Pops: Pops got everyone

What is the popes, such is the parish Zemfira cheered up the music market with a small scandal. The “informat” singer returned the MTV channel Russian Music Awards -2005 for the best video - “I realized that this is all a fiction”. She was nominated for five positions, including the best singer, but this title went to jasmine. And the best artist and the best performer was called Dima Bilan, who sings “you must forgive everything”, he will go to represent Russia at the MTV World Ceremony. It was reported that Sergei Shnurov from Leningrad did not pretend to anything at all, shouted loudly about the pop star that if he was thrown into the Moscow River, he would not drown. On television, this scene was not shown, although it would have pleased many.

Pops took out not only Zemfira and the cord. She was tired of both the public and the Kremlin, and most importantly - to herself. That is, producers. From transparent dramas on the topic “It was good for us, and now bad”, laid on three chords, the creators of the stars were drawn to less understandable texts (someone says “smarter”). Well, the guitar is more aggressive, and shock. Now the producers are looking for performers with might and main - guys who will make, as they say, they will repay a couple of years and give up a place for new talented projects. Roko-Pops, Rock, Hip-Hop, Europop, British pop-all that is not “pure popes” confidently conquers broadcasts, concert venues and mobile phones.

Zemfira is just such, only naughty. She herself writes songs, performs them not under the plywood, gives as many concerts as she wants, and does not feel sure that it is time to leave - television channels and radio stations have long been convinced of its popularity and forgive the unusual format. The cord has the same case. But the FPS group, which MTV called the discovery of this year, is a production project, Viktor Drobysh, who, together with Joseph Prigozhin, has already promoted Valery, the Tutsi group, Stas Piehu, Zhenya Malakhov. FPS has nothing like “don’t give me to him, I pray you about it” - they generally play rock and sing in English. In addition, they immediately had something to present to the producers - they recorded their first album with the money of the general director of the Seven Days publishing house Dmitry Biryukov, whose son Alexei heads the group. “We are looking for talented guys in other genres, the same scene has exhausted itself,” Drobysh says. “Now the new generation requires new music.”

The musical critic Artemy Troitsky does not require - he is outraged that the problem was not noticed before: “There has never been a more mediocre and low -quality pop music in the world. The people began to understand that they were fed not even fast food, but with cotton surrogate. Concert and club life in the country boils, and a monstrous stagnation floats on the surface. If Tsoi were 25, he would become Russian Franz Ferdinand. But I don’t see anyone who would come now. ”

In September, MTV already explained to the producers that it was time to create fashion for the music more heavier. “This is a global trend, and once it had to reach Russia,” explains Leonid Yurglas, CEO of the TV channel. “We invited the Korn group not by chance - it was shown to everyone what course we take.” In his opinion, the main problem is not that music channels do not want to be distracted from the popes, but that there are few good groups that would shoot high-quality videos and focused on show business standards: “The Group“ Night Snipers ”and Surganov will not listen until they are shot high-quality video. And their music is popular. Another “p@mashka”, “animals”, “Christmas tree”. Well, Legalize, as an example of commercial rap. That's all. "

They look at the muses -TV towards the Nepops - they say that everything is in order on the channel. And the fall of the share of the audience in the last 9 months from 1.1 to 0.8% promises to play, diversifying the programs (at the MTV for the same time, the share has increased slightly - from 1 to 1.1%). The radio stations, by the way, have a similar trend: the more poppies are in rotation, the more noticeable the lag along the share of the audience. In the meantime, the priorities of the MUZ -TV are the same: the main thing is popping, on which, among others, the composer and producer Igor Krutoy made his condition. Muz-TV belongs to his company Ars. But on Channel One, he was failure: they decided that he was steeply demanded too much space for his artists, and for the first time this year they did not give him the “song of the year”. Now Real Records refueling in the first music, which has always gravitated to artists like “Mumiy Troll” and Zemfira. And on the RTR, they prepare the program “About Light” - young talents in the field of informal music will promote there. Dmitry Dibrov will lead, and the idea of ​​Boris Grebenshchikov, who, in the spring, along with other rock musicians, went to a meeting with the deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov (they are almost colleagues - the official had a disk from Agatha Christie).

The producers went to look for new projects for MTV to where, according to Troitsky, life boils - to clubs. From there, the popular Nepopus has grown like “Bi-2”, “7b” also from there. True, the “7B” came out of the unprofit: the soloist Ivan Demyan did not want to work as much as the producer Ivan Shapovalov, who was already famous for the Tattoo project, was needed. Yes, and the too pop -up bias did not suit him, says SHAPOVALOV partner Sergey Bobza, for the last two years Demyan has been without a producer. “This is a choice between freedom and commerce,” the singer explains. “Of course, I always want to earn more money, but I have enough for a living now.” In November, 7b releases the third album, heavier, and television, according to Demyan, became interested in the new clips of the group, "although they used to seem too non -standard." Club groups are generally wayward, and everyone in the musical business agrees that it will not be easy to tame such fashion teams as Amatory, Animaljazz, Traactor Bowling, Jane Air. To take artists for a specific project - not artists with projects - was not invented in Russia. In the 90s, after completely independent ABBA, Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, British and American broadcasts were seized by the Production Stars of Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, they were replaced by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. But in Russia, this technique was brought to perfection, even to the point of absurdity, Troitsky believes, when the artist’s creative person was simply excluded from the process: “In the USSR in the USSR, it was the stage that was written qualitatively and was talentedly performed. Even the “affectionate May” was a group of fresh in its own way, and then it all rested against the facelessness, hopeless and monstrous. Even the Jaga -Jaga Katya Lel is a wonderful song against this. The task of the producer in Russia is to take shit and make it a candy out of it. ”

Actually, sweets are made of different raw materials. The animal group, for example, issuing the first disc, remained the company CD LAND thousand one hundred dollars. But the second album “Regions, Quarters” shattered in these very areas and quarters with a bang - by that time Alexander Voitinsky produced the group, and critics noticed that the “animals” became more and more. About the same, as fans say, happened with the punk-rock “king and the jester”, breaking through MTV.

Initinsky began with the Tattoo, but shortly before the launch of the project, he lost it in it and lost to Shapovalov, who conquered the whole world with them. “Shapovalov proved how to“ bend ”reality and make everyone listen to something new,” says Olesya Gordeeva, director of the SIG and director of the Sansara group. - And Vitrinsky with Roma Bilyk (the main “beast.” - Newsweek ) fell into a point. Urkagan from the [outskirts of the Moscow region] Bibirevo could not like the girls. Each clip was calculated. The clip for pity - when it was beaten, the second - for love, then in the summer - a song about the south. No video was an accident. Only the calculation. All to the point. And at the same time rock is replaced. Roma Bilyk knows how to squeeze everything out of the hall. A year and a half the project has developed, and now it brings good money. ”

The “animals” go through both the Western and Russian markets typical: creation, promotion, “scatter” on tour. Investments in the group on average are $ 250,000. Write down the album - $ 15,000-30,000, if you do not attract masters like a drones or Fadeev, with them more expensive. Sleeping of the clip costs from $ 35,000. To be turned not only on MTV, you will have to lay out $ 30,000 - 40,000 per month. (True, Gordeeva from Sig provides that now it is less and less that you have to pay for rotation on the radio.) They will begin to recognize the group no earlier than in two to three months. Photoshoots and PR manager will require at least $ 1000-1500 per month. Advertising and placement on the covers of popular youth and musical publications - 20,000 - 30,000. Business as a business, with its share of corruption and showdowns. Last week on Wednesday, unknown people shot the general director of the recording company Mrilian Sound Airat Sharipov - the investigation, as usual, suspects that the matter was “professional activity”.

The main difference between the Russian project and the Western one is that the main income here brings, and not records, so our stars all the time on the trip (the concert costs from $ 4,000 to $ 20,000), and the western ones are only during the promotion of the next album. It makes no sense to invest in disks so seriously - still 80% will sell pirates. Plus free copies on the Internet. That's what the pirates have not yet controlled, so it’s with melodies for mobile phones that turned out to be a truly gold bottom for musicians. The editor of Rolling Stone magazine Pavel Grinshpun tells how he went recently with a cord who writes to the column magazine, and he did not allow him to pay - he showed a pack of money and said that he received up to $ 100,000 per month from one contents for mobile phones, and five of these companies pay him. The general director of one of these companies (he asked not to indicate his name) estimates the entire Rington market at $ 150 million a year.

Ringtons are distributed by cellular operators and several large content suppliers of $ 0.5–3. From WAP sites, they can be downloaded for free, but it is more difficult, it takes more time, and it is easier for teenagers to send an SMS to the operator from the phone, for which parents still pay. This market, by the way, completely confirms the new MTV installation - mainly non -pop melodies download. Behind the leader of the cord is Seryoga with his hip -hoper “black boomer”.

Cinema also contributed to the fight against the dominance of poppy. For the most cash register and popular Russian films, the soundtracks are not invented by producing centers, but by the same Seryoga (the film “Boomer”) or “Leg Sil” (“Turkish Gambit”), whose song “To the East” immediately flew to the tops of the hit parades. Then the group recorded a well -sold new album and gave several major concerts.

However, while the light at the end of the pop tunnel seemed only to the public in the capital and large cities, and the farther to the province, the more dominance all the same producer projects hated by Trinity.

In Yaroslavl, for example, clubs like “partisan” are a rarity. Those who call Dima Bilan Bima Dylan gather here and joyfully sings the strange look of the guys in white robes, who, ridiculously lifting their legs, dance on the stage surrounded by several dozen fans. “Tomorrow, the far road falls out to the king,” the untied blond with a guitar in his hands screams into the microphone. “He has a lot of money, but I love money.” “Oh-lu-lu, oh-lu-lu,” the crowd explodes. “And I love money.” The Ivanovo group “Sausage” is played, which plays in the style of SKA. “In Ivanovo, too, they only listen to the popes,” complains Vanya Vanish, the leader of the Sausage group. Therefore, the guys are more likely to tour around the country than perform in their hometown. And they dream of the success that their fellow countrymen achieved - “Disco's accident”. “They used to play in a rock band,” Vanya opens the secret.

While fans of Nepopsa came off in the Partizan, the traditional Yaroslavl youth gathered for a concert by Dima Bilan. “He is a darling,” the 16 -year -old Natalya admits, as soon as the DJ in the nightclub “Avangard” starts the song of Bilan “You must be nearby”. “The guy already bought tickets to Dimin's concert.” “How did you cancel? Is it true?" - This is in response to a girlfriend’s replica about the transfer of a concert because of the death of the Bilanov producer Aizenshpis.