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

Gorsheniov’s grave

While visiting Tsoi’s grave I also passed the grave of the recently deceased Mikhail “Gorshok” Gorsheniov (1973–2013) who passed away a month before my visit to the cemetery. He was the vocalist of the St. Petersburg based band “Korol’ i Shut”, one of the big Post-Soviet bands. Taken with my D700 and Nikon 20-35mm 2.8.

Tsoi’s grave

One of the disadvantages of doing research on Post-Soviet popular music (as well as with musicians in general) is that a lot of central musicians died (and still die) at a young age – like Viktor Tsoi (1962-1990), the vocalist of the Soviet group Kino. Tsoi, however, remains in the memory of his fans –…Continue reading Tsoi’s grave

My phd “Okna otkroi!” finally published

A revised version of my phd-dissertation with the title “‘Okna otkroi! – ‘Open the Windows!’ – Transcultural Flows and Identity Politics in the St. Petersburg Music Scene” was published last week in the series “Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society” edited by Andreas Umland. I am very honored to have a super foreword written by…Continue reading My phd “Okna otkroi!” finally published

NY Times Saturday Profile features DDT’s Iurii Shevchuk

Today’s New York Times featured a Saturday Profile on DDT’s vocalist (and leader) Iurii Shevchuk titled “A Star Keeps Rocking in the Not-So-Free World“. The article gives a short summary of Shevchuck’s biography and primarily deals with his questioning of the current regime as well as the recent question-and-answer session with Vladimir Putin on May…Continue reading NY Times Saturday Profile features DDT’s Iurii Shevchuk

Article on Reggae, Ska and Ska-punk in St. Petersburg published on Norient

My article My reggery – Reggae, Ska and Ska-punk in St. Petersburg discussing ska, ska-punk and reggae in St. Petersburg was just published on Norient.com. 🙂

Pudra

Good Bye, Leningrad

After the special issue of Popular Music and Society on post-soviet popular music was published I was contacted by the movie director and photographer Christine Bachmann who asked if I had heard of the movie “Good Bye, Leningrad” – which I had not. After some technical complications I finally got a review copy of the…Continue reading Good Bye, Leningrad

Aerostat on Russian popular music

Since May 22nd, 2005 Akvarium’s lead singer and front man Boris Grebenshchikov (BG) has hosted the weekly radio show Aerostat on Radio Rossii (these shows are also published and archived as podcasts at aerostat.rpod.ru). While quite broad (and primarily about Western popular music) BG at times also talks about Russian popular music. Besides discussing and…Continue reading Aerostat on Russian popular music

The national anthem lyricist Sergei Mikhalkov (1913-2009)

Among the many links between the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia maybe the national anthem is the most symbolic one – here in the 1977 version sung by the Ukrainian group 5’Nizza live on RenTV shortly after midnight on January 1st, 2004: When Stalin in 1943 wished to replace the “The Internationale” which had until…Continue reading The national anthem lyricist Sergei Mikhalkov (1913-2009)

Popular Music and Society on Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space

A happy summer announcement: The journal “Popular Music and Society” (32:3 2009) titled “Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space: Trends, Movements, and Social Contexts” of which Yngvar Steinholt and I were guest editors is now out. Concluding about two years of editorial work (and a lot of really interesting submissions) the journal includes the following…Continue reading Popular Music and Society on Popular Music in the Post-Soviet Space

Blizhnee zarubezh’e – The Near Abroad

The “The Near Abroad” (Blizhnee zarubezh’e) is often used when referring to the former Soviet Republics from a Russian perspective and which Russia considers its sphere of influence. Looking for a definition of the term for my dissertation I came across this interesting article written by William Safire in 1994: ON LANGUAGE; The Near Abroad

Article about ethnic Germans at TOL

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post (“Who are ‘die Russen’ currently living in Germany?”) one area where a lot of ethnic Germans migrated to Germany from was Kazakhstan. I should have written the former Central-Asian Soviet republics because a large community also ended up in Kyrgyzstan. I mention this since the highly recommendable…Continue reading Article about ethnic Germans at TOL