Prehistories and Afterlives: The Packaging and Re-packaging of Soviet Rock

Abstract

In Russia today Soviet rock music is a consumer product. The record industry, publishers, and the media place a particular emphasis on groups connected with the Leningrad Rock Club (founded 1981) and magnitizdat recordings such as those made in the studio of Andrei Tropillo. This article deals with the material culture of Soviet rock, through an exploration of the fate of recordings made by Boris Grebenshchikov and his group Akvarium during the 1970s and 1980s. It begins by examining these recordings in their original incarnation, looking in particular at the convergence of creativity, commercial value, and fragility in magnitizdat as a medium. During glasnost, recordings of rock were subjected to appropriation by other parties, notably in Joanna Stingray's compilation Red Wave (USA, 1986) and Melodiia's release on vinyl of Akvarium's White Album (1986), which contributed to a re-working of the music's status in society. In contemporary Russia magnitizdat is again being revisited, through compact disc reissues, discussion on the station Nashe Radio, and the publication of memoirs and other literature, including works by Aleksandr Kushnir and Il'ia Stogoff. The final section discusses the role of this form of nostalgia in securing Soviet rock's canon and in presenting Russian consumers with a view of the recent past.

Notes

^[1] Gorbushka and Gorbushkin Dvor are two adjacent shopping centers in Moscow, specializing in electronic consumer goods, computer hardware and software, DVDs, and music; “Gorbushka” remains the popular name of the music and film department of Gorbushkin Dvor, but originally referred to an open-air market in the environs of the Gorbunov House of Culture (Dom kul'tury imeni Gorbunova). Until its closure in 2001, the original Gorbushka was known for selling vast numbers of unlicensed compact discs and DVDs. The forty-year history of the Gorbunov House of Culture as a venue for rock concerts ended when renovation of the building began in 2006 (“‘Gorbushka’ stala rokneprigodnoi”).

^[2] The examples and suggested interpretations mentioned in this paragraph are taken from discussion published on the website Akvarium: Spravochnoe posobie dlia “BG-ologov” i “Akvariumofilov” (Akvarium: A Handbook for “BG-ologists” and “Akvariumophiles”) < http://handbook.reldata.com/handbook.nsf/?Open>. An exhaustive online encyclopedia of people, events and songs connected to Grebenshchikov and Akvarium, the site is produced and constantly updated by an editorial committee headed by Pavel Severov.

^[3] Accounts of this event, in which rock and roll glory is mapped onto a confrontation between amateur rock and the strait-laced Soviet musical establishment, can be found in memoirs and histories; see Gakkel' (91–94), Romanov (66–68), Smirnov (Prekrasnyi diletant 76–81), Troitsky (Back in the USSR 54–59), Steinholt (Rock 32–33).

^[4] And even permitted to court controversy there. During a concert in the Kremlin in October 2003, held in celebration of his fiftieth birthday, the singer launched into a rendition of dissident Nikolai Vil'iams' song “Kommunisty mal'chishku poimali” (The Communists Caught a Little Boy), which he introduced with a mock apology: “I feel that events are pushing me into doing what I didn't want to …. It's just that this song was created to be sung in the Kremlin.” For further discussion of dealings between the political elite and re-invented rock musicians, see Wickström and Steinholt in this volume.

^[5] The exotically titled Iskushenie Sviatogo Akvariuma (The Temptation of Saint Aquarium), Prichti grafa Diffuzora (The Parables of Count Diffusor), Verbliud-Arkhitektor (Camel-Architect), Tainstva braka (The Secrets of Marriage), S toi storony zerkal'nogo stekla (On the Other Side of the Looking Glass). Out of these, two have disappeared (Verbliud-Arkhitektor and Tainstva braka).

^[6] Some of Stingray's later interviews and publicity materials have something of the spy thriller about them, a tone not lost on Smirnov (Prekrasnyi diletant 188–95).

^[7] Thereafter, Stingray improved her standing with the Soviet cultural establishment. She appeared on the television program Muzykal'nyi ring in 1987 and released her first solo record on Melodiia in 1988. She remained in Russia, working in music and video, until 1994.

^[9] Tropillo took with him several master tapes that he made available to Melodiia without the permission of the musicians involved (Troitsky Tusovska 156).

^[10] Condee and Padunov (83) reported that in 1988–90 magnitizdat rock albums sold for at least ten rubles. This price advantage did not make Melodiia capable of competing with unofficial rock production, as this union-wide giant was simply too slow off the mark (Smirnov “Razmyshleniia”). The company turned to releases of the Western rock canon, without paying too much attention to copyright (Steinholt Rock 57).

^[11] Grebenshchikov commented in 1987 that “what we achieved had a concept—a whole, joyful effect of happy sunshine—the kind of thing I love in the Beatles” (Zander); his later comments, however, were entirely negative (Smirnov Prekrasnyi diletant 228).

^[12] Nashe Radio's influence on the careers of groups is widely noted, but its policies are controversial among many active in music culture (Wickström and Steinholt, Alekseev 46, 117–18, 156–57).

^[13] The Letopis' broadcasts have been adapted into books, the first appearing under the mantle of Il'ia Stogoff's publishing “project” (see Chernin Nasha muzyka, Drugaia istoriia). The bias towards these institutions is by no means uncommon and has been observed in other contexts (Steinholt “You Can't Rid”).