Chapter introduction

Article “A Million Voices – Post-Soviet popular music, the Russian-Orthodox Church and the nation-state” published

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!

Cover "Made in Germany"

Book “Made in Germany – Studies in Popular Music” published

This book’s roots goes back to when Oliver Seibt and I still were on the IASPM D-A-CH-board in 2014. Oli had been contacted by the series editors about a book project within the “Routledge Global Popular Music Series”. Two other edited books on German popular music had just been published and after we studied them…Continue reading Book “Made in Germany – Studies in Popular Music” published

Pripriat'

Kyiv & Chornobyl pics

Here are some pictures from my recent trip to Kyiv and Chornobyl (part of the War of Songs-book launch tour):

Book cover "War of Songs"

Book “War of Songs – Popular Music and Recent Russia-Ukraine Relations” published

When we, Andrei Rogatchevski, Yngvar B. Steinholt, Arve Hansen and I, submitted our abstracts for a panel at the 2017 IASPM conference in Kassel we just wanted to present some uses of popular music during conflict. The response to our papers on the role that popular music played during the recent (and ongoing) Russian-Ukrainian conflict…Continue reading Book “War of Songs – Popular Music and Recent Russia-Ukraine Relations” published

Transkulturelle Erkundungen Wissenschaftlich-künstlerische Perspektiven

Article “Die Musiken der Welt in Mannheim? Cultural flow und die künstlerische Ausbildung in Weltmusik” published

Two years ago I was asked by Prof. Ursula Hemetek to give a guest lecture within the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien’s lecture series “Transkulturalität”. The resulting talk charted the development of the world music degree program at the Popakademie Baden-Württemberg and critiqued Wolfgang Welsch’s term “Transkulturalität”. Instead, I argue in favor of…Continue reading Article “Die Musiken der Welt in Mannheim? Cultural flow und die künstlerische Ausbildung in Weltmusik” published

Religion and Popular Music Artists, Fans, and Cultures

Article “My Pravoslavnye: Russkii rok, Orthodoxy and nationalism in post-Soviet Russia” published

An area I have been thinking about for a long time is the relationship between music and religion in Russia. I have touched on this in my research before, but not explicitly focused on it. When Andreas Häger contacted me about writing an article for a planned book on popular music and religion in 2015…Continue reading Article “My Pravoslavnye: Russkii rok, Orthodoxy and nationalism in post-Soviet Russia” published

My summer hit musings

A couple of weeks ago I was interview by Clemens Panagl from the Salzburger Nachrichten on why songs from the non Anglo-US-American musical world suddenly become summer hits. The resulting article titled “Dein Sommerhit, das unbekannte Wesen” was published on July 7th and included some of my musings on what makes a (summer)hit. I managed…Continue reading My summer hit musings

Article “Ukro-Ska-Punk” finally published

Finally my article “‘Ukro-Ska-Punk’ – Band Identity, Surzhik and Language in Post-Soviet Russia” on Svoboda’s use of surzhik and Ukrainian stereotypes in St. Petersburg has been published – my first foray into linguistics. 😉 After the editor of the first book project this article was supposed to appear in disappeared the article found a welcome new…Continue reading Article “Ukro-Ska-Punk” finally published

Minsk

Two weeks ago I was in Minsk for the workshop Popakademie Minsk – School of Pop organized by the Goethe Institut Minsk. Together with Martin Lücke I spent a day talking about popular music education covering both music business as well as the higher education of musicians and songwriters (cf. euroradio.fm/ru/shou-biznes-v-germanii-kak-v-maynhayme-gotovyat-pop-zvezd-i-prodyuserov for an article about…Continue reading Minsk

Rocking St. Petersburg

Finally I got my author’s copy of “Rocking St. Petersburg – Transcultural Flows and Identity Politics in Post-Soviet Popular Music” published this June. The book is a revised and expanded edition of “‘Okna otkroi!’ – ‘Open the Windows!’” and is distributed through Columbia University Press in the United States (ibidem is still responsible for the…Continue reading Rocking St. Petersburg

400 years Romanov dynasty

Russia has since the fall of the Soviet Union been reconfiguring their nation building. One aspect has been to re-embrace the Romanov dynasty as this billboard commemorating 400 years of the Romanovs shows. Taken during my morning jog with my Canon S95.

Severnii’s grave

Another musician who passed away at an early age is Arkadii Severnii (aka as Arkadii Zvezdin – 1939-1980) – an influential performer within what has become known as the russkii shanson tradition (Uli Hufen wrote a good book on russkii shanson with a long chapter on Severnyi – my mini review of the book is on…Continue reading Severnii’s grave