The rock band "Sektor Gaza" as a phenomenon of Russian (counter)culture

The object of study in the article is the Russian culture of the post-Soviet period. The subject of the study is the well-known rock band "Gaza Strip", which is considered as a cultural phenomenon that has influenced Russian culture as a whole. This band was created by the author-performer Yuri Klinskikh (creative pseudonym – Khoy) in the late 1980s in Voronezh. The band soon became super-popular, with virtually no media promotion. The band ceased to exist in 2000 due to the death of its leader. But as shown in the article, Khoy's work has not been forgotten, it has largely grown into Russian popular culture and is still in great demand. The author makes an attempt to understand the reasons for this. The research is based on the study of numerous newspaper notes about the band, interviews with Yuri Khoy, books about the "Gaza Strip", lyrics of the band, as well as on the author's own memoirs. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time the creativity of the "Gaza Strip" band was subjected to philosophical reflection. An attempt has been made to understand the reasons for the popularity of this band and the demand for its work a quarter of a century after the death of its leader. Several reasons have been identified that determined the success of the band. The music of the Gaza Strip has found a completely new niche in the Russian music market. Due to its expression, it meets the psycho-emotional needs of adolescents. The use of obscene vocabulary contributed to the scandalous fame. At the same time, the swearing in most cases serves as an organic means of reflecting the social environment in which the lyrical hero of Hoy's songs is located. Apparently, the main ingredient of the band's success is the widest range of topics covered in the songs, as well as the presentation of material understandable to a wide audience, including through humor. At the same time, despite the obscenities in the vocabulary and artistic images, the humanistic pathos is obvious in the songs of the band. The combination of the primordial folk linguistic and cultural elements, the bearer of which was Yuri Klinskikh, with fashionable musical trends gave rise to a curious phenomenon that exists in three dimensions at once – counterculture, grassroots, folk culture and "big", nationwide mass culture.

Sektor Gaza, Yuri Klinskikh, Yuri Khoy, punk rock, counterculture, popular culture, rock music, Russian rock, The nineties, show business