Finally, after more than 4 years my article “A Million Voices – Post-Soviet popular music, the Russian-Orthodox Church and the nation-state” has been published!
Originally presented at a conference in Marburg in 2019 the article was written both before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and before the protests in Belarus (following the contested presidential elections in 2020). It is conceived as a brief review of Russian popular music since the fall of the Soviet Union focused in the first part on how Soviet rock musicians continued their work after 1991. Here I continue the discussion on how #popular #music intersects with #nationalism and #religion, in this case the #Russian nation-state as well as the #Russian-#Orthodox #Church, especially how #Putin and his government tries to instrumentalize popular music both domestically as well as internationally for their agenda.
My main argument is that while the Russian elites have recognized the role of popular music in reaching out to both their voters as well as an international audience they are (similar to during the #Soviet times with the #VIA system and rock music) playing a game of catching up with current (musical) developments.
The article is included as a chapter in the book “Musik und ihre gesellschaftliche Bedeutung in den staats- und postsozialistischen Ländern Mittel- und Osteuropas seit 1945” edited by Rüdiger Ritter:
Wickström, David-Emil. 2023. A Million Voices – Post-Soviet popular music, the Russian-Orthodox Church and the nation-state. In Musik und ihre gesellschaftliche Bedeutung in den staats- und postsozialistischen Ländern Mittel- und Osteuropas seit 1945, edited by Rüdiger Ritter, 431-53. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz Verlag.
More info can be found here:
www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/titel_7354.ahtml