Rock Stardom in Late Soviet Culture: Performing Identities under Socialism

This research focuses on rock music in the Soviet Union during the period 1968 to 1991, and considers the people that produced it, their relationships with audiences, the settings in which rock music was to be found, the forms in which it was transmitted to audiences, and the range of meanings it evoked. Before Gorbachev's instigation of policies of glasnost and perestroika, rock music was largely a non-official form, which meant that it usually existed separately from the structures and agencies that organised cultural production, and did not benefit from their direct support. This has led earlier studies to characterise Soviet rock music as a form of social protest or political opposition to official ideology, an argument that is lent weight by rock music's arrival under the media spotlight during the era of glasnost.

This project's aim is to re-examine the place of rock music in Soviet society during this era of transitions and the ways in which it made meaning for Soviet audiences. It analyses the different manifestations of rock stardom through case studies of rock groups originating in cities across the Soviet space, revealing the ways in which rock performers negotiated with official cultural institutions and made recourse to resources that were, theoretically at least, the property of the state. At the centre of the project is a reading of the ways in which rock musicians projected a sense of their music's authenticity. When shaping their own identities as performers, practitioners of rock were thinking about music and cultural production in a particular way: they privileged certain concepts (individual expression, inspiration) and rejected others (collective, 'Soviet' identity, commercial-mindedness); other ideas, including the notion of the live event and the meaning of recorded sound, remained in an opposed but unresolved dynamic relationship. In many ways, this construction of authenticity mirrors ideas prevalent in rock music in the West (which was certainly a factor in Soviet rock musicians' development of ideas about their music); to understand it fully, though, it needs to be related to the late Soviet context and ways in which the Soviet individual related to public and collective life. This research is unique in taking both of these contexts fully into account and showing that the concept of rock stardom was one that had currency and meaning in settings other than the late capitalist West.

Innovative sources and research methods will be used throughout this project. It uses sources that were published during the Soviet era and later as well as sound recordings (non-official studio recordings and concert bootlegs and official Soviet releases), video (film, television and home-made recordings) and photographs to trace the careers and performing personas of different practitioners. It also examines the meaning of different kinds of rock concert by visiting the physical locations in which they took place, examining the means of communication they allowed between performers and audiences. Accessing collections of rock albums recorded and circulated as so-called magnitizdat ('tape-recorder publishing', using reel-to-reel tape) will enable an understanding of what relationship the Soviet rock fan would have with the music of his/her idols.

Despite being comparatively recent, the period under investigation is one that remains less well-known in Soviet history, especially in terms of cultural life and everyday experiences. Understanding the ways in which rock music was produced and consumed gives vital insights into what it meant to be Soviet as the Soviet Union came to an end. Such an understanding is necessary in order to understand many of the characteristics of Russian life and culture in the post-Soviet era.

One of the main aims of this research is to increase public knowledge and understanding of the cultural phenomena it describes and, in doing so, to influence public opinion about Soviet life, overturning received wisdoms about Western and Eastern European societies and cultures during and since the Cold War. I envisage that the project's main output, a monograph, will be accessible to a wide readership and will also appear as a Russian-language edition.

Two further activities are planned in order to exploit the full potential this research and benefit wider communities. A workshop on the imprint of rock music culture on Russian society during and since the Soviet era will be used to engage the general public (including Russian-speaking communities) and the media in cultural debates that are of great relevance today. I will also publish an article on digital sound recordings and copyright, drawing on my experiences of dealing with the shades of grey in terms of ownership and authorship that are inherent in accessing sound recordings made during the Soviet period. Given the role of Russia-based internet sites in cases of copyright violation and illegal downloading, this contextualisation will be of benefit to those in the music industry who work with copyright, and will assist in formulating policy in this sphere.