Our pop!

COLTA. RU continues the discussion about the fate of Russian music. In contrast to Andrei Bukharin, the editor-in-chief of the Stereo & Video magazine and part-time frontman of Sint-Pop-Pop-Duet Elektromonteur Mikhail Borzenkov believes that Russian pop music is now going through the best times.

I understand where this impulse comes from - stomping and screaming "in the furnace!" while listening to new Russian music.

We all really want a song to play in our native language - and goosebumps ran across the skin, and tears rolled down his cheeks. In order for the American charts to crack under the pressure of Russian voices, and Jimmy Fallon, when he would parody the Russian singer, did not say “some Russian” , but “new star” or “great and beautiful” and respectfully pronounced the name, carefully pronouncing difficult syllables. But goosebumps do not run, charts are unshakable, and therefore we cannot restrain our righteous anger and exclaim - well, why is everything so bad with Russian music ?!

Occent, everything is fine with her-better than ever over the past 100 years!

I remember very well that some more than ten years ago the wording “sounds so that you will never guess that this group from Russia” was not a condescending cliche for a whole cohort of relevant musicians, but an unattainable ideal that was dreamed of on every rehearsal base. To achieve a fashionable, relevant sound, an indistinguishable by ear from Western colleagues, was a dream of several generations of Russian pop and rock musicians. They also dreamed of Alexander Gradsky , who in the studio of Melody tried to make no worse than George Martin on Abbey Road , and under Yuri Chernavsky , who was competing in a home studio with Police and Yello , and even in the amateur Leningrad rock club-we recall the Album of Radio Africa, where Boris Grebenshchikov is with the help of Boris Grebenshchikov. Sergei Kurekhin carefully tried to reproduce the fashionable sound constructions of the British "New Wave" . They also dreamed of under Lagutenko with Zemfira - in vain they, or something, did their albums go to London together?

Generally speaking, this is an interesting phenomenon, because academic musicians never had a problem with professional recognition in the West. Russian violinists, pianists, opera singers - I'm not talking about composers - always found their listener in Europe and America. But the language of pop music has never been given to Russians. I was told by one sound engineer, who wished to remain an unknown how he had to carry our stars and local techniques unobtrusively replaced Russian musicians by local session. Ours could not provide subtleties such as intonation and proper sound recovery.

Yes, Brian Ino and Dave Stewart in the late 1980s were very impressed with the peculiarity of the Russian rock that suddenly opened to the world, but they could not get out to another level of their protege. Why?

We tried to give the answer to this question for the past 20 years, and, it seems to me, in the early 2000s, a unambiguous consensus has developed in the country that this should be for the answer. Here it is: we must learn to sound no worse than "there." Moreover, this idea took possession of the minds of musicians of all scales and genres - from small to great. The guys who depict Franz Ferdinand worked at the smoky replazes, the English-language albums were recorded on the Great Pop Arena, and the Group t poured the best portion of oil into this fire. A. T. U. who suddenly shot with her provocative teen-pop on the whole world. Let's face the truth: t. A. T. U. He became the first and so far the last, but real success of Russian pop music. And although the duet from the first notes sounded close to how it was accepted “there” - the songs had to be translated into English and rewritten under the leadership of the British hitmaker Trevor Horn , and only then everything turned out.

Occent, everything is fine with Russian music-better than ever over the past 100 years!

But what is happening now? And now the eternal problem of “how to do the same” has disappeared. No need to go for sound to London or Berlin. Look in VKontakte - yes there every day they fall out of ten releases of Russian groups that sound indistinguishable from their European and American peers. We have a lot of musicians who do not work for Russia at all, but sell their tracks right there - abroad. Motorama , Tesla Boy , Pompeya and On-The-Go go on tour to Europe and America not like Russian wonders, but as “another fashion group” no matter what country. Sound engineer On- Go and Coxing Sergey Luginin sits in his Moscow apartment and winds the sound of fashion artists ( GlenView Records ) and German ( Growing Bin Records ) labels.

And here is a comic example: the Swanky Tunes is a breakdown team from the Central Russian city of Smolensk on Facebook by a group of 298,000 people (for comparison: with Mumiy Troll - 83,000), touring with its uncomplicated electric shius in the Asian resort festivals and, remaining in the same Smolensk, ears exclusively international tour. Max Fadeev redraws the girl ’s group with an eye on the Italian market-under their video on YouTube 23 million views, and Russian-language comments are lost among European sighs about the beauty of Russian girls somewhere far on the 70th page. What is it? This is the normal integration of our popes in the world context. Technically, it has already taken place.

Unlike auto industry, democracy and agriculture, Russian pop music has been incredibly progressed over the past 20 years. For example, you did not try to listen to the radio in a taxi in Greece? Or in Turkey? This is where the horror and a nightmare is a series of howls in the pseudonal style of vocalists, next to which the repertoire of the Radio "Chanson" will seem exquisite and sophisticated. Now turn on the “Russian radio” (after all, none of us has been doing this for a long time): there Vera Brezhneva will sing to you, and singer Nyusha, and you know that Nyusha’s sound is almost like Kylie, the songs are complex, arrangements with a subservient. This is a long time ago not a group of combinations and not the sisters of the Zaitsevs. I’ll think firmly if I am offered to choose between Nyusha and Britney-so you will weigh and think: but it’s still nyusha! The hopeless vulgarity inherent in the musical cultures of the outskirts, from Russian popular music, was noticeably sinking. Even the hero of the chanson Grigory Leps-and he steals the songs of the Coldplay group: Yes, yes he is talking about something.

I remember how I was sick when in the 87th year, Russian poppy played from the tent on the corner-all these Gazmanovs, Kazachenko and “Na-Na”. Thank God, today the Russian mainstream confidently stepped away from the orphan song. The current stars can be listened and not to grind, blushing and burning with shame. The same applies to the generation of indie . The Naada group may be liked or not, but it is difficult to reproach that its music is provincial. What is the best some kind of chvrches group of a foreign press? Yes, in general. The Moscow Quintet Race to Space plays an excellent epic electrical and romantic trip-hop, indistinguishable in quality from what is imported from Germany or England to parties to “sixteen tons”. The hellish group Equal Minds Theory gives out perfectly played and perfectly recorded Matkor (not like European colleagues, by the way). Anton Maskeliad sings “ephemeral” in half -fluid English, travels to European festivals, conjures over theLEAP Motion wireless controller, and the American manufacturer Source Audio is already sending him his devices for free, as one of the first musicians in the world, who did something outstanding on this technology. There are many more examples.

So what's wrong here? Every day of this music is more and more in a variety of styles, the competition is getting tougher, and everyone wants to jump on. Therefore, the definition of “how” managed to turn from an excellent characteristic into a derogatory. “No worse than there” Russian musicians have already succeeded. And “better than there” is a matter of time. Look around - Russian entertaining music has never been so professional, diverse and high -quality, as it is now.