“We also can. We're not worse”: The Anglophone Wave in Russian indie music (Indi), 2008–2012

Popular Music ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-311
Author(s):  
Marco Biasioli
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Concerted Effort ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Russian Music ◽  
Independent Music ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Public Recognition ◽  
Music Community ◽  
Indie Music ◽  
East West

AbstractThis article analyses the main cultural and political factors that contributed to the emergence of local Anglophone music in Russia between 2008 and 2012. While Russian indie groups had extensively sung in English before (with scarce public recognition), a conjunction of circumstances encouraged the appearance of a conspicuous Russian Anglophone music scene in the Medvedev years. These were a perceived political relaxation, internally and in East–West relations; Russian economic growth and the subsequent renovation of Moscow; and the connectivity and expansion of the independent music community. The article also argues that the success of local Anglophone bands, as well as the appearance of an ‘indie’ sound and an ‘indie’ music scene (indi), was the result of a concerted effort by Russian music participants to bring and incorporate the Other – the West – into Russia's everyday life. The English language, correspondingly, functioned as a ‘tool’ for this operation.

scholarly journals Translating the Self in Edward Said’s Out of Place: A Memoir

2017 ◽  
pp. 149-164
Author(s):  
Doaa Embabi
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cultural Translation ◽  
Autobiographical Writing ◽  
Homi Bhabha ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Foreign Land ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
East West

This paper examines the link between the notion of ‘cultural translation,’ initially introduced by Homi Bhabha in The Location of Culture (1994), and autobiographical writing by a translingual writer: Edward Said’s memoir, Out of Place (1999). As an ArabAmerican intellectual, Said culminates his writing career with a memoir, in which he represents the educational years of his life. Said shows through the narrative that the interplay between Arabic and English language and cultures strongly infl uenced the formation of his identity. Thus, this paper explores reading his memoir as an attempt at ‘cultural translation’ according to which difference is not necessarily trapped in binary oppositions of self/other; East/West; home/foreign land – to name only a few. Difference in this context rather opens a possibility for more fluid boundaries allowing for negotiation and change.

Introduction to Fucking Solidarity: Queering Concepts on/from a Post-Soviet Perspective

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Critical Term ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Original Potential ◽  
Western Hegemony ◽  
East West

This article introduces some of the questions, activist and theoretical concepts featured in the special issue “Fucking solidarity: Queering Concepts on/from a post-Soviet Perspective”. It reflects on the usage and applicability of the term queer and queer concepts within post-Soviet and postsocialist spaces, by playfully using the “fucking” as critical term, to emphasize queer’s original potential to offend and disrupt within English language. It reflects on the possibilities of queer and feminist solidarities across the East/West divide that do not fall into the trap of (Western) hegemony or anti-Western sentiments. Framing queer solidarity as “working together,” it looks for the possibilities of egalitarian mutual support across national and cultural borders. Finally, it gives an overview of the texts collected in the special issue.

scholarly journals Women 's voices in alternative music: Lisa Gerrard and Elizabeth Fraser

New Sound ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 76-83
Author(s):  
Julijana Zhabeva-Papazova
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Alternative Music ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Stage Performances ◽  
The Relationship

This paper deals with the analysis of Lisa Gerrard's and Elizabeth Fraser's vocal styles that promoted a new way of singing on the alternative music scene. Instead o f the traditional usage of lyrics in the English language as their mother tongue, they use so called 'glossolalia', meaning wordless, or substituting language with a melodic, exploratory rapture by their vocal range alone in a couple o f octaves. The main points of analysis are the relationships between the vocal interpretation and instruments, music form, main melodic themes, rhythm, accomplished with iconography in the relationship between vocal interpretations and stage performances.

scholarly journals English-Language Books Censored during Wartime in Estado Novo Portugal

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Zsófia Gombár
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
English Language ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Post Office ◽  
Political Factors

Abstract. In contrast to press censorship, books published in Estado Novo Portugal were not subject to a priori censorship, but rather post-publication censorship. Additionally, imported books along with other publications were rigorously examined by custom officials, and private mailing of certain individuals was also monitored by post office clerks. Theoretically, no foreign book could easily enter the country without official inspection. Based on the censorship reports, it seems, however, that the degree of censorship was often fluctuating and uneven. The varying rigor, for the most part, can be put down to historical and political factors such as wars and other domestic conflicts, but there were indeed other types of inconsistencies. Through an exhaustive analysis of selected case studies, the paper also provides detailed insights into the mechanisms of censorship that operated in Salazar-Caetano regime Portugal.

Portland Oregon, Music Scenes, and Change: A Cultural Approach to Collective Strategies of Empowerment

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey London
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Music Culture ◽  
Contingent Labor ◽  
Music Scenes ◽  
Independent Music ◽  
Music Community ◽  
Place Character ◽  
The City

This article highlights the role of the independent music culture of Portland, Oregon, in establishing a productive culture of consumption and spaces that contribute to the place character of the city. Derived from an ethnographic research project of urban culture and social change in Portland, Oregon, guided interviews and extended participant observation helped to bring to light the cultural economy that artists and musicians make for the city. The cultural production of Portlanders in the indie music community, and those who work and produce in neighborhood settings, has served the city in the most recent period of rapid gentrification. Many scholars have focused on the way bohemian concentrations have led to gentrification; others have highlighted the contingent labor that art makers provide. What I argue here is as the city develops in these ways, artisanal workers and music makers work to use their established networks and situated meaning in the city to fend off these processes and extend their presence in space. Through these collective strategies of empowerment, culture and music move into political discourse and affect political action on the city level.

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