| Considered the "grand debauchers of Russia", this is one of the most controversial bands in Russian history. Sektor Gaza emerged out of the social reforms of the 1980's, known as "glastnost", a time when the government loosened censorship laws, and artists were finally allowed to write controversial music. Before glastnost, it was unthinkable that such blatantly rebellious music existed in Russia. "Kino" was one of the first rock bands in Russia to write songs about drug use. However, Kino was a little tame, and not overly controversial. Sektor Gaza were much more extreme - they were extremely vulgar, swore profusely in their music, and touched on themes of sex, drugs, rape, alcoholism, domestic violence, homelessness, and many other controversial themes. They emerged just as the Soviet Union was falling apart, in the late 1980's. Times were difficult, with food shortages, inflation, rampant crime, and a strong atmosphere of uncertainty about the future. Their first few albums, released before the Soviet Union officially dissolved, were not overly vulgar. For the time, they simply wrote rebellious songs about punk culture, songs about drugs, venereal disease, and so on. After the Soviet Union fell apart, however, Sektor Gaza began writing music with a lot more vulgarity, and their criticism of the government and of Russian society became much more extreme and blatant. The uncertainty about the future became even stronger when the Soviet Union fell apart. People who had ... |
