A second part of this chapter, however, will examine - again, in the context of post-Soviet space, the reporting (or lack thereof) of violence against women in the Russian-language press, and incipient formations of groups devoted to addressing the issue of domestic violence - audiovisual representations in Russian language popular music of a sort of "vigilante justice" by "beautiful" women; here, the concatenation of beauty and justice becomes arguably more tense and intensified. Below, several examples:
ВИА-Гра, "Цветок и нож" (VIA-Gra, "Tsvetok i nozh"/"Flower and Knife")
This is one of the earliest examples I've found
(And note: the group's name is a rather funny play on words - and the Soviet musical past - which I'll explain in a future post devoted to the group - the focus of another chapter)
ВИА-Гра, "Сумашедший" (VIA-Gra, "Sumashedshii"/"Crazy")
This clip in particular is very interesting - not only is the "violence" directly related to female sexuality and sexual pleasure (arguably representing male fears of the same), but the object of the "attacks" is one of the group's members, Tat'iana Kotova, in male drag. What is important here - in terms of my focus on the voice throughout the book - is that Kotova was (to my knowledge) the only of the 16 members of the group's changing roster who never sang a note - she literally had no voice.
Анна Седокова, "Что я наделала" (Anna Sedokova, "Chto ia nadelala"/"What Have I Done")
(Sedokova was a former member of VIA-Gra, from what many call the group's "golden" era)
ВИА-Гра, "У меня появился другой" (VIA-Gra, "U menia poiavilsia drugoi"/"I've Got Someone Else") (That's a rough translation)
This current line-up was the result of a televised competition a-la the Idols or X-Factor franchises; the program, Хочу в ВИА-Гру (Khochu v VIA-Gru/I Want to Be [in/part of] VIA-Gra) featured numerous hopefuls, the finalists chosen by the group's founder/producer/composer/arranger Konstantin Meladze and other celebrity judges (including original VIA-Gra member Nadezhda Meikher-Granovskaia). As groups were formed, each was mentored by a former VIA-Gra member (Sedakova, Granovskaia, and Al'bina Dzhanabaeva). It goes without saying that the "competition" was largely an empty spectacle, and that the "winners" - Misha Romanova, Erika Gertseg, and Anastasiia Kozhevnikova were likely selected long before the program began. It's notable that all three are Ukrainian citizens - but I'll address that in a future post.
The rapper, by the way, is the very talented (although you can't really see/hear it in this song) Вахтанг Каландадзе (Vakhtang Kalandadze). You can get a better idea of his abilities here.
Полина Гагарина, "Шагай" (Polina Gagarina, "Shagai"/"Walk")
To her credit, Gagarina is one of the few singers on the Russian scene who actually appears to sing live at many of her concerts/performances - something that I'll be discussing in the book.
Also notable is her really radical change in image; in this clip ("Колыбельная"; "Kolybel'naia"/"Lullabye") she's quite different than her man-eating novyi Russkii ("New Russian") persona in "Shagai."
(By the way, I quite like this song - and [here comes a tangent] it was a good choice for singer/model Aida Nikolaichuk's audition on X-Factor Ukraine. If you watch the clip, note that they stop her - they don't believe that she's not lip-synching, so they ask her to sing a cappella. She wound up winning the season.)
Ева Польна, "Я тебя тоже нет/Je t'aime" (Eva Pol'na, "Ia tebia tozhe net/Je t'aime"/"I also Don't/I Love You")
For some reason, YouTube will not allow embedding of this video, but you can watch it here.
(Pol'na is a very interesting performer with a very interesting history; I've written about her previously, but am not sure if she will make the final cut for this book - at least not as an artist on whom I will focus at length. It's a pity.)
The spectacularly untalented Юлия Ковальчук (Iuliia Koval'chuk), "Прямо в сердце" ("Priamo v serdtse"/"Straight to the Heart")
I love a good "girl group," I make no apologies for that (although I am growing very, very tired of Icona Pop for some reason - and not only because of the really problematic nature of this video) - but Koval'chuk was a member of one of the most unlistenable girl groups of all time, Блестящие (Blestiashchie; I'll translate this as "Shiny [Ones]" or "Glittery"). I know, I'm supposed to be objective and open-minded, but for me it just doesn't get any worse than this. Today's Russian lesson: дерьмо.
А.Р.М.И.Я, "Я независимая" (A.R.M.I.IA, "Ia nezaisimaia"/"I'm Independent")
A Ukrainian group - and granted, this isn't really "violence," although the stunning number of dislikes on YouTube (about 40%) and several of the nasty comments suggest that many find the message of this song threatening and disturbing. To be independent? How dare you!
(As an aside - but an important aside - one of the issues I'll have to deal with in this book is deciding how to engage these artists who are, at least by nationality [if not residence] Ukrainian, but who speak/sing in Russian, appear in all manner of Russian [not only Russian-language, but Russian-owned] media, and are clearly listened to by Russians in Russia - as well as Ukrainian citizens who consider themselves culturally closer to Russia than Ukraine. It may well be that these groups/artists may have to be analyzed differently, on a case-by-case basis. The Ukraine/Russia tension will most certainly be in issue in my chapter on VIA-Gra, especially considering the group's latest video/song which not-at-all-subtly draws upon the current political-cultural-military conflicts [and to the group's credit, rallies for "truce"].)
Поющие трусы, "Му му" (Poiushchie trusy, "Mu mu"/The Singing Panties [yes, that's their name], "Mu Mu")
An often funny, often vulgar Ukrainian group that will not be part of my book, but whom I could not resist including. I don't understand all of their comic references, but here is a (NSFW) video which not only lampoons Madonna, but also unambiguously (and sometimes offensively) engages the topic of homosexuality; in short, the narrator says, you won't be intimate with her because you're gay.) (And the visual references to Kazaky are, of course, obvious.)
Finally, although many of us have become desensitized to images of violence and sex, due to their ubiquity, I find this video accompanying Anna Sedokova's song "Сердце в бинтах" ("Serdtse v bintakh"/"Heart in Bandages") quite disturbing. In the book I will be examining it in order to argue - in a classically postmodern vein (if "classical postmodernism" isn't an oxymoron) - that a hyptertrophy of the aesthetic can even lead to a justification of violence.
(This last song reminds me of a mega-hit by Irnia Dubtsova, which I'll discuss here)
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