the development of the genre, with the consequent artists copying their style.
Big influence on the development of Russian rock made movements such as mitki, hippie and others.
In 1980 a big Rock festival was held in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, named Spring Rhythms. Tbilisi-80. Almost all the performers and prize-winners at the festival were rock groups from the Russian SSR. It was the first official rock festival in the Soviet Union.
The lyrics of the Soviet rock bands often dealt with the darker sides of the 80s Soviet life such as domestic violence, alcoholism (an infamous song by Nautilus Pompilius contained the lines "Alain Delon drinks a double bourbon/Alain Delon doesn't drink eau de cologne" as a sarcastic contrast to the alcoholic daughter-raping father described in the song and an indictment of the escapist attitudes of state-run media) and crime, and often carried a hidden political message.
These bands were consequently ignored by the mainstream radio and television, often reaching audiences only through word of mouth.
Many of the 80s bands are still active and popular among Russian youth. The term Russian rock is often used to refer to the particular sound of these bands.

Various music scenes

Aria, the Russia's leading heavy metal act
In the early- to mid-80s, several rock clubs were founded in Moscow, Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) and Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). These three cities had their own rock music scene, with friendly collaborations between artists commonplace.
The Leningrad Rock Club was probably the biggest venue, featuring "classic Russian rock" by Aquarium, Kino, Zoopark, Piknik, Chizh & Co, Alisa and DDT. It also included the nascent Russian art rock movement, typified by such bands as Auktyon.
Bands from Sverdlovsk, such as Nautilus Pompilius, Chaif and Agata Kristi, produced more melodic music making heavy use of keyboards and synthesizers.
Moscow rock bands, such as Aria, Mashina Vremeni, Voskreseniye, Center, Krematorijand Zvuki Mu, were rather different from the others and sometimes more discreet.
The Siberian rock scene began in the 1980s, with such songwriters as Egor Letov (Grazhdanskaya Oborona, Omsk), Kalinov most, Alexander Bashlachev and Yanka Dyagileva. Their music varied from simple lo-fi punk to indie rock (sometimes unplugged), and the core of their songs were the lyrics. Many albums were first self-released and distributed among the fans via trading, then officially re-released years later. Lyrics were often obscene, and the musicians had major problems with the Soviet administration and KGB.
Notable acts that weren't members of any of the three Rock-Clubs but were highly popular are Igor Talkov and the Rock N' Roll band Secret.
At that time the Russian Heavy metal scene was created thanks to bands like Aria, Chorny Kofe and Master (formed by a few ex-members of Aria).The glam metal band Gorky Park reached high popularity in the west and was even aired on MTV.
Russian punk's unique style is generally accepted to be most idealized by Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Egor Letov's other projects. The music mixes equal parts Western punk and the traditional Russian influences, with gritty production and extremely charged and political lyrics.

From underground to publicity

The 1980s were the years of breakthrough for the soviet rock music artists to the wide public. Political and social changes in the country were very important for this process.
The censorship was still present, but not as rigid as it was in the 1970s. It took years for the first Soviet rock bands to enter the media, tour in major concert halls over the USSR, and to release their albums officially.
The monopoly for the music publishing in the USSR belonged to Melodiya, the "one and only" soviet record label, and Melodiya's policy concerning soviet "protest rock" was clear. Some of the artists (Yuri Shevchuk, Yegor Letov and many others) even had problems with KGB due to their artistic activities.
The situation around rock music changed during the perestroika era. Many Russian rock bands were able to tour and record in Europe and USA for the first time. As a result, in 1989-1991 the situation was completely different from that of 1985. Moscow Music Peace Festival with western rock stars was held in Moscow, Gorbachev accepted Scorpions in Kremlin, and Brian Eno produced an album by Zvuki Mu and Dave Stewart (of Eurythmics fame) produced "Radio Silence" by Boris Grebenshchikov for the release in the western world.
With Joanna Stingray's initiative, in 1986 the "Red Wave" compilation was released in the USA. It was a double split album with four bands from Leningrad: Aquarium, Kino, Alisa, and Strannye Igry. One side of vinyl for each band. This compilation was the first official Russian rock release in the west.
Stingray sent copies of the release to Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev, supplied with a statement saying musicians already did what both presidents couldn't do diplomatically.
Melodiya's reaction was an official release of a record by Aquarium in order to create an illusion that recordings of the band are also widely released in the USSR.Canadian filmmaker Peter Vronsky travelled to Moscow and Leningrad in 1988 and shot a series of music videos with Televizor, Aquarium, Neba u Zemlya, Zvuki Mu and other bands, tied together into a documentary film "Russian Rock Undergroung" which brought Russian Rock for the first time to MuchMusic television in Canada.
Another important contributor for the breakthrough of Russian rock to the public in the 1980s were television and film. New musical television shows, such as "Muzykalny Ring" (Музыкальный ринг) and "Programma A"(Программа "А"), invited national rock artists for interviews and live shows.
Several popular films were created in the second half of the 1980s, featuring Russian rock musicians as actors: "Igla" and "Assa" featuring Viktor Tsoi, "Taxi-Blues" featuring Pyotr Mamonov.

The '90s: Post-Soviet era

Splean, a modern-era russian rock band
The beginning of the '90s are considered to be the end of the "classic" Russian rock era. The two events that mark its end are the death of Viktor Tsoi in 1990, and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Nevertheless, the Russian rock sound continued to live and the new Russian rock sound of the '90s was based on it.
In the mid-late 1990s the radiostation Nashe Radio("Our Radio") has been created to promote Russian rock artists, broadcasting in all major Russian cities. Nashe Radio notably influenced the auditory taste and helped many artists to gain popularity.
The radiostation founded Nashestvie, the largest open-air rock festival of Russian rock music performed yearly since 1999 and always headlined with famous rock acts.
In 1996 the recording company Moroz started releasing the highly popular series Legends of Russian Rock.
Often aired by Nashe Radio, bands like Splean, Nochniye Snaiperi, Smisloviye Galutzinatzii and Bi-2 have created a refreshed Russian rock sound which adopted many elements from Alternative rock. Dolphin created a mixture between alternative rock, electronic music and rapcore.
At that time the band Korol i Shut created a unique style which combined alternative rock and punk rock. The band became very popular and many other groups were influenced by its style.
At the same time, numerous punk, pop-punk and grunge bands, including Pilot, Lumen, 7Rasa, Naiv, Tarakany and Nogu Svelo! also gained major popularity. Many of them developed an original sound and involvement of unconventional instruments like violin.
The Russian instrumental rock artist Victor Zinchuk reached international success with his solo career, and by that brought the Russian instrumental rock scene into a bigger audience.
Ska punk was brought to popularity mainly by the band Leningrad.
The western Pop rock sound was introduced by Ilya Lagoutenko's Mumiy Troll, who made their records in the UK under the guidance of UK producers. This less lyrically loaded and more energetic style frequently referred to as rockapops, which was also used by other notable bands such as Zemfira, became prevalent among the younger public.
The 1997 Russian extremely-popular films Brat (brother), with its soundtrack featuring the classic Russian rock band Nautilus Pompilius, and its sequel Brat 2, whose soundtrack was compiled from music of many Russian rock artists, brought many young fans to Russian rock.

The 2000s: Further Development - Current Activity

The 2000s in Russian Rock are marked by both a continuance of the '90s and something of a comeback of the classic 80s sound. In the years following the renaissance of Russian cinema and rock, rock in Russia seems to gain enough ground to differentiate widely in various genres.
Alternative metal and metalcore gained wider popularity at that time. In mid-2000s bands like Amatory, Psychea, Jane Air were established and soon arose in fame, being intensively promoted by A-One channel. The channel awarded many of them with Russian Alternative Music Prize.
Russian Alternative rock and Electronic music gained world recognization with the pop duo t.A.T.u., which used elements from those styles, gaining international success.
Russian Heavy metal scene continued its development with power metal bands like Shadow Host, Catharsis and Epidemia, founded in 90's, received more attention.
In 2002 Valery Kipelov split from Aria, and with more ex-members of Aria he formed a new band called Kipelov, which soon compared itself to Aria in popularity.
The underground pagan metal scene, based on Slavic pagan traditions, had grew wide with such bands as Temnozor, Arkona and Butterfly Temple being noted by auditory outside Russia.
Folk rock music had a revival following Pelagea's and Melnitsa's rise from underground acts to constantly radio-aired bands.
Though the Russian Progressive rock scene had existed since the '70s, it was the 2000s when it entered the public eye of Russian rock fans, with bands like Little Tragedies its most obvious representatives. Since 2001 a prog-music festival named InProg was held almost yearly in Moscow. Its popularity constantly grew and in 2005 it turned from a local festival into an international one.
The Russian instrumental rock scene with bands like EXIT project, Disen Gage, Dvar and Kostarev Group also received more recognition at that time.
The 2005 Live 8 concert that took place in Moscow featured mainly Russian rock artists.
The rockapops phenomenon from the 90's continued to gain popularity in the 2000s with new bands like Zveri arriving.

Characteristics

Fans of Russian Rock would frequently refer to most of the music on Russian MTV dismissively as "popsa", a dichotomy that appeared in the '80s when government controlled radio and TV stations would air only politically harmless music by performers such as Filipp Kirkorov. The lines are still quite clearly drawn, with bands such as Nogu Svelo - who recorded a song with pop-singer Nataliya Vetlitskaya - being an anomaly.
In contrast to Western rock, Russian rock is often said to have less drive; it is characterized by different rhythms, instruments and more involved lyrics. Unconventional instruments have often been used in addition to the standard electric guitars and drums (very often violin and wind instruments).
Another characteristic of Russian Rock is being partly Folk rock. Very often Russian Rock songs, especially the once of the classic 80s bands, talk about national themes and feature elements from Russian folk music. Aquarium, DDT and Yuri Morozov could be used as examples for that.
Considering its poetic roots (Russian literature, bard music), it is not a big surprise that lyrics play a far larger role in Russian rock than Western rock. Vocal melody is sometimes eschewed in favor of a more impassioned delivery (Viktor Tsoi, the lead singer of Kino, pioneered a characteristically strained, monotonous style of singing that has been imitated by many).
Russia has always been facing both East and West with its double-headed Eagle on the coat-of-arms. The Eastern derivative in the Russian rock came with soundtracks from movies like Day Watch that had Tamerlan's legend of the Chalk of Destiny at its roots. Russian rock expressively used and integrated elements from culture, as well as Western and Eastern (especially countries of the USSR).
Yngvar Bordrewich Steinholt (University of Tromsø, Norway) has written a PhD thesis in English that was printed by The Mass Media Music Scholars Press titled "Rock in the Reservation" (2004) about the Leningrad Rock Club. It also touched upon the history of rock in Russia and its countercultural tendencies.