The Soviet Union’s Underground Rock Scene in the 1970s (History of Soviet Rock Part 1)

so i'll admit coming from america i assumed that russia didn't have any pop music from about 1917 to 1991 and at that point jumped right to edm but of course that wasn't the case despite the soviet government's best efforts it was really freaking hard to keep out all foreign music and to prevent unsanctioned bands from forming amongst a population of about 250 million what immediately drew me to soviet rock music is that it didn't have the same glossy optimism as america and western europe there's an uneasy dreamy quality to it and many of the popular bands like kino spooky moo and aquarium would explore things about the desperation and absurdities of the human condition the history of soviet rock music is a confusing one the vast authoritarian government would seem to constantly backpedal allowing some artistic freedoms and then taking them away numerous bands were popular one moment then banned censored or even jailed this video is going to explore the history of soviet rock music in two parts first its roots in the 60s and 70s when records were smuggled in and bands operated underground and secondly in the 1980s when a thriving punk scene was born in leningrad and produced some of the darkest and most entrancing music in the post-punk genre [Music] in the years after world war ii the soviet government tried hard to keep western music out of the country due to concerns it would infect the population with its quote capitalist and imperialist messages pop jazz and rock records could not be found in stores nor were they played on soviet radio they were however broadcast by the americans via radio free europe and radio liberty these were anti-communist propaganda stations set up just outside the eastern bloc using the technology available at the time they could actually reach a good portion of the soviet population especially at night along with broadcasting uncensored news and features on science and religion they would play western music like jazz and rock even though the process was very illegal and could result in a stiff prison sentence black market dealers in the soviet union began to sell bootlegs recorded from the radio or from records smuggled in by sailors because it was hard to come across vinyl they would press these records on discarded x-ray film from the hospital they were like flexi discs except many would still have the images of bones on them what do we have here i have a bone record bone records or music on the ribs as they were called in russian were expensive and there was no guarantee of the quality or even that you were getting the right song when you slipped the record in your pocket you guys remember downloading songs from limewire that would end up being a recording of bill clinton i did not have sexual relations with that woman bone records had their own version of this a few seconds of rock music then a mocking voice in russian saying oh thought you'd try and listen to the latest sounds eh by the late 60s however beetle mania had finally penetrated and swept up so much of the country a lot more than we'd publicly admit amateur cover bands began playing in the more liberal soviet cities and cassettes would soon make bootlegging much cheaper and more reliable at this point soviet leadership came to the realization that rock music was here to stay and rather than attempt to ban it and alienate the youth they decided to get ahead of the trend officially sanctioned rock bands appeared for the first time called vocal instrumental ensembles or vias for short these government organized pop bands were tightly controlled by the ministry of culture from the lyrics they sang to what they wore and how they moved on stage all of it was regulated it's not exactly real rock music but it did put electric guitars and drum sets on tv for the first time one particularly well-known via band was sweden or flowers in russia they were unique in that they had started as an unofficial band playing rock covers as students at a moscow university yet they managed to achieve official status in the mid 70s and actually released a pair of singles through the official soviet record label melodious speedy became a sensation selling 12 million records and touring throughout the country however tensions arose with the ministry of culture and just a few short years later speedy were banned for quote promoting western ideology they were forbidden to play live and their records disappeared off the shelves for two years the group had to lay low before re-emerging under a new name exactly how illegal rock music was in the 1970s is a very difficult question to answer unofficial bans were technically allowed to perform in small cafes and private parties even in occasional talent competition but they couldn't earn any money not for performing or for selling their music it also varied quite a bit from place to place in the republic of estonia rock music was much more out in the open and the bigger russian cities like leningrad and moscow it was somewhat tolerated but hidden and in siberia in more conservative places it was far more restricted not to mention anybody could get in trouble for music that was quote ideologically questionable infamously the banned plastic people of the universe hailing from the soviet-occupied czech republic were jailed in the mid-70s for antagonizing the government but there were subtle things that could get you in trouble too there was the latvian band sea poly who had their sons pulled off the radio due to a lyric about prices going up at the grocery store there was time machine from moscow whose lyrics were deemed too pessimistic and distorting the image of the youth and then there was aquarium from leningrad whose antics at a live show almost got them banned for being quote homosexual more on that later for the most part it was just a slap on the wrist you might get kicked off a talent competition or denied a restaurant gig but if word spread just enough amongst the cultural authorities your band would be labeled questionable and doors would suddenly be closed to you in the worst cases musicians were arrested and even sent to labor camps and if performing didn't seem difficult enough recording music had its own set of challenges yuri morzov was one of the pioneers of underground recording he worked his day job as a recording engineer at an official melodia studio in leningrad but he also built a home studio where he'd spend hours tinkering with equipment and recording these far out psychedelic albums morzov would sometimes stay late after his shift in order to use the equipment at the melodia studio but at a great risk [Music] [Music] [Music] the kgb was constantly monitoring him but morzov simply brushed it off whenever he had a new record completed his manager would meet him on a little bridge near the studio to pick up copies and then send them to hubs in the baltics moscow and bashkira where they'd be duplicated again and sold secretly to fans at one point a collection of yuris and aquariums recordings got in the hands of a navy senior officer and the entire fleet of soviet nuclear submarines had copies of them [Music] aquarium was also from leningrad and acquaintances of yuris they played a difficult to define focus rock that featured boris grabenshikov on vocals and guitar along with a rotating crew of musicians on bass drums streams and woodwinds starting in the early 70s they would rehearse in the apartment of chelsea's mother and play a sparse few shows in cafes or underground apartment venues we spent most of our free time here just trying to do something they would release home recorded tapes ones that were pretty low-fi at first but would eventually become more [Music] polished for basically all of the 1970s soviet rock existed in this purgatory there were a few places you could perform but you couldn't make a living doing it there was no recording industry no press and no radio airplay unless you joined an official via band but then everything you did was controlled by the ministry of culture it was really one sandwich or another and the music scene may have continued that way for many more decades however a little-known event in the little-known soviet republic of georgia would set off a chain reaction that changed everything on april 14th 1978 protests erupted in tbilisi the capital of georgia the uproar was over a proposal to make russian an official language in georgia despite the fact that everybody spoke georgian students were particularly active in the demonstrations and to their surprise they were successful the soviet leadership backed off peacefully however the republic of georgia now had another problem a generation of young people that were suddenly energized in dissident as a solution the republic's leader edward shepherd nadza took an unorthodox approach and decided to organize a rock festival well he didn't exactly organize it the festival had been in the works already spearheaded by music journalist artemy troitsky but shepherd nadza gave it his stamp of approval believing the music festival would have a positive effect on the country's youth [Music] the festival called spring rhythms 1980 would turn out to be huge for a few reasons it was basically the first rock concert officially sanctioned by the government it was the first time unofficial bans would be thrust into the national spotlight and lastly there was what actually happened at the festival rhythms lasted for several days and featured over 20 bands from across the country as was standard for soviet concerts at the time there was a panel of judges and prizes awarded at the end for a country that didn't like competition in the marketplace they really didn't mind it at their concerts the whole event was filmed and released as a documentary at first there's a range of pop blues prague and even what sounds like bluegrass music but then at the end of the film comes aquarium looking completely out of this world compared to the other bands and their performance could only be described as the same the documentary cuts in mid-jam showing a totally chaotic scene [Music] what was not shown however was a moment where guitarist boris laid down on stage and cellist seva hoisted his instrument on top of him hacking with his bow it's kind of hard to imagine exactly what this looked like with only a written description but what the festival judges saw was a homosexual act and this infuriated them homosexuality was illegal and actively prosecuted for the entire duration of the soviet union this act along with some controversial lyrics in their songs was enough to disqualify aquarium for the competition and caused boris to lose his job back in leningrad for the band however it turned out to be not much of a setback ward spread about the concert and they became legends in the underground scene it seemed like a page was turning and what would have been a career ending and maybe even gulag worthy controversy a few years ago was now something that music fans were celebrating the winner of the festival was time machine the unofficial band from moscow that played new wave inspired ballads outlaw super trend like morzav and aquarium time machine had spent the previous decade wandering aimlessly rehearsing in makeshift spaces looking for places to reach an audience the fact that an unofficial band would win the competition was huge suddenly the world had opened up articles about rock and new wave bands were finally allowed in soviet publications radio stations were broadcasting songs that had previously been unacceptable the country's young misfits who years earlier would have been buying illegal bone records now we're listening to bands from their own country hussein in their native tongue to these young listeners soviet rock punk and new wave were starting to become so cool that it made american and british bands lame in comparison how cool exactly you'll have to check out part two to find out

Channel: Bandsplaining

Views: 228,852

Keywords: soviet union rock music, soviet union rock scene, 1970s soviet union, soviet union students, soviet union hippies, soviet hippies, radio free europe, bone records, x-ray records, music on the ribs, xray record, experimental music, russian music, russian rock, leningrad rock, leningrad rock bands, leningrad rock scene, leningrad music 1970s

Id: akHJ-WROwZc

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 23 2020