Soviet rock on screen : the life, death, and resurrection of a film genre / Rita Safariants.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Safariants, Rita, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rock films--Soviet Union--History and criticism.

Rock films.

Motion pictures--Soviet Union--History.

Motion pictures.

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

Rock music.

Soviet Union.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History

Physical Description:

xiii, 290 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2026]

Summary:

"As the Iron Curtain fell and Cold War suspicions thickened in the second half of the twentieth century, the quintessentially American genre of rock and roll, seen as a potent symbol and product of an enemy ideology, quickly became a clandestine import in the USSR. The Soviet underground embraced the forbidden sounds, despite official propaganda that called rock stars social parasites and corrupting sluggards. Contrary to the regime's desires, the genre grew in popularity until it could no longer be ignored. In the Soviet Union's last decade, a flailing film industry, controlled by and dependent on an increasingly unstable central government, seized on the rock star as a central figure--and the Soviet rock film was born. In Soviet Rock on Screen, Rita Safariants chronicles the birth, life, death, and resurrection of a genre that rapidly became one of the most readily recognized cultural signifiers of the perestroika era and which continues to reflect and codify Russian culture. During their initial heyday in the 1980s, rock films were influenced by and encouraged the cultural shifts of perestroika and the incipient political storm. Today, Safariants argues, the reemergence and reconfiguration of the genre indicates the extent to which Soviet-era cultural emblems inform Russian national identity and obliquely support the current political repression under Putin"--Cover.

Contents:

Singing along with the establishment: Aleksandr Stefanovich's The Soul and Start from Scratch

Rockin' past the suspicion machine: the rock-and-roll blockbuster and the Soviet film industry

The Tsoi effect: Soviet rock stars on screen

The Leningrad rock film: Valerii Ogorodnikov's The Burglar and the soundtrack of late-Soviet adolescence

The Brothers of rock: Aleksei Balabanov and the moral downfall of the Soviet rock star

Raising the dead: sequels, remakes, legacies, and the post-Soviet rock film

"Tsoi lived, Tsoi lives, Tsoi will live on": preserving the rock star body in the post-Soviet biopic.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780299354800

0299354806

OCLC:

1528595248