Roll Over, Tchaikovsky!

Sex, the body, and pop music in modern urban Russia

Centered on the musical experiences of gay men in St. Petersburg and Moscow, this ground-breaking study examines how post-Soviet popular music both informs and plays off of a corporeal understanding of Russian male homosexuality.

Drawing upon ethnography, musical analysis, and phenomenological theory, Stephen Amico argues that the gay body in post-Soviet Russia rejects both the Soviet aversion to physical pleasure and the Western politicization of sexuality. Instead, both listeners and performers turn to popular music for a framework within which they can experience an embodied sense of sexuality, the self, and intersubjectivity.

Roll Over, Tchaikovsky! Russian Popular Music and Post-Soviet Homosexuality begins with an expert technical analysis of Russian rock, pop, and estrada music, dovetailing into an illuminating discussion of gay men's physical reception and uses of music. The book outlines how Russian homophobia and gender systems interact (often inconsistently) with popular music. Performers sustain a delicate literal and physical dance with cultural expectations. Amico argues that performers use song lyrics, physical movements, images of women, drag, and sexualized male bodies as tools and tropes to implicitly or explicitly express sexual orientation through performance. Finally, he uncovers how these performances help gay Russian men to create their own social spaces and selves, in meaningful relation to others with whom they share a "nontraditional orientation."