CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2008
| Author | Sorensen, Maxwell Thomas |
|---|---|
| Title | Nationalism and Xenophobia in the Music and Fan Base of a Russian Rock Band |
| Summary | Introduction: Russian Rock music has been the subject of several books and articles in the last two decades. Approaches have varied from journalistic1 to the sociological2 to critical literary analysis of song lyrics.3 While more recent texts have addressed the role perceptions of national identity have played in the creation of Russian rock lyrics by music artists, the presence of nationalistic and xenophobic themes in Russian rock has not been the subject of a critical analysis. More importantly, why nationalist and xenophobic themes have an appeal for certain segments of Russian rock fans has not been thoroughly investigated. That is, most studies which analyze Russian rock have taken lyric text as the unit of analysis, largely ignoring how audiences and fans bases are maintained, and how fans construct social groups by identifying with the message an artist conveys. This study analyzes the history, music, public persona, and fan base of one of Russia’s most enduring Rock stars: Konstantin Kinchev, and his band “Alisa.” Kinchev’s career has taken many turns, from an anti-communist satirist and rock rebel counterculture icon in the 1980s, to a self-proclaimed Pagan in the early 1990s, to a sensitive self-reflective pop star in the late 1990s, his transformation during the Putin era can be characterized by both a new conservative representation of Orthodox Christianity and an emergent ethnocultural Russian nationalism with an implicit antagonism towards non-ethnic Russians.4 Through the years, Kinchev has maintained a moderate sized, but highly committed fan base, much of it organized into a fan club called the “Army of Alisa.” |
| Supervisor | Papkov, Irina |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2008/sorensen_maxwell.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University