'In Piter we drink': The popularity and populism of Gruppirovka Leningrad in Putin's Russia
The rock group Gruppirovka Leningrad have been the most consistently popular band in Russia over the last 20 years or so. Led by their charismatic leader ‘ Sergei Shnurov – or ‘Shnur’ as he is more commonly known – the band’s musical appeal lies in their carnivalesque brand of brassy ska punk and catchy chorus refrains. However, an arguably more important reason for their popularity lies in their satirical take on many aspects of Russian society - alcoholism, political corruption and fake patriotism. However, is this critical stance really genuinely oppositional or is it merely a form of populism designed to maximise the group's commercial success? Through an analysis of a number of their songs, the paper attempts to assess the extent of Leningrad's political engagement and to clarify where exactly the group lies on the political spectrum in Putin's Russia.
Dr Adrian Smith is an assistant lecturer at TU Dublin Conservatoire of Music and Drama, where he teaches music history, analysis, and musicology. He completed his PhD there with a project on the articulation of formal structure in the music of Gerald Barry, Raymond Deane, and Kevin Volans. His research interests include musical modernism and postmodernism, music and philosophy, music in Russia, Irish contemporary music, and the interaction between music, literature, and the visual arts. He has contributed articles on Kevin Volans and Raymond Deane to Irish Musical Studies (Vol. 11) and Music and Identity in Ireland and Beyond, as well as several entries on Irish composers to the Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland. He is currently the programme chair of the Bachelor of Music Education (BMusEd) programme that is administered between TU Dublin Conservatoire, Trinity College Dublin, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. He serves as reviews editor for the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland and is also very active as a music critic, regularly contributing reviews and articles to the Journal of Music.