Belarusan rok

Bonda | Krama | Mroja | Novaje nieba | Ulis

This page is to acquaint you with Belarusan Rock.

Unfortunately, many Belarusans, even nationally conscious Belarusans, do not know much about Belarusan Rock. The music market, CDs and cassettes are absolutely dominated by former Soviet rock in Russian language. Yet I venture to say that over the past ten years or so Belarus has developed her own traditions of rock in Belarusan language, which is expressive and diverse enough to embrace all traditions of modern rock. Both the trailblazers for that process - the bands "Mroja", "Ulis", "Bonda", and today's stars "Krama" and "Novaje neba" are in every way equal to the bands of the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) rock clubs, which are famous all over the former Soviet Union.

Unfortunately the current situation in Belarus' and the policy pursued by its government - which can hardly be called anything else but fiercely anti-Belarusan - stand in the way of any development of the Belarusan culture. The outlawing of Belarusan schoolbooks, history books, literature, music - these are all links of the same chain these are all links in the same chain. Many of the songs given below are banned from Belarusan state television and radio by state censorship. Up to the present day, to the best of my knowledge, not a single CD or video clip of a Belarusan rock band has been issued! Belarusan rock is almost completely cut off from its potential listeners.
I think everybody is aware of how powerful words, poems and particularly songs and good music can be, what a strong impression a video clip can produce. The campaign in support of Boris Yeltsin launched by Russian rock bands prior to the latest presidential elections can be seen as an example for this.

Today it is not even the lyrics - the majority of which are unpolitical - but simply the Belarusan language of the songs that are the main instrument working for a renaissance of the Belarusan culture and nation. This explains the hostility of the current regime. The government understands that, if Belarusan songs become accessible to a larger public - even if it's just via a few video clips - this might induce many to put up resistance.
Of course it is not yet possible to present Belarusan songs "live" on the Internet. But I hope that the following overview - which is not exhaustive - will be a first step.