Crossing cultural barriers (now with answers)

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to say too much about this song now, but I'll post some context at the end of the day under a cut. I'm curious how people react without understanding the lyrics or otherwise knowing anything about the artist.

Please note that I haven't even looked at the video, I'm curious about reactions to the song - it just seems that youtube is the easiest access for people at work.

So the group/singer's name is Zemfira (sort of on the "PJ Harvey" principle, if anyone remembers her early billing) and the song is called, yes, me razbivayemsya ("we're coming to nothing" or "going to pieces," using a word that suggests waves crashing against the rocks).

There's a good factual English article on wikipedia, of course, and an older but somewhat more insightful one on Salon. Her sexual identity continues to hover in any discussion around her, but I can't say it interests me much. I remember thinking "only in Russia" when reading that she was taking a few years off from her music career to study philosophy at Moscow State University (imagine Marc Bolan finishing his tour for Electric Warror and then announcing he was going to Oxford to study Turkish history! Bang a gong, get it on, sure, but really, what about the New Turks' education policies in the 1930s?

Music-wise: I can't really draw any conclusions from the comments, but in the local context, this is quite a powerful song. While it would be totally untrue to say that Zemfira had never sung a ballad before, this sounds like nothing you'd hear on Russian radio, and tends to stop people in their tracks the first time they hear it. At the same time, to my ears very comfortable, immediately understood. I guess what I was curious about was how much of the song's power was the song itself, and how much came from hearing it in the context of Zemfira's past work, and other popular Russian music.

Although she's enormously popular here (and therefore pop!) I realize that this isn't "poptimist" music per se. Good stuff, though.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I commented on this yesterday (you can find my original comment on the GA thread) - tick A+ would listen again, good piano ballad, quite like its restraint, language barrier not a barrier really, my comment concluded that this was probably written by someone famous and unexpected and you were going to spring an "AHA POPTIMISTS YOU LIKE A SONG BY THE DRUMMER FROM KASABIAN" style surprise on us.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Always worth checking these things, but in this case I'm fairly sure the drummer from Kasabian had no hand in it :)

[koganbot]

Unfortunately I clicked the video right off before reading your caution, so I was caught up in the visuals more than the song. The video does a manful job of trying to make this seem far sadder than the music sounds. It concerns a group of men who with deep deep regret execute an elegant woman now down on her luck, the reason being that she had not paid her taxi fare. One of the men almost tosses away his prized fedora in remorse. The outdoor scenes are set in an existential landscape corresponding to the Russian conception of the outskirts of Jersey City. But I digress. The piano accompaniment here attempts to convince us that all pop music not derived from Africa derives from Chopin. Delicate, but perhaps not quite delicate enough. The lead melody seems very familiar. Bits of it remind me of Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw," which is far more poignant than this, but that's not to denigrate this track's poignancy, though the track is not necessarily sad or poignant at all except when one is watching impressive women getting brain-blasted execution style from the back. I suspect that there are those here more knowledgeable than I who can relate this better to current poptimist concerns, e.g., GA, as referenced by freakytigger, above. (Also reminds me of Brazilian quasi-pop-wavers K-Sis, who also surpass this in poignancy.)

[koganbot]

Oh, wait. Now I remember that the ref to the GA thread had nothing to do with GA, just to this thread's tendency to disappear.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Does anyone speak Russian? I can only sound out the letters and get an approximation of what the name is: band is Zemfira (judging from the sidebar) and the song is called "Muy (We) Razbivayemcya (uh, no idea)."

Oh wait, just found a Russian translator: WE ARE BROKEN. Sounds like a good title for a Marion Raven album! Note: can't listen to this at the moment.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I totally didn't peek behind the curtain!!!

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Notices the "russian" in "blue russian"....embarrassment!