Russian dance music

Russian dance music has emerged late after the fall of the Iron Curtain, with the inflow of modern synthesizers and sophisticated sound mixing equipment - an area where USSR was trailing significantly behind the West. The import of new hardware defined the transition from VIAs - the vocal-instrumental-ensembles - Soviet-era bands with specific sound defined by cheap electronics. These had been in effect replaced with more Western-sounding groups slowly gaining momentum circa 1990s.

The target audience of the new dance bands was the urban population of Russia, comprising most of the country population by 1991, when USSR was dissolved. However, due to then-blossoming period of "wild criminal capitalism", promotion and marketing of new venues was defined not by popularity or public demand, but rather through stand-alone projects funded and marketed by single individuals, capable of capital investments. These investors were often driven by their own personal tastes and ideas (typical example - Ivan Shapovalov, creator of t.A.T.u.), while the empty dance-music market was readily bracing virtually any new domestic dance singer.

All this defined the phenomena of Russian dance scene - significant domination by female singers and girl-bands, performing sophisticated dance music. Thus, Russian dance relied a lot on vocals, and has distinct romantic tones, which makes is quite different from the more male oriented music of other parts of Europe, which may sound more metallic with less reliance on vocals. One of the few traditional Western-style techno bands was Technologia, an attempt of localization of Depeche Mode on Russian soil.

Since the beginning of 21st century, the aforementioned situation started changing due to the swift economic growth in Russia, fueled by growing oil prices, as well as the development of the music business infrastructure. Oddly enough, that also set the former dance sector to a level of decline, with a drift towards MTV-sation of Russian pop. This was mainly characterized by lack of significant new names in the dance stream.

Notable Russian dance music performers

* ППК (PPK)
* Blestyashchie - notably, the first incarnation, lead by Olga Orlova between 1997-2000
** Prosto Mechty - 1998 ("Just Dreams")
** Tam, Tolko Tam - 1997 ("There, only there")
* Lika MC
** Rap - 1992
** More Than Love - 1996
* Tatiana Bulanova - her dance remixes of the original ballads
* t.A.T.u. - Mainly their debut album, "200 Po Vstrechnoy"
* VIA Gra
*

External links

* [http://www.russmus.net/music.html Russian Music on the Net: Info about Russian dance/pop bands with lyrics and English translations]