Lizaveta Lysenka M.A.

State-supported popular music in the Soviet Union was both a transmitter of Soviet values and ideology and an importer of global popular music aesthetics. The same pop-songs were beloved throughout the Soviet space, being the instrument of homogenisation and establishing of Soviet cultural identity. However, many performers from the Soviet republics appealed to national images, and fans’ individual interpretations of this imagery transcended the centralised national policies and suggested ways of identification. 

The project focuses on vocal-instrumental ensembles, state-funded pop-rock bands that emerged in Soviet popular music in the late 1960s. The primary question is how transcultural exchanges in popular music were intertwined with the centralised nationality policy in the late Soviet Union (the 1970s and the 1980s)? The hypothesis is that as the Soviet authorities instrumentalised pop music for the Soviet identity construction, they introduced hybrid and Westernised national imagery to the Soviet republics, shaped by transsystemic cultural exchange in popular music. Soviet-Belarusian bands, such as ‘Pesniary’ or ‘Siabry’, make a peculiar case for analysis of these matters. Using musical records of these bands, as well as fan diaries, video recordings of concerts, and materials from Soviet, Polish, German, and American press, the project aims to demonstrate how official Soviet popular music adapted to the global musical trends and impacted the periphery-centre power dynamics in the USSR.

Betreuer: Prof. Dr. Martin Aust