CREECA Lecture Series

Artemii Troitsky, journalist and music critic. Russian bands started off covering Western rock songs and by the mid-1960s were writing their own material. Russian rock, however, with its minimalist mix of acoustic guitars and soft beats paired with impassioned lyrics, is not really rock in the Western sense of the word. In Russia it was more basic, driven by a thirst for cultural freedom and an urge to stray from the strict dictates of Soviet society.