What Exactly is Sovietwave?
A New Genre Taking the World by Storm
Over the past two years or so, I have become absolutely captivated by Sovietwave artists.
It’s some of the most obscure music I’ve dived into, and it happened quite rapidly because it’s that captivating. Very few people have heard about this and even fewer can appreciate it, so I would like to get the word out.
Sovietwave isn’t really a genre in and of itself. It’s more of an aesthetic, made up of artists from ex-soviet countries. It is focused on a certain nostalgia or melancholic longing for the Soviet Union.
Space-age technology and exploration are common themes — a yearning for a utopian future that never came. Sovietwave artists span many genres, mostly falling under the umbrella of post-punk, coldwave, new wave or synthpop.
Many bands have a pleasant melodic quality to their sound, albeit with a slightly sorrowful tinge. It seems strange to enjoy this music so much as an American, as I can’t relate to its nostalgia. However, that can also be said about the generation currently enjoying and creating this music as well — they would be too young to remember the USSR.
I’ve always said that music can transcend cultural and language barriers with an open enough mind. It can open an entire world of hidden…
