Bad Singing: Avtorskaia Pesnia and the Aesthetics of Metacommunication

TL;DRAbstract

Avtorskaia pesnia?guitar poetry (Smith)?has been fascinating, inspiring, and infuriating people ever since it appeared on Soviet cultural scene half a century ago. An unofficial song genre that arose in late 1950s, flourished in 1960s-70s and continued to develop at least until fall of Soviet Union, avtorskaia pesnia was an intimate, acoustic genre that continued tradition of Russian private musical culture of 18^-19th centuries (Ogarkova 51). In relatively liberal political atmosphere of Thaw, avtorskaia pesnia developed as an alternative to officially sanctioned musical genres (principally mass song and variety stage); circulation via magniti^dat (magnetic publishing, that is, through amateur tape recordings) allowed genre to reach a broad and varied audience, while at same time avoiding official controls to a large extent. The central figure in avtorskaia pesnia is author-performer, or bard, who composes and performs both lyrics and melody (the latter generally on a seven-stringed g

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