Rock over Rap?: HSE Report (2022)
- John Vandevert
- Feb 12, 2022
- 1 min read
In a recent report from Moscow Higher School of Economics' Institute for Cultural Studies which surveyed listener habits of the contemporary Russian public, it was detailed that the changing digital infrastructure by which users not only create but digest music has resulted in great changes in the way music not only used for leisure, but for education and beyond.
I will go through some of the general findings of the study and then conclude with three, rap-centered points that hold serious merit for future research into Russian rap scholarship.
General Findings
In the impressively large study, several key findings were discovered. From a compiled mixture of online and offline respondents gathered through surveys and interviews, it was deduced that listening to music has become an almost ubiquitous activity. Further, a good third of respondents assiduously follow the music industry. Secondly, due to the massive popularity of streaming as a result of increased youth participation, the market consensus is that streaming is much more lucrative than selling music to be purchased. They also point out that COVID-19 has caused more people to utilize streaming services, the most popular device for streaming being smartphones (followed by computers then laptops), and that nearly 9/10 listen to music without purchase, with driving being the predominate setting for music consumption (seconded only by general multi-tasking). However, some of the latter findings read as much more important to understanding the climate of music listeners in Russia today. For example, it seems as if the musical proclivity of Russian audiences today are "fragmentation, randomness, omnivorousness," a positive and also negative consequence of greater access to musical eclecticism. Why is this a bad thing you might ask? Well, the study follows this pronouncement with the all too common finding that because of mobile tastes in music, Virginia Woolf calling this a chief aspect of middlebrow culture (Chowrimootoo, 2020), the likelihood that a listener will digest more than 30 seconds before making a judgement is relatively low. Other seminal findings were the pronouncement of computer music as 21st century folk music (6), the belief of streaming as a musical "echo-chamber" (7), increased musical prejudice and "mood" as the chief trait of musical selection (8), and general feeling of overwhelm at the amount of available music, along with a strong separation of the music from the musician (9). Undoubtedly, many of these findings pose phenomenal avenues for research for Music and Cultural researchers interested in the musical habits and behaviors of of modern Russia. The notion that the construct of musical Russianness for those who grew up in Russia is a set grouping of music is fascinating, as it shows that since the 19th and 20th centuries, what is musically "Russian" is no longer governed by aesthetics but instead proximity during childhood development.
In this way, the answer to "Russian music is..." is really now unshakably subjective.
Rap Music Findings
By far, the research that was uncovered about rap music was the most eye-opening, as being a Western consumer of Russian rap I was some previous misconceptions about the genre's ubiquity and the social and cultural capital it held (Bourdieu, 1984).
First off, when surveyed what musical preferences listeners most enjoyed rap was not among the first 1/2 of answers (see fig. 1), and instead ranked right under the general category. For me, this is incredibly eye-opening, as it shows that although from the outside it seems as though rap is everywhere in popular culture, its actual presence may be that of a musical subculture like any other. When compared to the 2021 alternative for US digital audiences, rap being the fourth most listened to genre, the stark divide between American versus Russian audiences is undisputedly apparent.
Secondly, when asked what genre they would never listened to rap was the third (although truly second) genre that was named. This finding may not as shocking as one might think but it does validate the presence of anti-rap sentiments within the predominately Conservative nation. One would suspect the number to be actually higher than only 20%, although taking into account the demographics of the study (equal parts men and women, with age centering around 26-45) perhaps the size is not that strange. In an interview with an unnamed expert they state that regardless of the genre, affinity for the track is the main qualifier and not necessarily the genre. An avenue for future research is the difference they make between hookah rap and Russian rap, the former being a late 2010s genre which owes much of his style to Arabic and Middle-Eastern influences. This could be cultural, aesthetic, or more?
Thirdly, one of the most fascinating statements of the whole survey stated that while computer music (due to its democratic air as a genre by which everyone can use, manipulate, and create on their own) could be construed as 21st century style folk music, this then qualifies rap music as folk music. Disregarding cultural, social, and other non-musical factors, this could very well be the case. Research discussing whether or not rap should be considered 'folk music' has been done, most notably the TEDx talk by Justin Harrington (2020), but I am not yet convinced that rap is a folk music style. The reason for my hesitancy lies in the co-opted and wholly commercial nature of the genre, although the same thing could be said for folk music proper.
Comments