List of bands banned on Soviet radio, and why. Agreed on Julio Iglesias

Yep :slight_smile: Theyā€™re apparently OK with Glukozaā€™s Moskva (Moscow). In fact, those girls were a big hit a few years ago, and as a cute pop set, theyā€™re possibly considered to be no threat against the current regime.

Hereā€™s their video for Schweine (ā€œPigsā€) (Yep, I recognized it GTA IV.) The song is actually about guys who treat women badly, not cops, but this is the official video (in a country where dissenters fear the new nazis) - so they can get away with quite a bit!

Brezhnev took Afghanistan,
Begin took Beirut,
Galtieri took the Union Jack.
And Maggie, over lunch one day
Took a cruiser with all hands
Apparently to make him give it back

-Pink Floyd, ā€œGet Your Filthy Hands Off My Desertā€

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ā€œKleshā€ is a mis-transliteration of ā€œClashā€; remember that Russian doesnā€™t use articles - so thatā€™s The Clash to you.

ETA: And ā€œThe Sticksā€ is Styx.
ā€¦ And ā€œThe Strangersā€ should be The Stranglers.

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Still havenā€™t found a band ā€œPerronā€, but I have found the ā€œPeron Music Festivalā€ held in the Carpathian Mountains, and it comes, ā€œWith an impressive tradition of Peron Talent Festival continues to provide an opportunity for introduction of alternative, rock, and metal bands.ā€ The band ā€œPerronā€ may be related to that.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&u=http://www.peronmusic.hu/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26view%3Dcategory%26layout%3Dblog%26id%3D36%26Itemid%3D29&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dperon%2Bmusic%2B2013%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den

And how do we know this whole thing is for real? Because thereā€™s some weird Russian newspaper cut out that we canā€™t read? Somehow it looks very fake to me!

ā€œBokannonā€ is almost certainly Bohannon.

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Iā€™ve never heard of them, but I believe this is the group in question; here they are performing in Kiev, 1994:

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That makes sense - the ā€œkā€ is actually the cyrillic ā€œkhā€.

The Originals was Freddie (ā€œPlease Mr. Postmanā€) Gormanā€™s very excellent motown band. No doubt Pesco will start a thread about them at some point.

Dude. You canā€™t just join up 47 minutes ago and ask questions like that.

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The original list is from 1985, so modern censorship may differ. (Also, it got harsher literally in the last year, before that we lived in a paradise of free speech).

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Since we have a doubter:

Yes, the original list is from 1985, and is a list of foreign music groups banned in dance clubs.

The original source is a book called: ā€œEverything Was Forever, until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation.ā€ by Alexei Yurchak, from Princeton University Press. The chapter that the list is taken from is called ā€œTrue Colors of Communism: King Crimson, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd.ā€

Hereā€™s the image uncropped: http://www.thepeoplescube.com/images/List_of_Bands_USSR_1985.gif

Hereā€™s a link to the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=bZtOWYnwkSgC&pg=PA207&lpg=PA207&dq=True+Colors+of+Communism+:+King+Crimson,+Deep+Purple,+Pink+Floyd&source=bl&ots=bZZC-fPKBb&sig=PFHUBatgyT51Y-5Rek4afHRqAh4&hl=en&ei=eRTcSpjfJ9Oe8AaDt7C3BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=True%20Colors%20of%20Communism%20%3A%20King%20Crimson%2C%20Deep%20Purple%2C%20Pink%20Floyd&f=false

I only had to look at three links to find that information. :slight_smile:

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Just looked up the date of the source list (while you were posting) because someone doubted the list was real at all. It read as out-of-date to me, so Iā€™m not surprised. I would be interested to know what current specific actions are being taken. Swearing in film, music and television is the most recent focus Iā€™ve heard about.

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There were bills for registering all bloggers with the audience of more than 3000 readers: http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/7/5690410/putin-signs-law-forcing-bloggers-to-register-with-russian-media-office (those registered have some restrictions on what they write).
A recent bill that prohibits smoking in public areas also bans depicting smoking in movies and TV shows made after the bill is passed.
Info on making and using of narcotics, propaganda of ā€œnon-traditional sexual relationshipsā€ are banned.
Non-sanctioned meetings are banned.
Thereā€™s strong censorship on depicting and discussing Nazism, and also the role of Soviet Union in World War II.

Probably more, I believe something was banned in response to Pussy Riot dance in the cathedralā€¦

Sorry to hear about the bloggers, I hadnā€™t. It smacks of a law that can be misused by a group wanting only one public face within their country. While I agree that the internet does allow people to write in an environment where too little fact checking often occurs, I know that threats of fines and registration are not the answer. Instead, people just need to learn to be more responsible readers. (No media outlet is entirely trustworthy, so itā€™s always best to factcheck for yourself.)

Iā€™d heard a lot of the others. Thanks for the update.

The B-52s are violent punks? Is there another band by that name, or was did Love Shack contained hidden messages I was unaware of?

To be fair to the Soviets, although I donā€™t recall him making any particularly pro-Fascist statements in his music, Julio Iglesias was born, grew up, and was educated under Francoā€™s regime in Spain. They might have assumed that anyone with that background would be an indoctrinated Fascist.

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Heck yea!

I went to a dance they played in a gymnasium once (probably in '80), and a friend of mine, who was dancing by the stage, got his face slapped by one of the ladies (canā€™t remember, think it was Kate P.), just you know, 'cause.

I donā€™t think he washed his face for a weekā€¦

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while I think itā€™s true that punk can be a vector for political music, I donā€™t think that makes punk inherently political. There are plenty of (especially first wave) apolitical bands or even bands with more conservative views. Lest we forget whichever Ramone it was saying ā€œGod Bless America, and God Bless George W. Bushā€ when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I think the original wave of punks, both in NY, London, and LA were less politically oriented and more anti-establishment, which doesnā€™t necessarily have left or right foundations. So, sure, lots of leftists and anarchists embraced punk and embraced a political message in the process, but lots didnā€™t. I donā€™t think itā€™s left wing politics that make punk, but a particular attitude and sound and if we had to get political, Iā€™d say itā€™s more ā€œanti-establishmentā€ ideals that drives punks, not leftists or rightists politics.

Plus, punk was originally a critics category that was eventually appropriated by the second wave punk bands that carved out the 80s underground niche we associate with ā€œtrueā€ punk. It was really Greg Shaw and Lester Bangs that began to apply the term to bands that they thought should carry the title in the early 70s, starting with 60s So. Cal Garage rock, and eventually applying it to the new bands coming out of first Detroit, then the CBGBs scene. Then when some of those bands got signed to Sire, Stein wanted to strip them of that designation, because he didnā€™t want them being associated with the punk panic going on in Britain at the time.

But fuck nazi ā€œpunksā€. They can just fuck right off.

I am not sure about the Soviet view of western popular music, but it wouldnā€™t surprise me if his music was at least part of it. At least from a German perspective he is clearly part of a reactionary cultural tradition and a Soviet view of 80s Spain probably didnā€™t really help him.