Rock music in Russia. Russian rock: history and main groups Which Russian rock group appeared first

The times of the Soviet Union did little to promote the development of music, especially the rock style. Here the western wind of rock came to the rescue, which led many musicians to perform just such music. Rock in the USSR is a social and cultural concept in music that is positioned as a way of self-expression for young people.

Rock in the USSR: Origins

Rock in the USSR began to emerge in the 70-80s of the twentieth century. This phenomenon gathered into its circles mainly subcultures, people whose thinking did not fit into the patterns of the union. No matter how hard Soviet officials tried to control and destroy followers of rock, this style of music was gaining momentum, and the times of perestroika gave some freedom, which led to a boom in the creation of their own Soviet rock groups and songs.

Stages of development of rock in the USSR

Conventionally, the development of music during the USSR, namely rock, can be considered in four stages. The first is the 60s of the twentieth century. considered the beginning of copying English rock, the performers tried to sing only in English, since it was believed that rock songs were not performed in Russian. Rock bands of the USSR began to be founded (for example, “Skomorokhi”), performing songs in Russian, which were rather translations and adapted to Russian life. The Integral group, a beat group, even received the honor of being named a professional rock group of the USSR. And the reason for this is a completely different style than others: the use of light play, pyrotechnics, sound effects, tricks and special decorations. All this created a unique phantasmagoria that veiled the real rock music of Integral.

The 70s is the second period, which is marked by the extensive work of rock groups towards rock concerts, the creation of rock operas (A. Rybnikov). Concerts are organized illegally, so they were often broken up. The widespread music of VIA (vocal and instrumental ensembles), which included almost all members of future rock groups: “Merry Guys”, “Blue Guitars”, “Time Machine”. But rock fans did not accept VIA.

The fourth stage - rock in the USSR in the 80s is characterized by the control of the authorities of the rock movement, rock clubs are organized, the first of which was the Leningrad Club. Such a concept as a rock club opened previously forbidden recording studios for performers, concerts became legal and the rock movement gained momentum and positioned itself as a representative of the subcult of the USSR. The groups “Nautilus Pompilius”, “Aquarium”, “Zoo” are popularized. In 1986, albums were released by rock groups that are still considered elite today: “Alice”, “Kino”, “Strange Games”.

Young people in the USSR are beginning to become interested in rock music en masse, collecting cassette tapes with recordings and considering themselves a subcultural member of rock.

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ROCK MUSIC IN RUSSIA. Rock and roll came to the Soviet Union after the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957. In the early 1960s, rock music existed semi-underground in the USSR, remaining primarily an aesthetic dessert of advanced musical gourmets who had established personal contacts with the West and had the opportunity to receive records American rhythm and blues and British “big beat” - mainly the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. In the mid-1960s, the first beat groups appeared in the USSR, i.e. essentially the first rock ensembles: “Slavs”, “Wanderers”, “Myths”, “Skomorokhs” in Moscow, “Avangard”, “Forest Brothers” in Leningrad, “Pesnyary” in Minsk. To ensure the legitimacy of their status and access to an audience of thousands, the first rock groups were forced to masquerade as “Soviet pop” performers - this is how dozens of vocal and instrumental ensembles (VIAs) arose (“Jolly Fellows”, “Singing Guitars”), or as quasi- folklore ensembles (“Pesnyary”). At the same time, rock music penetrated into the USSR through channels of cultural exchange from the “fraternal countries” of socialism (for example, the Polish Skalds were very popular).

At the end of the 1960s, the passion of Soviet youth for Anglo-American rock music (primarily the Beatles and the Rolling Stones) became widespread. In schools and universities of large cities (primarily in Moscow and Leningrad), dozens of amateur ensembles are created - not VIA, but real rock groups (mostly quartets: three guitars and drums), performing songs from the repertoire of the Beatles, Rolling Stones "and other Anglo-American and European groups (for example, the super popular hit Venus performed by the Belgian rock band Shocking Blue). In 1971, the first rock festival in the history of the USSR was held in Gorky, at which the Moscow “Skomorokhs” led by Alexander Gradsky and the Chelyabinsk “Ariel” were particularly successful. At this time, on the official Soviet stage, rock and roll was presented in a lightweight commercialized variety - the twist (Soviet pop hits of the mid-1960s Black cat, Queen of beauty and later Somewhere in this wide world... from the movie Caucasian captive).

Throughout the 1970s, rock continued to remain a marginal phenomenon of Soviet musical culture, along with the creativity of the so-called. bards (Bulat Okudzhava, Alexander Galich, Yuliy Kim, Vladimir Vysotsky) occupying the niche of a semi-forbidden phenomenon. Public performances of rock bands of the 1970s and early 1980s were held almost underground: at home (“apartment concerts” or “apartment buildings”) or in the assembly halls of metropolitan universities. Thanks to unofficial concerts in the institute's palaces of culture, new teams quickly gained fame: “Ruby Attack”, “Flowers”, “Lucky Acquisition”, “Araks”, “Leap Summer”, etc., which mainly performed “cover versions” in English » international hits and – rarely – songs of one’s own composition.

In the 1970s, such a specific phenomenon for Russian rock culture as “magnitizdat” flourished, which was a network of production and distribution of “master copies” of amateur ensembles recorded in artisanal conditions. “Magnetoalbums” were distributed among hundreds of fans. "Magnitizdat" became an important factor in the development of Russian rock, in particular, causing the indifference of Russian rockers to complex acoustic experiments. Rock musicians, long deprived of the opportunity to use high-quality instruments and the latest electronic equipment for sound recording and mixing, have developed in themselves and their listeners the habit of a kind of musical minimalism. Guitar and a simple “beat” of drums - this was the entire acoustic palette of Russian rock, which initially paid more attention to the verbal series. Therefore, the songs of leading rock performers, from Makarevich, Grebenshchikov and Tsoi to Butusov-Kormiltsev and Shevchuk, are, first of all, poems of intense social-critical and emotional-moralistic content. Acoustic experiments, for example, “Aquarium” (the introduction of strings and wind instruments, not typical for rock) seemed like unheard of daring experiments.

Since the second half of the 1970s, Western popular music (including rock and roll) has been penetrating the USSR quite officially. The only recording studio in the country, Melodiya, begins to release albums “Melodies and Rhythms of Foreign Pop,” which, along with hits from the “socialist countries,” also included hits of Western pop and rock stars from Elvis Presley to Tom Jones. In the late 1970s, Cliff Richard, Elton John and the leader of European disco music, Bonnie M, came to tour the Soviet Union. At the same time, pop music festivals from the Polish Sopot and the Bulgarian Sunny Beach begin to be regularly broadcast on television. In the Baltic republics at this time rock festivals are held, disguised as youth folk song festivals (Lituanika in Vilnius, festivals in Tallinn, Tartu, etc.). In the spring of 1980, the “Soviet Woodstock” took place - the Spring Rhythms-80 festival in Tbilisi, at which leading rock bands from Moscow and Leningrad performed.

The 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, like the Moscow Festival of Youth and Students, became a powerful catalyst for the legitimation of rock music. In 1982, the first amateur association of musicians in the USSR was formed in Leningrad - a rock club, which included “Aquarium”, “Automatic Satisfiers”, “Zoo”, “Tambourine”, “Myths”, “St. Petersburg”, etc. Later, a “rock laboratory” was created in Moscow at the House of Culture named after Gorbunov (“Gorbushka”). At this time, the main directions of Soviet rock music emerged: classic rock and roll (“Zoo”, later “Bravo”), lyrical folk rock (“Time Machine”, “Chaif”) “heavy metal” (“August” , “Aria”, “Black Coffee”, “Black Obelisk”, “Metal Corrosion”, etc.); punk rock (“Automatic Satisfiers”), hard “new wave” (“TV”), jazz rock (“Arsenal”). Groups arose that used elements of postmodern banter (“Crematorium”, “Sounds of Mu”) and social art (“AVIA”, “Brigade S”, “Auktsion”). In addition to the Moscow and Leningrad, other regional “schools” took shape: Ural rock, represented primarily by the Sverdlovsk teams “Urfin Juice”, “Nautilus Pompilius” “Chaif”, “Nastya” and the Ufa “DDT”, close to them, Siberian rock (“Kalinov bridge"), Vladivostok rock ("Mumiy Troll"). At the same time, the best albums of leading rock bands appeared: “Kino” ( Last Hero, Blood type), "Alice" ( JAZZ, Energy, Sixth Forester), "Sounds of Mu" ( Simple things, Zvuki mu), "TV" ( Procession of fish), "DDT" ( I got this role), "Civil defense" ( One Hundred Years of Solitude, Survival Instructions), "Agatha Christie" ( Second front, Deceit and love), "Nautilus Pompilius" ( Parting, Prince of Silence), "Center" ( Centromania) and etc.

Double album released in 1986 in the USA Red Wave with recordings of four Leningrad groups (“Aquarium”, “Strange Games”, “Alice” and “Kino”) played a significant role in the legalization of Russian rock and in its entry onto the world stage. After the album Red Wave Soviet rock musicians got the opportunity to tour abroad. Thus, “Kino” made a tour of France and Japan in 1988–1989. In 1988, “Sounds of Mu” released the album in the UK Zvuki mu, and then toured England and the USA. Finally, in 1988, the leader of Aquarium, B. Grebenshchikov, recorded an English-language album in the USA Radio Silence, which, however, did not have much success. Coming out of hiding, rock musicians quickly become cult figures: for playing the leading role in the film Needle(1988) Kino leader V. Tsoi was recognized as the best Soviet film actor of the year. And the Soviet film “Taxi Blues” (1989) with the lead singer of “Sounds of Mu” P. Mamonov in the title role won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

Unlike rock music in other European countries, which remains predominantly English-speaking (Holland or Scandinavia), Russian rock clearly defines itself as a Russian musical phenomenon. The rock poet and performer A. Bashlachev, who died early, played an important role in turning Russian-language rock to the roots of Russian musical folklore. True, along with interest in the Russian folklore tradition (in particular, in the work of groups such as “Chaif” or “Kalinov Most”), Russian rock is fond of obvious kitsch “a la russe” (earflap hats, balalaikas, accordions, tarpaulin boots , kosovorotki "Brigade S"). The craving for processing elements of “Soviet pop” and bard songs was evident in the group “Lube”, which was extremely popular in the 1980s. At the same time, at the peak of popularity were such retro groups as the beat quartet "Secret", the rockabilly group "Mister Twister" and especially "Bravo", which owes much of its popularity to the charismatic soloist Zhanna Aguzarova, and then to the new soloist Valery Syutkin. Among urban teenagers, heavy metal bands enjoyed great success: “Black Coffee”, “Aria”, “Black Obelisk”, “Iron March” and especially the bright “Corrosion of Metal”, whose performances turned into noisy happenings with elements of striptease shows.

At the end of the 1980s, on the crest of Gorbachev’s “perestroika,” rock bands turned into commercial projects, which became possible thanks to large city tours, sold-out stadium concerts and the release of “legal” albums at the state recording studio “Melodiya”. This applies, first of all, to the pioneers of Russian rock music (“Time Machine”, “Zoo”, “Aquarium”, “Cinema”, “Alice”). Largely thanks to the performances and records of these groups, a Western-style pop music industry emerged in the USSR in the late 1980s. A typical phenomenon of the new pop music industry was the disco group “Tender May”. Designed for a young provincial audience with an unpretentious musical taste (primarily girls aged 12 to 17 years), this teenage vocal and instrumental ensemble achieved fantastic popularity in 1988–1989. The commercial success of the group’s “live” concerts was so great that simultaneously in different cities of the Union concerts were held to the soundtrack of “Tender May” songs with dummy “performers.”

The 1990s are the period of the final formation of the Russian pop music industry. Once imbued with a powerful pathos of nonconformism and social or moral protest against the “system,” Russian rock music has turned into a conglomerate of more or less commercially successful enterprises. The commercialization of Russian rock is also associated with its inevitable dissolution in the wide stream of pop music (from Philip Kirkorov and the show group “Na-Na” to sweet-voiced vocal ensembles like the trio “Lyceum” or the “scandal girl” Zemfira – commercial imitation of Zhanna Aguzarova).

Leningrad rock and roll.

The rock club that emerged in 1982 in Leningrad not only united the rock groups that existed in the city (Aquarium, Automatic Satisfaction, Zoo, Tambourine, Myths, St. Petersburg, etc.), but and became the impetus for the emergence of new teams that became superstars of Russian rock: “Kino”, “Alice”, “Strange Games”, “TV”, “Zero”, “Object of Ridicule”, “Auction” (later “AuktYon”), “ Pop Mechanics”, etc. Since 1983, rock festivals have been held annually in Leningrad, making the city the unofficial capital of the Soviet rock movement.

"Aquarium"

occupies a special place in the history and panorama of modern Soviet-Russian rock: it was the work of this group in the early 1980s that served as a catalyst for the process of consolidation of the leading creative forces of the disunited amateur rock movement, helped to enrich its language with many achievements of world musical culture and attract it to Russian-language rock attention of an audience of millions in the USSR and abroad. "Aquarium", created in July 1972 by Leningrad State University student Boris Grebenshchikov and aspiring playwright Anatoly Gunitsky, initially reflected the craving of its participants for American rock and roll, Eastern philosophy, bard song and absurdist literature. The group's first public performances in 1974 struck audiences with esoteric themes and colorful image rather than professionalism. “Aquarium” established itself as the most active participant in the amateur rock scene of Leningrad. In 1974, “Aquarium” received the Tallinn Rock Festival prize “For the most diverse program”, and a little later toured in Moscow. The rock ensemble became widely known for its performances in 1979 at the Tartu Rock Festival and especially at rock festivals in Chernogolovka near Moscow (November 1979) and Tbilisi (March 1980). The opening of the Leningrad rock club in March 1981 coincided with the release of the first studio Blue Album group, which got the opportunity to give regular concerts. Following his principle “it is not the form that is important, but the content,” Grebenshchikov experimented with style (at different times, the group, groping for its own musical language, went through passions for jazz rock, punk rock, new wave, reggae, hard rock, folk-baroque ) and with the composition (a big band with a powerful wind section, a rock band equipped with modern electronics, a duet of acoustic guitar and cello). Under the influence of Sergei Kuryokhin, “Aquarium” at one time gravitated toward free-form music, and Grebenshchikov himself took part in the recording of Kuryokhin’s “Popular Mechanics” records. The group owes its success to Magnitizdat. In the fall of 1984, Aquarium stopped working for a short time, and its members began implementing their own musical projects. After the group’s reunion, concerts at the Leningrad Yubileiny Sports Palace in October 1986 became evidence of the “legalization” of Aquarium and the first step towards lifting the ban on rock music in Leningrad and in the country as a whole.

"Alice"

arose in November 1983 on the initiative of Leningrad rocker Svyatoslav Zaderiy, who made his nickname the name of the new team. However, the true story of “Alice” began only with the arrival of the soloist. In March 1985, “Alice” became a laureate of the III Festival of the Leningrad Rock Club. First album Energy was made in a hard new wave key, with saxophone, flute, violin and cello. Energy became one of the first records in Russian rock published by the state recording company Melodiya. According to official data, the circulation exceeded 1 million copies. In the spring of 1987, “Alice” began work on her second album Blockade. The album turned out noticeably “heavier” Energy and much more integral and thoughtful. Scandals in the press and Kinchev’s short-term arrest on trumped-up charges only fueled public interest in the group. Like “Kino,” “Alice” gravitates towards the theme of romantic social protest ( My generation And We are together) with elements of an aggressive style typical of “heavy metal” (albums Sabbat And Black Mark).

"Movie"

is a typical example of a rock group whose existence was entirely determined by the charismatic figure of the leader (as in the English group Queen led by Freddie Mercury). The heart and soul of Kino was the author of the entire repertoire of the group and its soloist Viktor Tsoi, who created the mythology of romantic social and moral protest (albums originally released in Magnitizdat A star called the Sun, Blood type, Head of Kamchatka), very consonant with the mindset of the youth of the transitional era of the history of the USSR - post-Soviet Russia, symbolically expressed in the famous refrain of one of the Kino hits: “Change! We are waiting for changes!" After Tsoi's death in a car accident, the group broke up.

Moscow rock.

If Leningrad was the capital of Soviet rock music in the 1970s, then in the “perestroika” 1980s the palm was seized by Moscow, where the rockers of the “first call” of the late 1960s continued to work actively (for example, Alexander Gradsky or Bari Alibasov) and the rockers of the new generation powerfully declared themselves (“Dialogue” and “Autograph”, “Sounds of Mu”, “Brigade S”, “Forum”). Among the first rock bands that emerged in Moscow back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mashina Vremeni is the most noticeable and authoritative. One of the oldest Russian rock ensembles, “Time Machine” arose on the crest of “Beatlemania” among Moscow schoolchildren in 1968. The first magnetic album was recorded at the same time Time Machine consisted of eleven songs in English. The arrival of A. Kutikov in 1971 introduced the daring drive of rock and roll into the Time Machine repertoire. The first concert took place then. By the mid-1970s, the composition of the group had relatively stabilized, and “Time Machine” had developed a unique and recognizable musical style, influenced by the tastes of its musicians - from bard songs of romantic protest ( Puppets) and nostalgic-lyrical “folk” ( Candle) to blues and rock and roll. The group’s fame is mainly ensured by semi-underground concerts and “magnitizdat” (albums A little prince, Strangers among strangers). 1981 hit Turn was recognized as the rock song of the year and headed the hit parade of the youth newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets for 18 months. In the mid-1980s, the group firmly established itself as a “monster” of Russian rock, becoming one of the first commercial rock groups (recording, touring, filming). All official albums of the group ( Good morning, Rivers and bridges, In the circle of light, 10 years later and all subsequent ones up to the recent final Anthologies) become “golden”.

"Aria".

Unlike Mashina Vremeni, which remained at the amateur level for a long time, the “metal” group Aria, which declared itself in the early 1980s, was distinguished by a professional sound that was not similar to Soviet rock music. This was due in no small part to the group’s manager, Viktor Vekshtein, former head of the VIA “Singing Hearts”. After a scandalous performance at the Moscow festival "Rock Panorama-86", the group received a special prize for professionalism at the festival "Lituanika-86" in Vilnius. The band records their best album Hero of the Asphalt, which included such hits as Rose Street And Ballad about an ancient Russian warrior. Unlike the first two “magnetic albums”, Hero of the Asphalt was released by the Melodiya record company and sold millions of copies.

Far from both capitals

rock music life was also in full swing. Rock clubs arose in many big cities - Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok, uniting spontaneously emerging school and student teams. Some city rock associations have become “schools” in the full sense.

Sverdlovsk rock.

After Moscow and Leningrad, the Ural industrial center Sverdlovsk became the third most important center of Russian rock, producing such groups as Urfin Juice, Chaif, Nautilus Pompilius, Nastya, etc.

The history of Chaifa, one of the brightest bands of Sverdlovsk rock, began in 1975, when tenth-graders of the Sverdlovsk school Vladimir Shakhrin and Vladimir Begunov created the acoustic group Pyatna and at first played a proven repertoire - the Beatles and Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival " At the same time, the musicians recorded their first magnetic album Verkh-Isetsky Pond and held successful concerts. After its members graduated from school, the group broke up, but nine years later the musicians reunited, creating a new group “Chai-F” (later simply “Chaif”). In the spring of 1985, Chaif ​​recorded the acoustic magnetic album Life in Pink Smoke. A year later, “Chaif” performed at the 1st festival of the Sverdlovsk rock club and immediately attracted attention with its interesting lyrics and rock-and-roll-blues musical style. To record the second album Saturday evening in Sverdlovsk Almost all the leading Sverdlovsk rock musicians gathered. The Leningrad concert in 1986 finally established the reputation of Chaifa as one of the most professional teams. At the same time, the group became a laureate of the Sverdlovsk rock festival for the second time and began touring around the Union. At the rock festival in Riga, “Chaif” won the “audience award.” In the spring of 1989, Chaif ​​made an album Best city in Europe, and in the same year she became the initiator of the environmental movement “Pure Water Rock”, which united rock musicians from the Urals, Volga region and Leningrad. In the early 1990s she released albums Fourth chair And Children of the mountains, which finally cemented the popularity and commercial success of the group.

“Nautilus Pompilius” quickly burst onto the Russian rock scene in 1987. An unknown Ural group broke all popularity records. The following year, the fame of “Nau” thundered throughout the country... The history of the group began in 1978, when students of the Sverdlovsk Architectural Institute Vyacheslav Butusov and Dmitry Umetsky created an English-language rock quartet. In 1981, the first Sverdlovsk rock festival took place, which gave impetus to the creation of new student rock groups, one of which was “Nautilus Pompilius” (the original name was “Ali Baba”). The birth of the group occurred with the beginning of collaboration between Butusov and the poet Ilya Kormiltsev. The first recording took place in 1985. There were several “Nautiluses” in the country in the mid-1980s, and in order to distinguish themselves from their namesakes, the Sverdlovsk group renamed itself “Nautilus Pompilius”. The main hits were written then Goodbye America! I wanna be with you, Chained by one chain, Khaki ball. The triumph of “Nautilus Pompilius” began with a Moscow concert in 1987, but it turned out to be short-lived: in 1989 and 1990, according to polls by the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, the group received the title “disappointment of the year”. In the 1990s, Nautilus Pompilius ceased to exist.

"Vlad-rock".

In 1984, an attempt was made in Vladivostok to create an association of rock musicians, the prototype of which was the rock club that had recently emerged in Leningrad. The Vladivostok rock club included about ten groups. The Mumiy Troll group was the first to consciously target a teenage audience (magnetic album 1985 New moon of April). In the group, the soloist Ilya Lagutenko, who had a unique charm, stood out. The band's next album is " Do Yu-Yu"(1990) - was distinguished by more diverse musical material and more meaningful lyrics. “121 Floors” is perhaps the most interesting Vlad rock group of the 1980s. Founded by a strong author duo of former Rostovites (Igor Cherkashin, lyricist, and Eduard Tsekhanovsky, composer and main performer), the team played hard rhythm and blues. The group's most famous performance was its participation in the first unofficial concert at the Youth House in November 1984 with musicians from the Theater group. “Theater” was not part of the Vladivostok rock club, but it can be considered the cradle of “Vlad rock”: students of the Faculty of Architecture of the Far Eastern Pedagogical Institute gave concerts in the basement of the institute’s dormitory since 1979 (then the group was called “Children of the Dungeon”), performing heavy psychedelic versions of early 1970s hard rock classics (Led Zeppelin) and Beatles songs. The Wind of Change group sought more complex forms, but their music remained largely imitative. By the end of the 1980s, the group disbanded.

After existing for about a year and holding only a few legal concerts, the Vladivostok rock club went underground. The reason for the conflict with local authorities was the scandalous performance of the groups “Mumiy-Troll” and “121st Floor” at a local youth festival. However, the “unofficial period” of the existence of “Vlad rock” ended in August 1986, when it became possible to officially hold festivals of informal youth associations. In the late 1980s, there were several dozen rock bands in the city. The stylistic range of their music was very wide: from the teenage hooliganism of the “Council of Veterans of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station” and the punk rock of “Foggy Moan” to the heavy jazz rock and punk funk of “Sunday Platform - 666”.

This section mentions groups of the 60s and 70s, each of them brought something new to Russian rock. Many members of these groups still work successfully today as musicians, composers, and producers. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell about them all; there were many of them, and each group was interesting and important for Russian rock in its own way. Bands and performers from the 80s are displayed in the section of the site.

"Revengers"
The first rock band in the USSR, “Revengers” (translated as “Avengers”) with its leader Valery Zainutdinov “Seitski” (this is his nickname, today he lives in America), which was organized in 1961 in Riga. At that time, Czech electric guitars sometimes appeared on sale, but it was impossible to buy a bass guitar. The musicians made the “bass” themselves: they pulled strings from a piano onto the guitar and, in order not to injure their hands during concerts, they wrapped their fingers with electrical tape. They performed cover versions of popular rock and roll and blues songs. They played at school dances. The ensemble existed for a year and a half and after Zainutdinov was drafted into the army in the fall of 1962, it transformed into the Melody Makers, whose leader was Pete Anderson, who later assembled the Archive group.
After his return from the army, Zainutdinov formed the group “Natural Product”, which also performed a “branded” repertoire, which included rock and rolls, rhythm and blues and a little soul. The group ceased to exist in 1973, when Zainutdinov emigrated to the United States of America. In 1976, he joined the accompanying lineup of the first Russian-American rock band "Sasha and Yura." Today Zainutdinov works in Los Angeles in a studio.

"Slavs"
The group was formed in 1964 (according to other sources - at the beginning of 1965) consisting of: Mikhail Turkov (guitar, vocals), Viktor Degtyarev (bass, later - “Scythians”) and Viktor Dontsov (drums). The group performed cover versions of Beatles songs.
In 1965, the Slavs included: Alexander Gradsky, Mikhail Turkov, Vyacheslav Dontsov, Vladimir Degtyarev. The group's repertoire consisted almost entirely of BEATLES songs.
Alexander Gradsky: "...I met Mikhail Turkov, he also played the electric guitar and sang. We found a rhythm section... This is how my first group came into being - “Slavs.”
In 1966, the Slavs virtually disappeared into the growing Moscow rock community. Dontsov, Degtyarev and Gradsky from 1966 to 1968 performed as part of the Los Panchos group, which performed dance music in English. At the same time, Degtyarev has been participating in the Scythians group since 1967. In 1971 he performed in the ranks of the Blue Guitars. With the onset of the 70s, Dontsov and Turkov took up civilian activities.
“Slavs” existed for about two years and disbanded, unfortunately, leaving no records behind.

"Falcon"
"Falcon" was born in the fall of 1964. The first line-up: Yuri Ermakov (guitar, vocals), Igor Goncharuk (bass, vocals) - they studied at the same school, as well as Slava Chernysh (keys, ex-Brothers) and Sergey Timashov (drums, ex-Brothers) ). The team was brought together by one of our first “underground” managers, Yuri Aizenshpis. The first concert took place on October 6, 1964 in Moscow, at the Kauchuk Palace of Culture. The group performed the songs "Shadows". "Rolling Stones", "Moody Blues", "Yardbirds".
In 1965, the group worked for some time with the Tula Philharmonic. At the same time, the first changes in the lineup took place: Timashov left and Vladimir Doronin took over the drums, but soon he was replaced by Viktor Ivanov (“Music Lovers”). For some time, Lev Pilshchik sang in the group, then a vocalist from L. Rosner’s orchestra, and now he is a taxi driver in Italy.
Due to the fact that Chernysh could not leave Moscow, he, remaining in the ranks of Sokol, assembled his own band - "Music Lovers", which also included Viktor Ivanov (drums), Anatoly Markov (vocals), Yuri Gavrilov ( guitar), Alexey Sinyak (bass, he was eventually replaced by Goncharuk). So in parallel, with approximately the same composition, there were two groups.
By 1967, “Sokol”, thanks to songs in Russian, became the recognized leader of the Moscow rock community. His concerts attract sold-out crowds at the central point of the Moscow rock community, the Energetik Palace of Culture, on Raushskaya Embankment.
In 1968, “Falcon” recorded the soundtrack to V. Khitruk’s cartoon “Film, Film, Film,” which further raised the group’s ratings. Leonid Berger, vocalist of the group "Orpheus", now living in Australia, also took part in this recording.
But in December 1969, Yu. Aizenshpis was arrested. Soon he was sentenced to 10 years in prison “for currency fraud.” And for both groups - for "Sokol" and "Melomans" - this actually meant the cessation of active concert activity. Thus, having given the last concert in the fall of 1969 at the House of Cinema, “Falcon” ceased to exist.
The group left no records. And only the music for the cartoon “Film, Film, Film” remains the only audio document of the former popularity of “Falcon”.

"Argonauts"
The forerunner of the Argonauts group was the group Garik and Gorik, which was formed in 1964 by students of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute Georgy Sedov and Igor Krutov, who played acoustic guitars. The first performance of the duo “Garik and Gorik” took place in the winter of 1964 at the English MEPhI club. The leaders of the Argonauts, Georgy Sedov and Igor Krutov, said that the idea of ​​​​creating their own beat group came to them after Sokol visited their native MEPhI with a concert in February 1965.
“Argonauts” (Georgy Sedov - guitar, vocals, Igor Krutov - bass, Yuri Radashevich - drums, Vladimir Silantyev - guitar, Vladimir Shamis - keys, Vyacheslav Atran - administrator).
In 1967, the Argonauts acquired a soloist, Galya Zaidel. She wrote songs in the style of the then fashionable Ada Yakusheva. The Argonauts arranged her works to a soft beat.
The history of the Argonauts ended in 1970, when the ensemble members graduated from their institutes and were faced with the problem of further choosing their life path. In principle, the musicians from the Argonauts group were repeatedly offered to go to work at the Philharmonic, but they always refused.

"Scythians"
In the fall of 1967, the group "Scythians" was formed, the first lineup of which included: Sergei Dyuzhikov (lead guitar, vocals), Yuri Valov (rhythm guitar, vocals). Viktor Degtyarev (bass) and Yuri Malkov (drums)
During 1968, the group changed three drummers: first, instead of Malkov, Yuri Korotin sat on the drum kit, and he was replaced by Alexander Astafiev. And in the end, in the fall of 1968, “Skiffs” began to play as a three-piece: Valov picked up the bass guitar, and Degtyarev moved behind the drums.
The group's popularity grew rapidly, helped by the fact that more than half of its repertoire consisted of songs in Russian. The most famous of them are “Years like Birds”, “I’m Walking towards the Wind”, “Let Me Go”.
In May 1968, the “Scythians” took part in a student amateur show-competition held at the Luzhniki Sports Palace, and became laureates there. The distinguished team was sent from the Komsomol Central Committee to the south to entertain a team of weightlifters preparing for the Olympic Games in Mexico City.
In the same 1968, the “Scythians” starred in the film directed by G. Nathanson “Once More About Love.” The musical fragment took only 2 minutes, but this also ensured increased attention among young people for an overall mediocre film.
“Scythians” ceased to exist in 1971, when Dyuzhikov, Degtyarev and Valov joined the “Blue Guitars” ensemble, where they remained until 1975. In 1972, Dyuzhikov and Degtyarev together with Yu. Fokin. Y. Saulsky and S. Grachev ("The Best Years") and L. Berger ("Orpheus") performed at the Yerevan Pop Song Festival as the group "Super". In 1975, all three left the Blue Guitars. Dyuzhikov went to play "Flowers". Degtyarev went to VIA "Plamya", and Valov went to America, where he created the group "Sasha and Yura" with Alexander Lerman (ex-"Winds of Change"). Today Yu. Valov is a designer at the Profile publishing house. V. Degtyarev is a teacher at the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University, and Dyuzhikov moved to America, to San Diego, in 1997, where he works as a session musician."

"Winds of Change"
The group "Winds of Change" arose in 1967 within the walls of the Moscow Aviation College named after. Godovikova. Its founders were the Chirikov brothers - the elder Igor (Garik) and the younger Sasha. The direct source of the band's name was the Animals album "The Winds of Change". Initially, the composition included only technical school students: Garik Chirikov (guitar, he played a homemade Fender), Anatoly Aleshin (guitar, vocals, later vocalist of “Araks”), Sergei Gusev (bass), Alexander Sherman (keys), Vladimir Gorbachenko (drums). Sasha Chirikov was an "impresario" until 1969.
In the fall of 1968, Sasha Chirikov agreed with one of the members of the “Celloists” group, which consisted of conservatory students, Alexander Lerman, that he would join the “Winds of Change” and. Having made the necessary changes in the composition, a non-trivial group will be created with an emphasis on the beautiful polyphony and original repertoire of Lerman’s compositions. By the summer of 1969, "Winds of Change" had already performed in the well-known cafe "Seasons" together with "Trolls" in the following lineup: Alexander Lerman (vocals, keys), Mikhail Kekshoev (guitar, vocals, ex-"Cellists"), Mikhail Mastakov (bass, vocals), Vladimir Ksenofontov (lead guitar), Vladimir Gorbachenko (drums). By that time, Aleshin had been drafted into the army; at the height of the summer engagement, Gorbachenko also left, and Alexander Ksenofontov (Butyl-kin) came in his place. This composition began to be considered classic.
The reputation of "Winds of Change" has developed from its magnificent polyphony and increased interest in Russian folklore and church melodies, manifested in original compositions. True, this also caused displeasure among the Komsomol leaders, who also tried to repeatedly rename the group so that the seditious “changes” would disappear. Without dropping “Changes” from its name, “Winds of Change” existed until 1970, when Lerman went to “Skomorokhi” with Gradsky.

"Atlantas"
Alik Sikorsky:“Kostya agreed and came to our base. And he understood: this is solid. The guys understood: he is what we need. The main thing is that Seryozha Laktionov (the group administrator) understood this. This is how Atlanta came into being.
Why Atlanta? Because the height of the three standing on stage was approximately the same, around 190 cm. And I, with my 176, sat at the drums. But I had long hair. That's a different story."
The group was formed in 1968. Composition: Konstantin Nikolsky (guitar), Ivan Loktionov (guitar), Sergei Izvolsky (bass), Boris Belyak (keys), Alexander Sikorsky (drums).
"Atlantis" performed cover versions of English-language hits. The group is known for pushing young Andrei Makarevich to make the decision to take up rock music. After Konstantin Nikolsky was drafted into the Armed Forces in the fall of 1970, Atlanta disbanded. After some time, Alexander Sikorsky assembled a new group - “Sikorsky Fragments”, and Nikolsky, having been demobilized from the army, joined Stas Namin’s group “Flowers”.

"Tin soldiers"
In 1968, the group's first song was written in Russian - "A little sadness remains." Then the question arose about changing the name to something more neutral and giving the opportunity to perform their own things. Victor Gusev suggested calling themselves “Tin Soldiers” (before that they were called “Behemoths”, and between the lines the English was read: “Hippopotamus”, the name had a connection with such a word and such a phenomenon as hippies! “Hippos” performed songs from the repertoire of “Shadows”, “ Bee Gees" and others), which was accepted. The group quickly becomes popular, plays many concerts, and tours around the country. The songs of the Tin Soldiers were distinguished from other groups that were popular in those days, such as “Atlanta”, “Falcon”, “Time Machine” by their special tenderness, kindness, unusually interesting musical discoveries and beautiful poetry. In the late 60s and 70s, it firmly held second place (after Gradsky) in the popularity rating of Russian-language groups in Moscow.
In 1969, during a trip to Solovki, the main hit of “Soldatikov” was born - “The Ballad of the Drainpipe”. Once, while walking around Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, Viktor Gusev suggested writing songs about specific things. The next morning, Sergei Kharitonov showed his friends this song, which immediately became popular; it was sung in a variety of places, in construction brigades, at KSP rallies, on the rock stage and in almost every gateway, often without even knowing the authorship.
In 1972, the group received official status and began working at the Soyuzmultfilm studio. The well-known song “The priest had a dog” in the series “Well, wait a minute!” they are the ones who perform it. In addition, “Soldiers” provided voices for such cartoons as “Stadium” and “Box with a Secret.” A little later - a more serious work: music for the film by Sergei Yutkevich "Mayakovsky Laughs". In the same year, the group recorded their first magnetic album, “Reflections,” which actually became the first domestic full-length rock album.
In the 70s, "Soldiers" wrote music for various productions of the Moscow Drama Theater. A. S. Pushkin, Tyumen Puppet Theater, Rostov Youth Theater. In 1982, the group ceased to exist unnoticed by itself and those around it.
In 1993, the return of the Tin Soldiers took place. On June 4 of this year they gave their first concert after a more than 10-year break at the Moscow rock club Sexton-FoZD. Their open, distortion-free sound surprised and pleased; everyone had already forgotten that such a sound existed. In addition, many of the songs turned out to be painfully familiar even to those who, due to their young age, could not hear “Soldiers” in the 60s and early 70s. After the enormous success of this comeback, the musicians rewrote their old songs and released them on CD. This recording very accurately reproduced the old sound of the ensemble.
Today "Soldiers" is still working on music for films.

"Ruby Attack"
The history of the “Ruby Attack” is based on the group “The Saints”, which in 1967 was organized in the basement of the housing office on Petrovsko-Razumovskaya Street by Evgeny Avilov (bass), Alexander Menshagin (drums), Yuri Vodopyanov (vocals), Vladimir Ratskevich (guitar) and Alexey Tegin (guitar). The group performed works from the repertoire of “The Shadows”, “The Ventures”, “The Beatles”, “The Monkeys”, etc.
In 1968, Vladimir Ratskevich (guitar) and Alexey Tegin (guitar) left The Saints and formed their own group, Rubins. In addition to them, the lineup included Sergei "Basky" Leshenko (bass, vocals; 04/20/1951 - 12/13/2014) and Alexander Samoilov (drums). The first concert of the new group took place in the winter of 1967 at the rehearsal base, in the assembly hall of the Institute of Earth Physics. O. Yu. Schmidt after the ceremonial meeting, “Rubies” performed instrumental arrangements of “The Beatles” and “Shadows”.
In 1969, Tegin left the group, and “Rubies”, in order to strengthen the name, were renamed “Ruby Attack”.
the lineup sang "Basques", and now the group had a voice, because before both "Saints" and "Rubies" performed mainly instrumental compositions. But the group’s repertoire still consisted only of English-language songs, since, according to Ratskevich, “rock music should be performed in the original language.” In the 70s, "Ruby Attack", performing hard rhythm and blues, consistently held first place in the popularity rating of the capital's English-language rock bands.
In the summer of 1972, when Leshenko and Samoilov went on vacation to the south, Ratskevich wanted to play hard boogie (the spirit of Woodstock was then strong in Moscow), and for this he called the rhythm section from the group "Sadko", which was based together with "Ataka", t e. - Alexander Zaitsev (bass) and Sergei Shevelev (drums), whose colleagues (Sitkovetsky and Kelmi) also went to sea. The project was called "Leap Summer", and it remained so when two other Sadko musicians returned to the capital, and Ratskevich again joined Leshenko and Samoilov. And in 1973, after the reorganization that took place in Leap Summer, Zaitsev and Shevelev replaced Samoilov and Leshenko in Ataka. (It was this cast that was filmed in the famous film that became an artifact, “Six Letters of a Beat.”)
In 1976, the lineup changed again: Ilya Dubrovsky (vocals, bass) and Boris Pankratov (drums) now worked with Ratskevich. Due to constant persecution by the authorities, the group constantly changes its name, and enters the stage under the new name “Citadel”.

"Successful purchase"
The group was founded in 1969 by Alexei "White" Belov, who is revered in our rock community as the Father of Moscow blues. At first it was a trio: Mikhail “Petrovich” Sokolov (one of our best bluesmen and “the country’s first harmonica” today, and then a drummer), who was eventually given the nickname "White". It all started with the performance of compositions by CREAM, early FLEETWOOD MAC with Peter Green, Hendrix, and later Jeff Beck.
“Successful Acquisition” in the 70s firmly occupied a leading position in the ranking of Moscow English-language blues bands; the public also liked the cheerful, simple-minded songs in Russian that White composed - “Tumbleweeds”, “When Fun Comes”, “Pranksters” and etc.
In 1975, Stas Namin persuaded the musicians of “Successful Acquisition” to go work for him, and Belov, Matetsky and Sokolov formed the backbone of the Stas Namin Group of 1975-76. They were also joined by Alexander Slizunov (keys), Alik Mikoyan (guitar) and Konstantin Nikolsky (guitar).
In 1977, Matetsky left the group. In the same year, “Successful Acquisition” recorded several musical screensavers at the GDRZ for Radio Moscow World Service. Andrei Makarevich, with whom the musicians of “Successful Acquisition” had been friends for many years and often performed together, was called to replace Matetsky on the recording.
For the majority of our rock bands, pressure from the authorities continued to intensify. This majority included the “Successful Acquisition” group. Looking around, the musicians realized that session activity had not only declined (which was also facilitated by the massive emergence of discos), but had also become downright dangerous. In 1981, it was decided to disband the group in restaurants.
In 2001, Solid Records released the collector's disc "Successful Purchase - Live"74", with the recently discovered recording of 1974.

The page is compiled from internet materials.

Russian rock is a collective designation for Russian-language rock music, created first in the USSR, then in Russia and the CIS countries by various musicians and groups. Russian rock bands were greatly influenced by Western rock music, as well as Russian art songs, usually performed with an acoustic guitar.

Origin

The first Soviet rock groups appeared in the mid-1960s in the wake of Beatlemania, but until the mid-1970s they were mainly imitations of the music of foreign performers, which were formed by numerous VIA (vocal and instrumental ensembles). One of the first rock groups that began to sing in Russian was the group “Tin Soldiers” (they can be heard, for example, in the cartoon “Well, wait a minute” - in the form of a group of Mongrels performing “The Priest Had a Dog.” In addition, the group recorded the first full-fledged magnetic album in the USSR, “Reflections” (1972) (according to another version - which was followed by the compilers of the encyclopedia “100 Magnetic Albums of Soviet Rock” - the countdown of Soviet tape rock culture began with the albums of Yuri Morozov (1973)).

Heyday, 1980s

The heyday of Russian rock came in the 1980s, and with the beginning of perestroika and glasnost, musicians had the opportunity to perform at concerts without fear of criminal prosecution, for example, for parasitism, as was the case before. This period of Russian rock can be compared to the late 1960s in Western rock music. Rock clubs were created in the USSR, well-known rock bands were formed, and partly still active to this day, journalists appeared who wrote about rock music (Artemy Troitsky, Alexander Zhitinsky), the first rock festivals were held (Spring Rhythms, Tbilisi-80)

The prototype of Russian rock music of the 1980s was Anglo-American rock music, including one of its newest trends at that time - the “new wave”.

Aquarium

Many songs of classic Russian rock bands were written and sometimes performed with an acoustic guitar, as an art song. This happened primarily at unofficial concerts and “apartment events”. Thus, many bands of the 1980s were, in a sense, the songwriter's accompaniment group. Often groups were formed around a lyricist (and sometimes music writer), who was usually considered the “leader” and, like the group, became widely known. Such personalities are indicated below in parentheses after the group names.

Despite the fact that the passion for rock music in the USSR was widespread, by the end of the 1980s a number of centers of the Soviet rock movement had emerged, noticeably different from each other both in style and in organizational features.

The centers of rock music in the USSR were:
Leningrad (St. Petersburg). In 1981, the Leningrad Rock Club was formed in Leningrad, which included such groups as Aquarium (Boris Grebenshchikov), Automatic Satisfaction (Andrey “Pig” Panov), Zoo (Mike Naumenko), Myths, Brigadny Podryad (Nikolai Mikhailov). The groups Kino (Viktor Tsoi), Alisa (Moscow-Leningrad group, Konstantin Kinchev) and DDT (Yuri Shevchuk) received cult status among fans. Among other significant groups were TV (Mikhail Borzykin), Zero (Fyodor Chistyakov), as well as rock bard Alexander Bashlachev. Leningrad rock was a well-organized community, the center of which was a rock club, most of whose active members knew each other well. A special role in the club was played by Andrei Tropillo, who actually created the first private recording studio in the USSR, and Boris Grebenshchikov, who was the central figure of the St. Petersburg rock party. The music of most groups, as a rule, consisted of arrangements of songs performed acoustically, which made it possible to perform them at apartment buildings without any problems and brought the St. Petersburg groups closer to the “traditional” rock of the 1960s. At the same time, the Leningrad rock scene was characterized by great interest in other forms of art - literature, theater and cinema.
Moscow, where a “rock laboratory” was created at the Gorbunov House of Culture. The most famous Moscow groups: Time Machine (Andrey Makarevich), Resurrection (Alexey Romanov), Zvuki Mu (Peter Mamonov), Brigada S (Garik Sukachev), Crematorium (Armen Grigoryan), Bravo (Evgeniy Khavtan). The first electronic rock groups, such as Center (Vasily Shumov), Nochnoy Prospekt, Bioconstructor and others, also began to appear at the Moscow Rock Laboratory.

The capital's rock music (especially its first wave) was characterized by early commercialization, which partly explained the fact that Gorbushka was more a center of informal rock culture than a core organization for musicians. Most Moscow rock bands existed on their own and formed their own, unique style, usually distinguished by emphatic frivolity and a condescending attitude towards reality. These qualities flourished in the 1990s and contributed to the popularity of such groups as Time Out, Accident, Dune, Nogu Svelo, etc.
Kharkov, which has been hosting Russian rock festivals since the late 1980s. The most famous rock band from Kharkov is Different People, its leader is Alexander Chernetsky, and in the early period of creativity the second soloist was Chizh. Some Kharkov rock bands performed their songs in Ukrainian or English (like the rock band Dozhd) languages. The most famous music critic in the Kharkov rock environment was S. Korotkov. The development of the city's rock scene was also facilitated by Radio 50, perhaps the first private radio station in the USSR.
Ural and Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg). In the 1980s, the Sverdlovsk rock club was founded. Famous groups from the region: Oorfene Deuce (Alexander Pantykin), Nautilus Pompilius (Vyacheslav Butusov), Chaif ​​(Vladimir Shakhrin), Nastya, Agatha Christie, April March. The Sverdlovsk rock scene was relatively narrow, and songwriters Ilya and Evgeny Kormiltsev played a special role in it. Ural rock was strongly influenced by Western bands of the 1970s (including psychedelic rock), keyboards played a large role, the music was not intended for acoustic performance, and was distinguished by the complexity of its arrangements. The only Sverdlovsk rock band that achieved all-Union popularity in the 1980s was Nautilus Pompilius, whose lyrics were aimed at mass audiences.
Siberia: Civil Defense (Egor Letov), ​​Kalinov Bridge (Dmitry Revyakin), Yanka Dyagileva. The Siberian rock community, peripheral and without a single center, in the 1980s was represented almost exclusively by the movement that its participants called punk rock. Soviet Siberian punk rock had a much less imitative character than the work of St. Petersburg and Moscow musicians and is a separate cultural phenomenon that continued to exist in the underground into the 1990s and had a great influence on the youth subculture of this decade.

In addition to groups performing more or less “traditional” rock, in the 1980s a number of bands appeared in Moscow playing “metal”: Aria, Master, Black Coffee (Dmitry Varshavsky), Black Obelisk (Anatoly Krupnov) and Corrosion of Metal (Sergey Troitsky).
Murmansk: Ptitsa Volnaya (rock band) leader Andrey Gorshkov.
Central Russia: Gas sector (Yuri "Khoy" Klinskikh),

"Red Wave"

In 1986, the double album “Red Wave” was released in the United States with recordings by the Leningrad groups Aquarium, Strange Games, Alisa and Kino, which contributed to the development of Russian rock and interest in Soviet rock culture outside the USSR. The release of the album became possible largely thanks to Joanna Stingray, an American who visited the USSR a lot and was actively interested in Soviet rock (she was even married to the guitarist of the Kino group, Yuri Kasparyan). After the release of this album, Soviet rock bands got the opportunity to give concerts, record and release albums in Western countries, and collaborate with Western musicians. Kino toured France and Japan in 1988-1989, Zvuki Mu released the album “Zvuki mu” in the UK (producer: Brian Eno) and toured England and the USA. Aquarium leader Boris Grebenshchikov recorded the English-language album “Radio Silence” in the USA together with Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) with the participation of Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) and Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).

Late 1980s - early 1990s

The end of the 1980s was the emergence of Soviet rock from the underground. Several films were made that became an integral part of Russian rock culture: “Burglar” (1986) with Konstantin Kinchev, “Needle” (1988) with Viktor Tsoi, “Assa” (1987) with Aquarium and others, “Taxi Blues” ( 1989) with Pyotr Mamonov.

From that moment on, numerous new groups were created, the road for which was already open.

As a protest subculture, Russian rock ceased to exist in the second half of the 80s, when, after the legalization of rock music, it began to become part of the emerging domestic show business. This led to the emergence from the rock environment of a limited number of “star” bands capable of gathering large venues. The interest of mass listeners in other domestic rock performers began to decline; many of them ceased their activities in Russia due to the death of the founders, departure abroad, or unwillingness to work together. This is how Autograph, Kino, Nautilus Pompilius, Gorky Park, Zoo, and Secret disbanded.

Among the thirty performers included in the first five issues of “Legends of Russian Rock,” only about half were active by the mid-2000s.

1990s and modern times

In terms of sound, Russian rock by the mid-1990s (from about 1993) came closer to Western music, actually merging into its various directions. The music of some Russian-language rock bands of the 1990s and 2000s is sometimes characterized as “rockapop” and “not pop”.

In the 1990s, many bands officially reissued old albums that had previously been released by samizdat. The company "Moroz Records" has released a large series of collections called "Legends of Russian Rock", in which retrospective compilation albums of most famous Soviet rock bands and musicians were released.

Mass media began to play a large role in the development of rock music. Although most TV channels and radio stations almost ignore modern rock bands, in the 90s and 2000s a number of media outlets specializing in this music appeared. These are Our radio, TV channels A-One and O2TV, Radio Maximum, Fuzz magazine and others.

Following Yuri Aizenshpis (Cinema), many influential rock producers appeared: Alexander Ponomarev (Splin, BI-2), Dmitry Groysman (Chaif, Mara), Leonid Burlakov (Mumiy Troll, Zemfira, Brothers Grim), Alexander Kushnir, Alexander Elin and others.

In Russian rock music, the development of genres popular in the West continued, with the gradual division of a single movement into them. A large number of bands appeared performing punk and grunge (King and Jester, Lumen, Naive, Cockroaches!, 7th race, Pilot, Sky is here). The metal scene expanded with the emergence of power metal artists (Epidemiya, Catharsis), black and pagan metal (Temnozor, Arkona) and other types of metal music. A wide alternative scene has emerged, with performers of indie rock, nu metal, rapcore, emo, metalcore, such as Amatory, Jane Air, Psyche, Apshell, Slot. A-One is actively promoting this scene by creating the RAMP Prize.

Russian rock outside Russia

Sometimes some Russian-speaking groups outside Russia, as well as various groups in the countries of the former USSR, which were influenced by Russian rock, consider themselves to be Russian rock. For example, one of these rock groups is the group “Adaptation”, which, despite being in Kazakhstan and the nationality of the group leader, has every right to be called Russian rock. In this regard, the name “Soviet rock” arose, since, for the most part, the bands of the former USSR sound like what is called Russian rock. There are groups created by Russian-speaking immigrants in Israel, Germany, the USA and Canada, most of them amateur and practically unknown.

Tickets to the Kremlin, tickets to Monsters of Rock,

Conventionally, the history of Russian rock consists of periods, at the junction of which there will be events that changed the course of politics and the political system of our country. Changes in the worldview and way of life of millions of people simply could not help but affect the cultural sphere of public life, in which they have played a significant role since the 60s. and still plays a phenomenon called “Russian rock”.

Russian rock has come a long way from imitating Western rock-n-roll to an absolutely original and distinctive culture, going far beyond the definitions of “heavy music” or “protest music.” A distinctive feature of Russian rock music is the special attention paid to the lyrics of the compositions: the semantic and emotional content in the song is primarily valued, which is why their authors, the authors of Russian rock, have every right to be called poets. But let's move on to history.

1960s Origin.

1970s Formation of self-awareness.

1980s Bloom. Classic era

Rock capitals

1990s - present day