Pop, rock, hip-hop - Ukraine's music scene has it all - and it's thriving
PART I
KYIV - Although not as expansive as in Moscow, which remains the center of post-Soviet "show business," Kyiv today has a vibrant popular music scene, including all kinds of clubs, bars and discothéques and ever more state-of-the art production studios and producers. Ukrainian artists are increasingly recording their soundtracks and their video clips in Kyiv rather than running to Moscow for "the best," as the new talent decides to stay home rather than travel abroad to attain stardom.
While Ukrainians in the West have become accustomed to "Ukrainian music" as encompassing either the traditional Ukrainian folk styles or the "easy listening" format of pop music, in reality contemporary Ukrainian music encompasses all the various types of music popular around the globe today.
You're a traditionalist and want classic rock? Or something with a heavier beat, maybe metal? Perhaps your taste runs to the post-modern and you need a hip-hop beat to get you moving? Or maybe you like to feel the rhythm inside and go for soul and rhythm and blues?
In Kyiv you will find all that and more. And because musicians are less burdened by tradition and many of the musical influences from the West, the music coming out of Ukraine is often very innovative. Ukrainian musicians are apt to mix a dash of the traditional ballad or the beat of a kolomyika into a contemporary song or even to produce something from the very depths of the avant-garde. Sometimes it doesn't work, but when it does...
And because the music scene here is less established and less structured, and carries fewer expectations, it is much easier to get the eclectic, the non-familiar and non-traditional produced.
While use of the Russian language in songs remains popular in Kyiv, it is no longer prevalent. The most popular acts - and just as important - the ones that have shown staying power, sing mostly in Ukrainian. In the realm of hard rock they are Vopli Vodopliasova (V.V.) and Okean Elzy; in hip-hop it is the group with the amazing name of Tanok Na Maydani Kongo and another one at the fringe of the hip-hop movement called Dymna Sumish; in the pop category you can choose from Iryna Bilyk, Oleksander Ponomariov or Taisa Povalii; and in the rhythm and blues and soul grouping it is Yevhenia Vlasova or the queen of the genre, Ani Lorak.
To be sure, there are those who continue to perform exclusively in the Russian language. Pop singer Natalia Mohylevska and the rap artists Green-Grey, both at the top of the entertainment industry in Ukraine with considerable followings in Moscow and Miensk, come to mind.
But the Ukrainian-singing artists have also found success beyond the confines of Ukrainian territory, particularly V.V., Okean Elzy and Ani Lorak.
Nearly all Ukrainian pop stars admit to having Russian-language songs in their respective repertoires. They explain that this is a necessity because the fact remains that the Russian market, with its 150 million potential music listeners, can make or break their success.
Although the cream of the entertainment business in Ukraine makes a modestly comfortable living, there are no super rich among the superstars, mostly because artists earn very little from album sales. Most albums are pirated, but even those that are legally printed and sold usually provide income only sufficient to cover production costs for the audio and video recordings. All the acts and artists make their money through live performances, which can be a grueling way to live.
Perhaps the biggest criticism of the popular music scene in Ukraine, besides its continued reliance on Moscow money and expertise, is that many artists still tend to lip sync when giving live performances. The reasons they give for doing so center on the need for quality, but none resonate with conviction. Some say they record the music presented during concerts because they want to assure the quality of the sound, which can't be guaranteed with the questionable sound equipment found in many of the country's concert halls. Others say that it is too expensive to travel with the full complement of musicians needed to accurately reproduce the sound they desire.
Critics, however, have said the central problem is that too many of these acts are either too timid, too lazy or simply lack the talent to produce a professional sound outside the studio.
In a three-part series, beginning this week, The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau will present a panoply of Ukraine's contemporary music stars. In the first series we present two current pop divas, Ani Lorak and Iryna Bilyk, which will be followed next week with a profile of the two most popular rock bands, V.V. and Okean Elzy. Finally we will feature two up-and-coming acts, Tanok Na Maydani Tango, a hip-hop group that calls its music "Ukra-hop," and other, Dymna Sumish, considered by its peers the most talented of the young breed.
- Roman Woronowycz
Pop divas deal with dinosaurs and aliens on their way to success
PART I
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 20, 2002, No. 3, Vol. LXX
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