Authors

Discussion

Protest music indicates the state of critical sentiments in society and marks the level of human freedom. Protest music in Ukraine, besides its rejection of politically reactionary ideas and the dominant taste for commercial pop, is firmly related to the discourses of national identity and points out the key stages of its emergence from decolonization and decommunization to democracy. 1) The soviet protest music (B. Okudzhava, V. Vysotskyi, O. Galich and others) was quite controversial: on the one hand, it has anti-Soviet connotations, but on the other— it ignores or even somehow legitimizes the imperial policy of the USSR. It was no coincidence that during the events of the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, there was a significant drop in the popularity of this music. 2) Non-Russian music, mainly Ukrainian (Okean Elzy, Kozak System, Riffmaster, Scriabin, folk music, etc.), became the tools of opposition to the imperial cultural policy of Russia because of the rise of the national liberation movement of Euromaidan. 3) The tradition of Ukrainian Insurgent army songs was considerably revived as the embodiment of the struggle for national sovereignty due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.  The song “Oi u luzi chervona kalyna” became a global anti-war (against imperial policy) hit (Pink Floyd). Decolonization and de-communization in the direction of democracy make protest music in Ukraine high demand for building statehood.