[jariel]

There are very deep limitations in a) chart toppers vs. otherwise popular and b) ethnicity i.e. White/African American/Latino have quite a different slot of pop culture references in the US, much less pronounced for example in UK or Canada.

The other 'big thing' to consider is that Gen Z are still quite young, and sometimes it takes time to pick up on a lot of music. We hear tracks in films, living in other conditions.

Also seems like Gen X has pretty good musical knowledge overall! But probably due to being the 'right age' for having been able to listen to a lot of stuff.

Finally, dismayed by the 90's top-charters. I couldn't fathom listening to most of that even back then.

[082349872349872]

> b) ethnicity i.e. White/African American/Latino have quite a different slot of pop culture references in the US, much less pronounced for example in UK or Canada.

I wonder if UK and canada might be more similar to europe, where disco (as a popular culture which belonged to all those ethnicities) never really died in the same way it did in the states, killed by spontaneous popular uprising?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Demolition_Night

[anthk]

In Spain, specially in the East Coast, disco was replaced by techno/makina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mákina

[082349872349872]

TIL about "X-Ta Si, X-Ta No". (and, in a cousin thread, that "mall pop" is a genre name. Does it mean music played in malls, or music performed in malls? Do malls even still exist?)

Maybe HN'ers with young children should try and convince them that the world really was low-rez back then and only achieved current resolution this century?

https://i.imgur.com/4rPGp.jpg

[anthk]

>. White/African American/Latino have quite a different slot of pop culture references in the US,

From a 80's born Spaniard all I can say the Spice Girls/Back Street Boys were like a plague here. Diito with Brit pop bands.

All of that with techno-trance dominating everything until the Reaggeton cr- music imported from Latam.

[usrusr]

> Also seems like Gen X has pretty good musical knowledge overall!

It's the generation defined by having watched MTV from the first broadcast to when it stopped showing music videos.

[082349872349872]

I once tried to figure out the soviet equivalent to Video Killed the Radio Star. At the time I thought it had a definite answer (involving people in golden lamé bouncing on trampolines?), but can't seem to re-search it now.

Taking "music video" to be an edited video with footage distinct from a studio performance, and not part of a larger work (to avoid musicals), I find

1984: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJApqjVuGb4

1983: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXEPghBgTXA

Anyone have 1982 or earlier?

[aasasd]

Afaik Soviet ‘estrada’ had lots of videos filmed like they're concert performances but made specifically for TV. With characteristic mannequin stage presence of the artists, the ‘singing hand’, and backing ‘bands’ wriggling incoherently, hands flopping around on the instruments. And no audience shown.

The only thing this mess could kill is my will to listen to anything until Western electronic and grunge stuff finally became widely available.

[082349872349872]

Talk about staying power, a search on "Естрада музика" led me straight to Piekha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYChcUNYy7U

Even better because I collect clips involving libraries, and so it goes on a very short list including:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G6QDNC4jPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N9C2JS9mWc

(singing hand? I'm getting some cool ionophone stuff, as well as a seductive western agent with wardrobe malfunction, but I doubt either of those were the reference... In other news, TIL the russian sign language for "officer" mimes epaulettes. I wonder how the plural is conveyed, maybe duplication?)

[aasasd]

Apparently the Piekha's video is part of a film called ‘Moscow In Sounds’, from '69: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XWqhJhvRpmw

So I guess it doesn't conform to the criteria for your previous search. But the film supplies material if you have similar collections for other architecture.

However, you can easily count e.g. this clip from '60, though the production value is probably not what you expect: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FeK62wesICk

The ‘singing hand’ is a term for how the microphone-free hand often was the most animated part of a Soviet singer, being waved around while the rest stays in place.

BTW, the Russian spelling is “эстрада” (you won't need “музыка” since that's the primary meaning). Unless you had some other Cyrillic spelling in mind. The videos in your previous search have “эстрада80” as a hashtag.

P.S. The real impressive part in ‘Marian the Librarian’ is whatever the hell is going on with everyone's hair.

[082349872349872]

Thanks for the clarifications[1], and sorry I'm not counting that clip[2] in my head-canon, otherwise I'd have to count just about every number from every Blue Light special.

Москва в нотах still has its echoes to this day, even if the music[3] has to be imported from the west: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGfuorTdEZg

Is the hair much different from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6bRxLzFLv0 ? (it appears that costume musical comedy often tells us almost as much as the era in which it was filmed as the era which it depicts)

[1] especially the singing hand. I see from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dExwT_pEr9w

how soviets (even young athletic komsomolka!) were allowed to either sing xor dance, but never both at the same time.

[2] very slightly related: "Над Москвою дожди моросили" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKxd6HJW8sQ

[3] somewhere there is an excellent Lolita/Gazmanov interpretation of Felicita which I can no longer find.

[gt_grc]

> Also seems like Gen X has pretty good musical knowledge overall! But probably due to being the 'right age' for having been able to listen to a lot of stuff.

I came to this same conclusion. Growing up, I heard a little '40s music from my grandparents and a lot of '50s, '60s and '70s from my parents. Hip-hop, new wave, alternative and grunge all came along during my lifetime.