Sovietwave: A Lost Future
I’ve recently encountered a new genre called ‘Soviet Wave’. It’s all about since mid-century futurism and space exploration although this aesthetic movement seems to be pretty small in size and generally confined to unofficial YouTube playlists, there’s an undeniable draw to it looking at the comments under these videos you can feel that they’re devoid of the usual criticisms of the Soviet Union, or Socialism more broadly in fact they’re overwhelmingly full of appreciation and nostalgia, it’s as if everybody stopped and agreed for a moment of the dream at least was admirable contrast this with another wave genre ‘Vaporwave’ and we get a very different picture, though their are many beautiful ‘Vaporwave’ tracks, the nostalgia this genre is built on is revealed to be hollowed by everything, from the liminal early computer graphics, to the dead malls, to the vocals almost slushed Beyond intelligibility by pairing the degraded sluggish music with a vacant disjointed and eerily devoid visual element, Vaporwave effectively satirizes the glamorous trappings of the era it portrays, of course there are some who don’t see it like that, because when Vaporwave was first starting to break on the internet it became like this big topic of discussion, obviously there was this kind of prevailing opinion that I think ended up winning out in the end, that it’s just a meme, or it’s silly, or it’s not… you know… supposed to be taken that seriously.
Now their some kind of deep philosophical roots and like communism, anti-capitalism, and so on, and so forth, you know if that’s where your political leanings lie. That’s where your political leanings lie, but you’ll know if you’ll feel like there’s anything kind of inherently political about about the creation of Vaporwave as an art form, I’m sure that there are people doing that, and who do feel that way of course, and I just think that you know their music typically sucks, but it’s hard to deny that Vaporwave as a genre has a definite anti-capitalist slant, Sovietwave on the other hand upholds the mythology, the aspirations, and nostalgia, it is commenting what it reaffirms, that; even though the implementation of the vision was flawed at best, and the country that championed it is no longer around, the Soviet dream is still worth fighting for in this way. Vaporwave and Sovietwave are Polar Opposites, when I listen to Vaporwave; I get the sense of a glittery decadent era that is ultimately hollow, but when I listen to Sovietwave; I get the sense of a project, that while flawed, and imperfect on its surface, is nevertheless pure, and worthy at its core.
Of course the Soviet Union was not a perfect country, perfect countries do not exist, but I think Sovietwave is a genre with Soviet idea a future for the people! You’ll see Rockets, you’ll see public transportation, you’ll see optimistic Visions for the future when you listen to Sovietwave, you’re listening to the dream of a people, the dream of humanity working as one towards a better future, a dream that now lies dormant as expressed by the melancholy nature of a lot of these tracks, most of these songs don’t have lyrics, and when they do they’re invariably in a language that I don’t understand, but that’s the genius of this genre I don’t think you have to understand anything, I think music is so important because of its power to convince without making an argument, and when I listen to Sovietwave I get it.
At the end of the day; a large part of politics is just about framing whatever ideology can convincingly paint an inspiring vision of the future, will naturally attract followers and in this aesthetic battle, I think that we as leftists often portray ourselves in a way that does not really resonate with people, no one who’s not already on your side is going to be convinced by a line of tanks, or a slick uniform, that’s a fascist game, but this has power, even if it doesn’t have a political project to coalesce around at this moment in history, the dream that Sovietwave represents is still alive and in my opinion it’s the best best aesthetic weapon we’ve got, I really hope that this movement develops in the future, I hope to see more of this music, and more of these visuals, a lot of leftist art is focused on negativity critiquing imperialism, capitalism, and authoritarianism. That’s important, but I think a really powerful way to win people over is just to show them the type of world that we want to build, and I think that Sovietwave does a really good job of making that case in a language that everyone can understand!
Here’s an example: