In the early eighties, we studied, played sports, listened to very wrong music and led school discos. One of them ended in a terrible scandal. In the slidescope there was a frame in which a half-naked girl, painted in the style of pin-up, stood with her back pressed to the door, and behind the glass was the head of the villain wearing black glasses and a hat. We were called to the principal. I still remember the dialogue:

- With a picture obscene understandable. And what of the band sounded?

“Different,” I say. - Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Judas Priest.

- Judas? Zionists?

- Not. Window confessional is so called.

- The window is called ?! And the fact that you open the window of indecency, open the window of this abomination of the West, you understand? Today you open the window, and tomorrow they will open the doors!

Well, after a few years they opened all the doors, the windows and removed the roof, I don’t think it’s worth telling. Over the times of the totalitarian ban came the times of boundless and repulsive freedom. Since then, a lot has changed. But my tastes with my friends remained the same. After all, we were forbidden to listen to not just Western rock bands and jazz performers, but real phenomena in world music. It is now they devote documentary and feature films, it is their names inscribed in the rock encyclopedia in gold letters. It is clear that with the passage of time new trends and styles appear, but for me personally it is important that the main components of musical culture remain: these are good voices and the music itself.

In rap music as such is absent, and as for voices, so not always enough pleasant timbre. And when the first rap artists appeared in Russia, nothing but a smile, for many it did not cause. Well, the rhymed stream of consciousness is revered, revered, and then books will sit down again, many thought. But the rapper movement quickly became a totem phenomenon.

Now rap has consistently conquered Russia, leading us towards complete and unconditional degradation. Of course, they will object to me and say that Russian rappers have good poems that are in tune with time and thoughts.

And the classics of world poetry — they are like, have become not quite consonant or have they gone out of fashion, as some believe? But I am more interested in something else: why was this near-music primitivism in the top?

The answer was given to me by young guys and girls, to whom I asked this question. Say, this is music of protest, these are words coming from the heart of modern youth. I would like to believe it if I didn’t read some of the texts.

By the way, there are examples of this. Metallica tried to flirt with rap artists, but stopped the experiments after the discs with her compositions began to be thrown into the trash. We have a situation with rap is developing in a different direction. Rap have begun to cultivate. There was even a proposal to stimulate rappers with government grants. I immediately had a logical question. And if in the States there were groups of dark-skinned children singing "Kalinka" or "There was a birch in the field," would the American authorities begin to financially stimulate them?

I think it is unlikely. Moreover, they would have done everything so that this “soft power” would not sound so massive. So maybe it’s still worth focusing on the development of literature, cinema and real music, and not to encourage melodeklamators, among whom there are a lot of mediocrities promoting openly weak speculative poetry? If we do not come to this, we are waiting for the utmost cultural degradation and the realization that we can only copy and imitate. After all, the chain looms miserable and striking in its paucity: fast foodstuffs, rap and hang in social networks. And “soft power” becomes hard. Only this strength is not ours.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.