Russian post-punk / dark wave music aka Russian doomer music
I’m sure that by now most of us have came across a playlist with such a thumbnail, this meme character and a commie block in the background. And I bet that this playlist was named “Russian Doomer Music”. But what is this genre of music, why is called Russian doomer. Well, in this post I will talk about my random discovery of this genre, and why I think it has become so popular. And obviously, I will also introduce you to a few bands and songs that I really like, and that I hope you will like too.
So first I would like to talk about my very random discovery of Russian post-punk music. Indeed at the time (I think it was in 2020 during the first lockdown) I didn’t listen to Russian music, or was really searching for it and mostly listened to pop music. And I remember that one night I saw in my Youtube recommandations this thumbnail / cover (end of this paragraph); and I just found it so weird and intriguing that I had to click on the video.
Now I can totally understand that this type of music is not everyone’s cup of tea, as it was even a bit of a surprise for me to like it, because as I already said I mainly listened to pop music. I don’t think this artist is very popular, because I’ve never seen him being mentionned in “Russian doomer” playlists, even though I think his music completly fits this “genre”. But also keep in mind that I’m not a music expert, and not the best at describing music genres. I also quite like this artist’s other album, called Stadt (which by the way is the “transliteration” of Штадт) and you can also find a video playlist of it on this youtube channel.
Another album that I discovered thanks to this channel (which I think you’ll really like if you enjoy “alternative” music) is the following. Once again I think it has a very interesting thumbnail / cover, especially since it’s Nicholas II of Russia, the last Tsar of Russia, and his family, who as you probably already know were assasinated by the Bolsheviks. Maybe there’s a link between the cover and lyrics or themes of the songs but I haven’t figured this out yet.
Now that I introduced some lesser known artists, I would like to come back on why I think “Russian Doomer Music” is popular, which will also include 2 other bands recommandations. One of which has become “viral” in recent years, and the other being legendary in Russia.
If you spend lots of time on TikTok or even Instagram, you may have already heard the song Судно (Sudno) by the Belarussian band Молчат дома (Molchat Doma). I think now I hear it less on social media (that’s maybe because I don’t have TikTok), but it made the band super popular outside of the Russian speaking world.
And I think this popularity is due to the sound, not only of the music but also of the Russian language. First the music is in my opinion a nice blend of depressing / doomer vibes, but at the same time kinda makes you want to dance (but I think that’s an element of lots of dark wave). Then, for the Russian language, it may be because it sounds a bit “exotic” to a non-Russian speaking / Slavic audience. So it just sounds cool, and if you don’t have a look at the translation of the lyrics, you don’t notice that it’s actually a quite depressing song (in the case of Sudno).
In my opinion, and also according to a lot of articles I’ve found on the Internet about “Russian Doomer music”, the fact that it works so well (blend of depressing vibes / Russian language), could be due to the fact that Russia has a dark history. And that it some way it could almost look like some sort of malediction, like if Russian people were “experts in suffering”. This is quite depressing to read and to think about, but it sadly makes sense if you know a bit about Russian history and even when you look at the situation in the country now, with the war in Ukraine. Also the Russian language has a really rich vocabulary and a grammar that allows you to say a lot in a few words in some cases and if you know the language well. So it’s no surprise that we can find so many “Russian Doomer” playlist on the Internet.
Finally I would like to mention one last band, that I started to listen to really recently and that is legendary in Russia, Кино (Kino). The band was active during the 80’s (1981–1990 to be exact). All the songs of the band were written by its singer and co-founder Viktor Tsoi. Some of their most popular song are Группа крови (Gruppa Krovi), Звезда по имени Солнце (Zvezda po imeni Solntse), Перемен (Peremen), or also Кукушка (KuKushka).
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed some of my recommandations,
Moon
Links to some article that I read before writing this, and that I found very interesting:
