These are artists playing in older styles. The bards, for instance, are singer-songwriters originally heavily associated with Soviet-era counter-culture. Shanson is best known as a sort of soundtrack to prison culture and the darkest parts of life. Estrada, is genre of classic performative popular music developed under the USSR and still in use today. Jazz, imported from the US, has long held a special place in the hearts of many from the former USSR and has had wide creative influence there. Blues, also from the US, came much later to the former USSR but has had a sizeable influence on local rock. Of all these styles, however, folk influences retain the deepest roots and produce the most wide-ranging effects in contemporary music.
Languages: Search for classic or classic-influenced music performed in Uzbek, Kyrgyz, or Tatar, or in Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, or Belarusian, or in Baltic, Caucasian, or Other languages.
Bayastan Botokanov (Баястан Ботоканов; he also sometimes goes by the moniker Ortoasiabayastan, Ортоазиябаястан) is a Kyrgyz rapper. He’s young—born in 1993—but not new to Bishkek rap. While there isn’t a ton of information floating around about him yet, he’s definitely someone to watch out for on the Bishkek music scene. Many of his songs are […]