Chronology, and the big waves. As I mentioned at this
post I have an intention to write a short guide to the russian music 1998 – 2007. According to contents this is an Introduction to
The End of a Belle Epoque.
Some tells there is a big waves in technology, or economy. It calls Kondratiev cycles. It has own growth and decline. Using this analogy I`ll explain you periods of russian music. In russian music periods not so long, but they obvious, because they are so bright. And after a few years of lush blossom, then there is nothing at all.
Now there is nothing intresting in russian pop music. The level of current degradation is incredible. Artists sing old songs over and over again. And there is nothing new, nothing at all. No one try to write. No one new appears. Of cause in official scene it is always mortal still, but it used to be that new pop rock artists appeared nevertheless. They had not needed even effective medium such as show bussiness, in order to one day be played everywhere.
By the way there is no show business in russian federation, and one hardly ever been earlier. But it obstacle never had hindered new great russian pop or rock music from coming into existence. As a matter of fact some sort of show business had began to spread through the last cycle.
And now it`s time for me to tell you what the last cycle was. It was legendary time. The greatness which we can see from distance.
We can pin the begining of the last cycle at year 1998. It is not precise, but it is very convenient in russian federation to take this particular date. It was year of “Default” then goverment had denounce state bonds, and prices had leaped from three to tenfold. And with all this the Yeltsin`s drunk debauch ruling began to dissipate, the economy had turned upward, and people had started to live as if they were the normal middle class.
Before turning to events in russian music that mark the begining of new cycle, let me show you that there was another waves in music. So this demonstration is necessary to prove that we has tides and ebbs in our model. The penultimate summit of russian music occured in late eighties – early nighties. Perestroika, glasnost, and freedom begot the gush of new music in country. That was the years of glory of the Russian rock –
Kino,
Nautilus Pompilius. The Neformal (not formal) culture was hundred times more popular than whatever remains from regular show business –
Sector Gaza. The pop music had appeared as multifaceted as never before –
Laskovyi May,
Kombinatsia,
Gazmanov. Even the hip-hop had made false its start –
Kar-men,
Malchishnik. And all was over in hardly five or seven years. We can name the last album, that is the 1994`s
Opium by
Agata Cristi.
And then a long silence fall upon a russian music scene for the long period of time. It was the worst years for the country as well. The peoples were swindled by privatisation. The Great Russia was fell apart, and lost Ukraine, Belarus, North Kazakhstan and some other territories populated by russians. And Soviet Union peoples became citizens of bastard Russian Federation, instead of real country.
So ever the early enthusiasm had vapoured or everybody had sagn all that she wants, the thing is this wave had abruptly stoped. One or two years later every song that was so popular just yesterday sensed as it was from decades ago.
That another rule – after a wave has passed away, immediately every songs and artists that belongs to one became completely obsolete. The first rule, if you hasn`t noticed, is that waves exist, there is sequence of a silence and a creation, of a disgrace and an elevation.
So the wave we take into consideration arose circa 1998, and in 2007 there was its last summer. We have nine years of great russian music to acquaint with.
In following chapters we will study that great era. Every chapter has its leading artist, by whom I can demonstrate the features, bugs, and characteristic of russian music and the big wave. Here we have all grand figures of the epoch, also I added some typical one. I must fess up I love them all, and it doesn`t lead to any bias cause it was the Belle epoque, and all you need to know about it is here.