VIA (music)
| VIA | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Russian music, beat, folk, rock, pop, disco, synthpop, folk rock, art rock, traditional pop |
| Cultural origins | 1960s Soviet Union |
| Typical instruments | Keyboards, guitar, classical, folk and electronic instruments |
| Music of Russia | |
|---|---|
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| Genres | |
| Specific forms | |
| Religious music | |
| Traditional music | |
| Media and performance | |
| Music awards | |
| Music charts | |
| Music festivals | |
| Music media | |
| Nationalistic and patriotic songs | |
| National anthem | Anthem of Russia |
| Regional music | |
| Local forms | |
| Related areas | |
VIA (Russian: ВИА) is an abbreviation for Vocal-[Music] Instrumental-Ensemble (Russian: Вокально-инструментальный ансамбль, Vokalno-instrumentalny ansambl). It is the general name used for pop and rock bands that were formally recognized by the Soviet government from the 1960s to the 1980s.
In Soviet times, the term VIA generally meant band, but it is now used in Russia to refer specifically to pop, rock, and folk groups active during the Soviet period.
The term VIA appeared in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and represented a model under which the Soviet government was willing to permit domestic rock and pop music acts to develop. To break through to the state-owned Soviet media, a band needed to become an officially-recognized VIA. Each VIA had an artistic director (художественный руководитель) who served as manager, producer, and state-appointed censor. In some bands (such as Pesniary) the artistic director was the band's leading member and songwriter, while in others he played the role of impresario.
Soviet VIAs played a specific style of pop music. They performed youth-oriented (but officially approved) radio-friendly music, which combined contemporary Western and Soviet trends. Folk instruments were often used, and occasionally a keytar (a keyboard held like a guitar). Songs varied from pop ballads, dance-beat disco and new wave to mainstream rock (although bands avoided the "rock music" label until the late 1970s, because rock was considered "bourgeois" and formally banned). Many VIAs had up to ten members (including a number of vocalists and multi-instrumentalists), who were in frequent rotation.
Due to state censorship, the lyrics of VIAs were family-friendly; typical topics were universal emotions like love, joy, and nostalgia, or idealized vignettes from daily life. Many bands also encouraged national culture and patriotism, (especially those of national minorities from the smaller Soviet republics) such as Yalla from Uzbekistan, Labyrinth from Georgia and Chervona Ruta from Ukraine. Folk-based VIAs such as Pesniary, Siabry and Verasy were especially popular in Belarus. Russian bands from Moscow and Leningrad (such as Zemlyane and Tsvety) were more oriented towards Western pop and rock music.
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Wikipedia