Of Mermaids and Rock Singers

This book examines the roles, functions, and interpretations of rock music as part of the initial push towards exploring national and personal identities in a newly independent Belarus. It also includes a summary of rock concert activity in Belarus.

Maria Paula Survilla

List Of Illustrations -- Notes to Accompanying CD -- The Transliteration of the Belarusan Language -- Acknowledgments -- Preface -- 1."2yvie Bielarus!": Nationalism, Critiques, and Cultural Responses -- Identity and Nation -- Explanations of Identity Construction: Eastern Europe in the Western Press -- 2.Terminology, Controversy, and the Interpretation of History -- Steps Towards Independence -- Terminology -- National Origins and the "Golden Era" -- Aggressive Colonization -- Rebellion -- The Twentieth Century -- 3."Stand in the doorway": Entrances and Exits in Urban Belarus -- Singular Visions and Multiple Directions in Urban Belarus -- The Public and the Private -- Expectations for Change in Belarus -- "And what please, is a please . . . ?" -- Popular Culture Without a Marketplace: Perfume, Lipstick, and the Soaps -- Red Wine and Radiation: Chernobyl in Everyday Life -- Conclusion -- 4.From Legislation to the Renaissance: Belarusan Rock and Urban Folklore -- Generalities and Specifics of the Soviet Rock Scene -- The Piesniary [Songsters]: From VIA to "Piesniarok" -- Defining the Elements of "Good?" Belarusan Rock -- 5.Of Mermaids and Rock Singers: Ethnography and Shifting Authority in Palac's "Rusalki" -- Culture Contact and the Expedition -- "Young girls, our sisters . . ." -- 6.Ulis: "America is Where I am" -- Group Dynamics and the Practice Space -- Defining Ulis and Belarusan Rock -- 7.From Bard to Rock Star: Kasia Kamockaja -- Gender and Belarusan Rock -- Novaje Nieba's Kasia Kamockaja: from Bard to Rock Star -- Image, Belonging, and Association -- 8.National Republic of Mroja [Dream]: Quotation and the Kangaroo -- 9.Rock and Revolution: Performance and the Mediation of Rock -- Rock and Revolution: Performance and the Mediation of Rock -- Bibliography -- Discography -- Index.