Red stars : personality and the Soviet popular song, 1955-1991 / David MacFadyen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacFadyen, David, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular music--Soviet Union--History and criticism.

Popular music.

Popular music--Social aspects--Soviet Union.

Singers--Soviet Union--Biography.

Singers.

Physical Description:

xi, 319 p. : ports.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

David MacFadyen delves into influential and widely disseminated songs that had a profound social significance in the Soviet Union. He discusses each singer's life, showing what it was that made them famous while placing the differences in their careers and fame in the context of Soviet culture as a whole. MacFadyen's multi-layered study considers national identity, gender, and the development of individual celebrity in a socialist state. He also looks at whether it is possible for artists to achieve genuine self-expression in a public arena under continuous political scrutiny. Both bold and penetrating, MacFadyen reveals a part of the Soviet Union that, while touching millions of people, has remained almost completely unexamined.

Contents:

The Soviet popular song after Stalin

Lyric or civic: personality and theatricality

Why sing estrada? Philosophical contexts of the genre

Edita Pekha: gentle voice of the thaw

Iosif Kobzon and the civic response

Irina Ponarovskaia and Sofiia Rotaru : in and out of Russia

Lev Leshchenko and Valerii Leont'ev: two nightingales

Alla Pugacheva: redefinine estrada

Alla Pugacheva: redefining personality.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-307), filmography (p. 307-309), discography (p. 310-315) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85896-3

9786612858963

0-7735-6879-4

OCLC:

929120777