The man in black
Why Viktor Tsoy is still the main star of the Russian underground.
The leader of the “Movie” today, June 21, would have celebrated his 56th birthday — age by today’s standards, not even close to retirement. But although Choi has gone from us almost three decades ago, it still remains the main, if not the only real star of Russian rock music. The portal iz.ru thinking about the causes of this phenomenon.
The scale of values
War, as you know, a young man, a thought found even in ancient authors, but its popularity owes solely to “the Star named the Sun”.
In this sense, sometimes it seems that the traditional rock idols care to 30 isn’t so bad — from the point of view of eternity, of course; people that look to share should not and can not. Of course, innumerable examples of noble aging in this field of art, but still even watching the demigods, like The Rolling Stones or The Who, you feel a sort of macabre irony, listening to in the seventies Jagger laments the lack of satisfaction, and Daltrey once again “hoped to die of old age.”
And certainly it’s hard to resist a shudder, imagining obrutcheva Brand bolana the jury another singing reality show on British TV, even more obrutcheva tank with an assortment of old songs, in the local “box” and “Movie” to fill a pause between elderly German Zinger on some “Disco 80s”. However, there is. Choi lived to the present day, this wouldn’t have happened. Rather, he would have thrown the music — as Rimbaud once poetry, but not sunk to the cheap circus.
It was too much of what is called trudnoperevarimoy English word swagger — the main quality of a real star with the prefix “super”.
The importance of the artist in the context of historical and cultural it is usually possible to define a simple test: if a statement of the average individual of the rejection of a particular writer, artist, musician, perceived as scandalous, contrary to the established norm and just good taste, we can safely say that the Creator took his place in the Pantheon.
Declared dislike of Bobarykino will cause more of a respect for erudition interlocutor; contempt for Tolstoy or Dostoevsky almost all will be perceived as a signal of lack of culture (or a display of nihilism that often one and the same). The same indicators exist in pop culture; “Cinema” has long received the status of non-negotiable authority. And, perhaps, few, besides them, the domestic rock music can boast, BG, Shevchuk, Letov, and that’s all, I guess.
Its Board
The reason for the popularity of “Cinema” in life, in principle, quite understandable. There were bands playing music more complex and intellectual (“Polite refusal”, “Aquarium” and “Alliance”), were those who worked “closer to the people” (“the time Machine” and “Nautilus Pompilius”), were revolutionary (“TV” and “Alice”) and reactionaries (“Bravo” and “the Secret”).
But only Choi and his team managed to get exactly in resonance with the spirit of time, Zeitgeist, creating a simple (sometimes literally as Moo, with rhymes like “wine and cinema”), remembered, “in the West” arranged (and on the background of the General provincialism of the then Patriotic pop music it meant a lot) of pop-songs — without any claims on “Oh, rock!”. In fact, he Choi said at the end of the 1980s, which considers the creativity of pop music and not at all shy.
“Cinema” is often compared to the great British band the Smiths and between them really have much in common. Even thought they seem to be almost parallel: thematically, “When your girlfriend is sick” and Girlfriend In a Coma very similar, although there is no evidence that Choi heard released just before the song Morrissey and Marr (in the era before the Internet and even before the shops available records of communication in terms of art was not so easy).
The similarity in the way: a charismatic singer, a quiet virtuoso guitarist, able to pick up a honed riffs and not abusing the “acrobatics” on the strings, and somewhere in the background — a harmonious, almost mechanical in his precision rhythm section.Unique star
Charisma Choi did a completely separate thing. Neither before nor after him on the domestic pop scene was not a singer, so capable of mesmerizing the audience with just one hand — see the final scene solovievsky “assy”, where it is captured extremely vividly. Plus the black “uniform”, plus exotic appearance… the Last moment, by the way, very interesting in the context of the world.
In the 1980s singer with the Asian (and, more generally, just not white) background would not be able to become a national star in any “civilized” country — recall that MTV literally hounding to include in the rotation of video clips of Michael Jackson; the stars of Asian origin were not observed at all (all we can recall is that a Burmese woman Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow, but the scale of popularity “in this group one hit wonder” and “Movie” are incommensurable).
What can I say — in 2017, the popular the website Bustle fought over intractable problem: why American pop mainstream no stars-Asians? Russian society it is accepted to accuse of racism; an example of Tsoi is clearly shows that the authors of these invectives something not to notice.
“Longevity” songs “Cinema” puts, probably, an absolute record: pereslushival today is not only recorded in a proper Studio “Black album”, but also made literally on the knee “Is not love” and “Night,” I marvel at how professionally and, most importantly, with what a keen sense of “on hit” made this work.
Tsoi was really rare, especially for our corners, the gift of the songwriter, who composed organically, without sharing the lyrics and music.
And, of course, his otherworldly baritone, which Choi used very skillfully, not trying to pull notes out of range (the eternal problem of Russian rockers, often killing a great song Amateur attempts at the vocal in the spirit of mercury or plant).
Choi remains “our everything” of the twentieth century; it is no exaggeration to put it on par with the Bernes and Utyosov, and Vysotsky — not in the sense of musical affinity, of course (although to Vladimir Semenovich, the leader of “Kino” treated with great reverence), and that they all managed to bring the variety genre to the level where a simple song becomes a document of the era, the soundtrack for a generation — and not for one.
What song Choi find listeners among those who were born after his death, is a faithful witness. As to what the third decade misleading to passers-by, graffiti on the walls, the subject of controversy for archaeologists of future centuries: “Tsoi is alive!”.