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by 082349872349872 2157 days ago
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?

1 comments

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.

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?)

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.

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.

I also have to disqualify the following. It's single take and could have been stage business. But still, it's almost a music video, and judging from the comments, was televised in the late 70's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkojGf_u2uI

Huh, TIL Vysotsky was pretty ripped.
Eh, that hair is realistic. Whereas in '62 somebody spent a ton of gel and time combing all those smooth waves.

Can't find a higher-res vid aside from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmYdwyiO0Zg

спс for the full movie! Funny to see the view from Sparrow Hills[1] without an olympic stadium. For a modern clip in the genre, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8zIfaNHiB0

The trick riding is relevant to my interests; I always find it amusing when a (presumably minuscule) minority of US conservatives seem to spend a great deal of effort in proclaiming the superiority of caucasian culture, yet show no apparent interest in either learning to dance lezginka or ride dzhigitovka[2] (let's not even mention adopting one of the caucasian religions!).

The bouffant of товарищ Шаврина, singing on the metro, isn't exactly realistic, but it is period. Сompare the earlier fashion mag cover: https://picsb.meshok.net/pics/169585507.jpg?1

(she may have been a bit fashion-forward; https://mega.ru/megastyle/article/istoriya-laka-dlya-volos/ claims hairspray wasn't usually a soviet thing until the 1970's. The last picture[3] reminds me of Shurik and Zinaida's apartment in Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession. Did soviet apartments normally have that dorm-suite aesthetic, or was that characterising Shurik as a botanic?)

Also funny to see latin characters on sails, but I guess that's an international standard? The motorboat isn't obvious (as with greek license plates?) which character set it's been registered with.

Since someone mentioned earlier that we don't have enough dancing[4] on HN I'll recommend the space monument sequence as containing a variety of styles[5].

[1] I suspect that of the parts I'd find familiar if I ever visited Moscow, most of them would be within a few metro stops of Mosfilm's studios...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJhexbRK9tw

[3] https://mega.ru/megastyle/upload/iblock/3d6/1466269590_ivan_...

[4] TIL Marian the Librarian ended with a dance number. Since "boogaloo" has been Streisanded, I've also recently learned about an Astaire reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ93GNHBHsE

Oh, most excellent, The Memories of Casanova @ 4:46! (the folio is Romeo and Juliet) When did US movies switch set dressings from cultural placement to product placement?

In the overhead @ 6:00, note that Harold Hill wears co-respondent shoes. If Marian falls for a guy like that, she'd better be confident that her "aisle, altar, hymn" game is strong.

[5] Leningrad "Music Hall" ensemble. They don't include Apache, but Bender does a nice parody of that genre in Двенадцать стульев.