The Phenomenon of Freakishness in Russian Popular Music: Concerning the Study of the Problem

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of freakishness in popular music in Russia — as a rule, a conscious modeling of eccentric behavior in popular music on the part of various types of performers (starting from the late 1980s). The interest towards freaks in popular music is stipulated by the artistic manifestation of a number of colorful and provocative characters, the perception of whom is conducive towards the cognition of profound processes taking place in Russian culture (as a part of world culture). A positive perception of freakishness proves the total legalization and emancipation of what was previously perceived as unhealthy, eccentric, or ugly, which is presently taking place not only in Russia, but also in other countries. At the same time, freakishness in popular music may serve as a solution of the important social aims of the loosening-up of personality, the departure from the conditions of supra-civilization, supra-glossiness, as well as the pressure of social morality and social standards.

The highlight of the movement of freaks in Russian popular music in the 1990s became a sign of the post-perestroika era and the values of the disorientation of Russian society. The emergence of abnormal, marginal phenomena, the violation of previous prohibitions, the wish to feel the edge, the limit manifested itself in the work of pseudo-freakish characters (Zhanna Aguzarova, Vitas, Shura). The demand of originality, the popularity of the new heroes — the representatives of creative industries, has provoked the generation of yet more unusual images and manners of performance. Total freakishness, the promotion of abnormality, non-standard behavior and even pathologies, the aspiration towards provocative behavior and the search for continuously new forms of artistic “shocking” of broad auditorium testifies of the transformation of many aesthetic norms, of the fatigue, the loss of faith in culture and progress, of the yearning for further searches for the “boundaries” of the normal. The author observes in conclusion that the intensifying or abating presence of freakish heroes, the expansion or, on the other hand, the narrowing of the zone of their influence and involvement into the cultural space of contemporaneity bears witness of processes the comprehension of which makes it possible to catch hold of certain tendencies in the social, spiritual life of society, which, obviously, merits further research.

Keywords: Russian popular music, post-culture, mass music, pop, freaks, pseudo freaks, made freaks