Variety art. Preconditions for the emergence and history of the development of pop art. History of pop music styles Conditions for the implementation of the discipline program

The roots of the stage go back to the distant past, which can be traced in the art of Egypt, Greece, Rome; its elements are present in the performances of itinerant comedians-buffoons (Russia), shpielmans (Germany), jugglers (France), dandies (Poland), masqueraboses (Central Asia), etc.

Satire on urban life and customs, sharp jokes on political topics, a critical attitude to power, couplets, comic scenes, jokes, games, clown pantomime, juggling, musical eccentricity were the beginnings of future pop genres that were born in the noise of carnival and street entertainment.

The barkers who, with the help of jokes, witticisms, and funny couplets, sold any product in the squares and markets, later became the predecessors of the entertainer. All this was of a massive and intelligible nature, which was an indispensable condition for the existence of all pop genres. All medieval carnival entertainers did not play performances.

In Russia, the origins of pop genres manifested themselves in buffoonery, amusements and mass creativity of folk festivals. Their representatives are raucous grandfathers-jokers with an indispensable beard, who amused and beckoned the audience from the upper platform of the booth-raus, parsley, raeshniks, leaders of “scientists” bears, actors-buffoons, playing “sketches” and “reprises” among the crowd, playing pipes , psaltery, snuffling and amusing the people.

Variety art is characterized by such qualities as openness, laconicism, improvisation, conviviality, originality, and entertainment.

Developing as an art of festive leisure, the stage has always strived for uniqueness and diversity. The very feeling of festivity was created due to external entertainment, play of light, change of picturesque scenery, change in the shape of the stage, etc. Despite the fact that the variety of forms and genres is characteristic of the stage, it can be subdivided into three groups:

Concert stage (formerly called "divertissement") unites all types of performances in variety concerts;

Theatrical stage (chamber performances of the theater of miniatures, cabaret theaters, cafe-theaters or a large-scale concert revue, a music hall, with a large performing staff and first-class stage equipment);

Festive stage (folk festivities, celebrations at stadiums, full of sports and concert numbers, as well as balls, carnivals, masquerades, festivals, etc.).

There are also such:

3. 1. VARIETY THEATERS

3.1.1. MUSIC HALLS

If the basis of a pop performance is a complete number, then the review, like any dramatic action, required the subordination of everything that happened on the stage to the plot. This, as a rule, was not organically combined and led to a weakening of one of the components of the presentation: either the number, or the characters, or the plot. This happened during the staging of "Miracles of the XXX Century" - the play fell apart into a number of independent, loosely connected episodes. Only the ballet ensemble and several first-class variety and circus numbers were successful with the audience. The ballet ensemble staged by Goleizovsky performed three numbers: "Hey, hoo!", "Moscow in the rain" and "30 English girls". The performance of "The Snake" was especially effective. Among the circus acts, the best were: Tea Alba and "The Australian Lumberjacks" Jackson and Laurer. Alba simultaneously wrote different words on two boards with her right and left hands. The lumberjacks at the end of the room were racing to chop two thick logs. An excellent number of equilibrium on the wire was shown by the German Strodi. He performed somersaults on a wire. Of the Soviet artists, as always, Smirnov-Sokolsky and ditties V. Glebova and M. Darskaya had great success. Among the circus acts, the number of Zoya and Martha Koch stood out on two parallel wires.

In September 1928, the opening of the Leningrad Music Hall took place.

3. 1.2. THEATER MINIATURE - a theatrical collective working mainly on small forms: small plays, scenes, sketches, operas, operettas along with pop numbers (monologues, couplets, parodies, dances, songs). The repertoire is dominated by humor, satire, irony, and lyrics are not excluded. The troupe is small, the theater of one actor, two actors is possible. The performances, laconic in design, are designed for a relatively small audience, they represent a kind of mosaic canvas.

3.1.3. CONVERSATION GENRE on the stage is a conventional designation of genres associated mainly with the word: entertainer, interlude, scene, sketch, story, monologue, feuilleton, microminiature (staged anecdote), burime.

Entertainer - entertainer can be double, single, mass. Conversational genre built according to the laws of "unity and struggle of opposites", that is, the transition from quantity to quality according to the satirical principle.

Variety monologue is satirical, lyrical, humorous.

An interlude is a comic scene or a piece of music with a humorous content, which is performed as an independent number.

Sketch is a small scene where intrigue is rapidly developing, where the simplest plot is built on unexpected funny, sharp positions, turns, allowing a number of absurdities to arise in the course of the action, but where everything usually ends with a happy ending. 1-2 characters (but no more than three).

Miniature is the most popular conversational genre in the stage. On the stage today, a popular anecdote (unpublished, unpublished - from Greek) is a short topical oral story with an unexpected witty ending.

A pun is a joke based on the comic use of similar-sounding, but different-sounding words, playing on the sound similarity of equivalent words or combinations.

Reprise is the most common short conversation genre.

Verses are one of the most intelligible and popular varieties of the spoken genre. The coupletist seeks to ridicule this or that phenomenon and express an attitude towards it. Must have a sense of humor

Musical and conversational genres include a couplet, a ditty, a chansonette, and a musical feuilleton.

Parody widespread on the stage can be "colloquial", vocal, musical, dance. At one time, declamations, melodeclamations, litmontages, "Artistic reading" were adjacent to speech genres.

It is impossible to give an exactly fixed list of speech genres: unexpected syntheses of the word with music, dance, original genres (transformation, ventrology, etc.) give rise to new genre formations. Live practice continuously supplies all sorts of varieties, it is no coincidence that on old posters it was customary to add "in his genre" to the name of an actor.

Each of the above speech genres has its own characteristics, history, structure. The development of society, social conditions dictated the entrance to the forefront of one or another genre. Actually, only the entertainer born in the cabaret can be considered a "pop" genre. The rest came from the booth, the theater, from the pages of humorous and satirical magazines. Speech genres, unlike others, inclined to master foreign innovations, developed in line with the national tradition, in close connection with the theater, with humorous literature.

The development of speech genres is associated with the level of literature. Behind the actor's back is the author who "dies" in the performer. And yet, the intrinsic value of acting does not diminish the importance of the author, who largely determines the success of the act. The artists themselves often became the authors. The traditions of I. Gorbunov were picked up by pop storytellers - they themselves created their repertoire Smirnov-Sokolsky, Afonin, Nabatov and others. Actors who did not have literary talent turned for help to the authors who wrote with a view to oral performance, taking into account the performer's mask. These authors, as a rule, remained "nameless". For many years, the press debated the question of whether a work written for performance on the stage can be considered literature. In the early 80s, the All-Union, and then the All-Russian Association of pop authors were created, which helped to legitimize this type of literary activity. The author's "namelessness" is a thing of the past, moreover, the authors themselves appeared on the stage. At the end of the 70s, the program "Behind the Scenes of Laughter" was released, composed like a concert, but exclusively from the performances of pop authors. If in previous years only individual writers (Averchenko, Ardov, Laskin) performed with their own programs, now this phenomenon has become widespread. The phenomenon of M. Zhvanetsky contributed a lot to the success. Starting in the 60s as the author of the Leningrad Theater of Miniatures, he, bypassing censorship, began to read his short monologues and dialogues at private evenings in the Houses of the Creative Intelligentsia, which, like Vysotsky's songs, spread throughout the country.

3. JAZZ ON THE VARIETY

The term "jazz" is usually understood as: 1) a kind of musical art based on improvisation and special rhythmic intensity, 2) orchestras and ensembles performing this music. The terms "jazz band", "jazz ensemble" (sometimes indicating the number of performers - jazz trio, jazz quartet, "jazz orchestra", "big band") are also used to denote collectives.

4. SONG ON VARIETY

Vocal (vocal-instrumental) miniature, which is widely used in concert practice. On the stage, it is often solved as a stage "play" miniature with the help of plastics, costume, light, mise-en-scène ("song theater"); the personality, characteristics of the talent and skill of the performer, who in a number of cases becomes the "co-author" of the composer, gains great importance.

The genres and forms of the song are varied: romance, ballad, folk song, verse, ditty, chansonette, etc .; The methods of performance are also varied: solo, ensemble (duets, choirs, vocal instrumental ensembles).

There is also a composer group among pop musicians. These are Antonov, Pugacheva, Gazmanov, Loza, Kuzmin, Dobrynin, Kornelyuk and others. The last song was predominantly a composer's song, the current one is "performing".

Many styles, manners and directions coexist - from sentimental kitsch and urban romance to punk rock and rap. Thus, today's song is a multi-colored and multi-style panel that includes dozens of directions, from domestic folklore imitations to grafts of African-American, European and Asian cultures.

5. DANCE ON THE VARIETY

This is a short dance number, solo or group, presented in group variety concerts, in variety shows, music halls, miniature theaters; accompanies and complements the program of vocalists, numbers of original and even speech genres. It was formed on the basis of folk, everyday (ballroom) dance, classical ballet, modern dance, sports gymnastics, acrobatics, on the crossing of all kinds of foreign influences and national traditions. The nature of dance plastics is dictated by modern rhythms, formed under the influence of related arts: music, theater, painting, circus, pantomime.

Folk dances were originally included in the performances of the capital's troupes. The repertoire included theatrical divertissement performances of rural, urban and military life, vocal and dance suites from Russian folk songs and dances.

In the 90s, stage dance sharply polarized, as if returning to the situation of the 20s. Dancing groups engaged in show business, such as "Erotic Dance" and others, rely on eroticism - performances in nightclubs dictate their own laws.

6. DOLLS ON THE VARIETY

Since ancient times, Russia has valued handicrafts, loved a toy, and respected a fun game with a doll. Petrushka dealt with a soldier, a policeman, a priest, and even with his death, he bravely brandished a cudgel, laid down on the spot those whom the people did not love, overthrew evil, and asserted popular morality.

Parsley makers wandered alone, sometimes together: a puppeteer and a musician, they themselves composed plays, they were actors, they themselves were directors - they tried to preserve the movements of the puppets, mise-en-scenes, puppet tricks. The puppeteers were persecuted.

There were other shows in which the puppets acted. On the roads of Russia one could find vans loaded with dolls on strings - puppets. And sometimes boxes with slots inside, along which the dolls were moved from below. Such boxes were called nativity scenes. Puppets mastered the art of imitation. They loved to portray singers, copied acrobats, gymnasts, clowns.

7. PARODY ON THE VARIETY

This is a number or performance based on an ironic imitation (imitation) of both the individual manner, style, characteristic features and stereotypes of the original, and entire trends and genres in art. The amplitude of the comic: from witty-satirical (derogatory) to humorous (friendly caricature) - is determined by the parodist's attitude to the original. Parody is rooted in ancient art, in Russia it has long been present in buffoonery games, farce performances.

8. THEATERS OF SMALL FORMS

Creation in Russia of cabaret theaters "The Bat", "Crooked Mirror", etc.

Both "Crooked Mirror" and "The Bat" were professionally strong acting collectives, the level of theatrical culture of which was undoubtedly higher than in numerous miniature theaters (Petrovsky stood out more than others in Moscow, the director of the cat was D.G. Gutman, Mamonovsky, cultivating decadent art, where Alexander Vertinsky made his debut during the First World War, Nikolsky - artist and director A.P. Petrovsky. V.O. Toporkov successfully performed as an entertainer, later an artist of the artistic theater.).

4. Musical genres on the stage. Basic principles, techniques and direction.

There are pop genres:

1 Latin American music

Latin American music (Spanish musica latinoamericana) is a generalized name for musical styles and genres of Latin American countries, as well as music by immigrants from these countries, compactly living on the territory of other states and forming large Latin American communities (for example, in the USA). In colloquial speech, the abbreviated name "Latin music" (Spanish musica latina) is often used.

Latin American music, whose role in the daily life of Latin America is very high, is a fusion of many musical cultures, but it is based on three components: Spanish (or Portuguese), African and Indian musical cultures. As a rule, Latin American songs are performed in Spanish or Portuguese, less often in French. Latin American performers living in the United States are usually bilingual and often use English lyrics.

Spanish and Portuguese music itself does not belong to Latin American, being, however, closely related to the latter by a large number of connections; and the influence of Spanish and Portuguese music on Latin American is reciprocal.

Despite the fact that Latin American music is extremely heterogeneous and each country in Latin America has its own characteristics, stylistically it can be subdivided into several main regional styles:

* Andean music;

* Central American music;

* Caribbean music;

* Argentine music;

* Mexican music;

* Brazilian music.

However, it should be borne in mind that such a division is very arbitrary and the boundaries of these musical styles are very blurred.

Blues (English blues from blue devils) is a genre of music that became widespread in the 20s of the XX century. It is one of the achievements of African American culture. It developed from such ethnic musical trends of African American society as "work song", "spirituals" and cholera (English Holler). In many ways he influenced modern popular music, in particular such genres as pop music, jazz, rock and roll. The predominant form of blues is 4/4, where the first 4 bars are often played on tonic harmony, 2 on subdominant and tonic and 2 on dominant and tonic. This alternation is also known as blues progression. The rhythm of eighth triplets with a pause is often used - the so-called shuffle. Blue notes are a characteristic feature of the blues. Often, music is built according to the “question - answer” structure, expressed both in the lyrical content of the composition and in the musical, often based on the dialogue of instruments among themselves. Blues is an improvisational form of the musical genre, where compositions often use only the main support "frame", which is played by solo instruments. The original blues theme is built on the sensual social component of the life of the African American population, its difficulties and obstacles that arise in the path of every black person.

Jazz (English Jazz) is a form of musical art that arose in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the United States as a result of the synthesis of African and European cultures and subsequently became widespread. The characteristic features of the musical language of jazz were initially improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms, and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing. The further development of jazz occurred due to the development of new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers.

Country music combines two varieties of American folklore - the music of the white settlers who settled in the New World in the 17th-18th centuries and the cowboy ballads of the Wild West. This music has a strong legacy of Elizabethan madrigals, Irish and Scottish folk music. The main musical instruments of this style are guitar, banjo and violin.

"The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane" is the first "documented" country song written in 1871 by Will Heiss of Kentucky. 53 years later, Fiddin John Carson records this composition on a disc. Since October 1925, the radio program "Grand Ole Opry" began to work, which to this day broadcasts concerts of country stars live.

Country music, as a music industry, began to gain traction in the late 1940s. thanks to the success of Hank Williams (1923-53), who not only set the image of a country music performer for generations to come, but also identified the typical themes of the genre - tragic love, loneliness and the hardships of a working life. By that time, there were different styles in country: Western swing, which took the principles of arrangement from Dixieland - here Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were the king of the genre; bluegrass, dominated by its founder Bill Monroe; the style of musicians like Hank Williams was then called Hillbilly. In the mid-1950s. country music, along with elements from other genres (gospel, rhythm and blues), gave birth to rock and roll. The borderline genre, rockabilly, immediately emerged - it was with it that such singers as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash began their creative career - it is no coincidence that they were all recorded in the same Memphis studio Sun Records. Thanks to the success of Marty Robbins's 1959 Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, the country-n-western genre, dominated by scenes from the life of the Wild West, has emerged.

Chanson (French chanson - "song") - a genre of vocal music; the word is used in two meanings:

2) a French pop song in the style of a cabaret (inclined in Russian).

Blatna? I pe? Sis (thug folklore, blatnyak) is a song genre that glorifies the life and customs of the criminal environment, originally designed for the environment of prisoners and people close to the underworld. It originated in the Russian Empire and became widespread in the Soviet Union and subsequently in the CIS countries. Over time, in the genre of thieves' music, songs began to be written that go beyond the criminal theme, but retain its characteristic features (melody, jargon, narration, worldview). Since the 1990s, a thug song has been marketed in the Russian music industry under the name "Russian chanson" (cf. the radio station and awards of the same name).

Roma? Ns in music - a vocal composition, written on a small poem of lyric content, mainly love.

Author's song, or bardic music, is a song genre that arose in the middle of the 20th century in the USSR. The genre grew in the 1950s and 1960s. from amateur performances, regardless of the cultural policy of the Soviet authorities, and quickly achieved widespread popularity. The main emphasis is on the poetry of the text.

6 Electronic music

Electronic music (from the English. Electronic music, in common parlance also "electronics") - a wide musical genre, meaning music created using electronic musical instruments. Although the first electronic instruments appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, electronic music as a genre developed in the second half of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century includes dozens of varieties.

7 Rock music

Rock music is a general name for a number of areas of popular music. The word "rock" - to swing - in this case indicates rhythmic sensations characteristic of these directions, associated with a certain form of movement, by analogy with "roll", "twist", "swing", "shake", etc. Such signs rock music, as the use of electric musical instruments, creative self-sufficiency (for rock musicians it is typical to perform compositions of their own composition) are secondary and often misleading. For this reason, the belonging of some styles of music to rock is disputed. Also rock is a special subcultural phenomenon; subcultures such as fashion, hippies, punks, metalheads, goths, emo are inextricably linked with certain genres of rock music.

Rock music has a large number of directions: from light genres such as dance rock and roll, pop rock, Britpop to brutal and aggressive genres such as death metal and hardcore. The content of the songs ranges from light and laid-back to dark, deep and philosophical. Rock music is often opposed to pop music, etc. “Pop”, although there is no clear boundary between the concepts of “rock” and “pop”, and many musical phenomena are balancing on the edge between them.

The origins of rock music lie in the blues, from which the first rock genres came out - rock and roll and rockabilly. The first subgenres of rock music arose in close connection with folk and pop music of that time - primarily folk, country, skiffle, music hall. During its existence, there have been attempts to combine rock music with almost all possible types of music - with academic music (art-rock, appears in the late 60s), jazz (jazz-rock, appears in the late 60s - early 70s ), Latin music (Latin rock, appears in the late 60s), Indian music (raga rock, appears in the mid 60s). In the 60s and 70s, almost all the major genres of rock music appeared, the most important of which, in addition to those listed above, are hard rock, punk rock, avant-garde rock. In the late 70s and early 80s, such genres of rock music appeared as post-punk, new wave, alternative rock (although early representatives of this direction appeared in the late 60s), hardcore (a large subgenre of punk rock ), as well as the brutal subgenres of metal - death metal, black metal. In the 90s, the genres of grunge (appeared in the mid-80s), Brit-pop (appeared in the mid-60s), alternative metal (appeared in the late 80s) were widely developed.

The main centers of origin and development of rock music are the USA and Western Europe (especially Great Britain). Most of the lyrics are in English. However, although, as a rule, and with some delay, national rock music appeared in almost all countries. Russian-language rock music (the so-called Russian rock) appeared in the USSR already in the 1960s-1970s. and reached its peak in the 1980s, continuing to develop in the 1990s.

8 Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae

Ska is a musical style that emerged in Jamaica in the late 1950s. The emergence of the style is associated [source not specified 99 days] with the emergence of sound systems (English "sound systems"), which allowed dancing right on the street.

Sound systems are not just stereo speakers, but a peculiar form of street discos, with DJs and their mobile stereos, with an increasing competition between these DJs for the best sound, the best repertoire, and so on.

The style is characterized by a swinging 2/4 rhythm, with the guitar playing on the even-numbered drums, and the contrabass or bass emphasizing the odd beats. The melody is played by wind instruments such as trumpet, trombone and saxophone. Jazz melodies can be found among ska melodies.

Rocksteady ("rock steady", "rocksteady") is a musical style that existed in Jamaica and England in the 1960s. The style is based on 4/4 Caribbean rhythms, with an emphasis on keyboards and guitars.

Reggae (English reggae, other spellings - "reggae" and "reggae"), Jamaican popular music, was first mentioned in the late 1960s. It is sometimes used as a generic term for all Jamaican music. Closely related to other Jamaican genres - rocksteady, ska and others.

Dub (English dub) is a musical genre that emerged in the early 1970s in Jamaica. Initially, recordings in this genre were reggae songs with (sometimes partially) removed vocals. Since the mid-1970s, dub has become an independent phenomenon, considered an experimental and psychedelic form of reggae. The musical and ideological developments of dub gave birth to the technology and culture of remixes, and also directly or indirectly influenced the development of a new wave and genres such as hip-hop, house, drum and bass, trip-hop, dub-techno, dubstep and others. ...

Pop-music (eng. Pop-music from Popular music) is a direction of modern music, a kind of modern mass culture.

The term "pop music" has a twofold meaning. In a broad sense, it is any mass music (including rock, electronica, jazz, blues). In a narrow sense - a separate genre of popular music, directly pop music with certain characteristics.

The main features of pop music as a genre are simplicity, melody, reliance on vocals and rhythm with less attention to the instrumental part. The main and practically the only form of composition in pop music is the song. Pop lyrics are usually about personal feelings.

Pop music includes genres such as euro pop, latina, disco, electropop, dance music and others.

10 Rap (Hip Hop)

Hip-hop is a cultural movement that originated among the working class of New York on November 12, 1974. DJ Afrika Bambaataa was the first to define the five pillars of hip-hop culture: MCing, DJing , breaking, graffiti writing, and knowledge. Other elements include beatboxing, hip hop fashion and slang.

Originating in the South Bronx, hip-hop became a part of youth culture in many countries around the world in the 1980s. Since the late 1990s, from a street underground with an acute social orientation, hip-hop has gradually turned into a part of the music industry, and by the middle of the first decade of this century, the subculture has become "fashionable", "mainstream." However, despite this, within hip-hop, many figures still continue its "main line" - a protest against inequality and injustice, opposition to the powers that be.

It is known that stage direction is subdivided into stage direction direction and stage stage direction.

The methodology of working on a variety show (concert, review, show), as a rule, does not include the tasks of creating the numbers of which it consists. The director combines ready-made numbers with a plot line, a single theme, builds a through action of the performance, organizes its tempo-rhythmic structure, and solves the problems of musical, scenographic, lighting design. That is, he is faced with a number of artistic and organizational problems that require resolution in the program as a whole and are not directly related to the stage number itself. This position is confirmed by the thesis of the famous stage director I. Sharoev, who wrote that “most often the stage director receives performances from specialists of various genres, and then creates a variety program from them. The room has a lot of independence. "

Working on a stage performance requires the director to solve a number of specific problems that he does not face in staging a large program. This is, first of all, the ability to reveal the individuality of the artist, build the drama of the performance, work with a reprise, trick, gag, know and take into account the nature of the specific expressive means of the performance, and much more.

Many methodological postulates for the creation of the act are based on general fundamental principles that exist in drama, musical theater, and circus. But further on, completely different structures are built on the foundation. In stage direction, significant specificity is noticeable, which, first of all, is determined by the genre typology of the stage performance.

On the stage, the director, as a creator, achieves in the performance the ultimate goal of any art - the creation of an artistic image, which is the creative side of the profession. But in the process of staging the number, there is a specialist's work on the technology of expressive means. This is due to the very nature of some genres: for example, most of the genre varieties of the sports and circus kind require rehearsal and training work with a coach on sports elements, special tricks; work on a vocal number is impossible without lessons from a vocal teacher; in the choreographic genre, the role of a choreographer-tutor is essential.

Sometimes these technical specialists loudly call themselves the directors of the performances, although, in fact, their activities are limited only to building a special stunt or technical component of the performance, it does not matter whether it is acrobatics, dance or singing. It is a stretch to talk about creating an artistic image here. When leading pop masters (especially in original genres) share the secrets of their skills in printed works, they mainly describe the technique of tricks, acrobatics, juggling, etc.

I would like to emphasize once again that the artistic structure of the stage performance is complex, varied, and often conglomerative. Therefore, staging a pop act is one of the most difficult types of director's activities. “Making a good number, even if it only takes a few minutes, is very difficult. And it seems to me that these difficulties are underestimated. Perhaps that is why I respect and value the art of those who are sometimes somewhat dismissively called entertainers, giving them a not very honorable place in the unwritten scale of professions. " These words of S. Yutkevich once again confirm the importance of analyzing the artistic structure of a stage performance with a final approach to researching the foundations of the methodology of its creation, especially in terms of directing and staging work.

Conclusion.

VARIETY ARTS (from the French estrade - platform, elevation) is a synthetic form of performing arts, combining small forms of drama, comedy, music, as well as singing, artist. reading, choreography, eccentricity, pantomime, acrobatics, juggling, illusionism, etc. Despite its international nature, it retains its national roots, which give it a special national flavor. Born in the Renaissance on the street stage and starting with clownery, primitive farces, buffoonery, E. and. in different countries it has evolved in different ways, giving preference to one or the other genres, one or another image-masks. In the pop programs of the salons, circles and clubs that arose later, in booths, music halls, cafeshantans, cabarets, miniature theaters and on the surviving pop garden and park grounds, cheerful humor, sharp-verbal parodies and caricatures, caustic hostel hyperbole, buzzwords prevail , grotesque, playful irony, soulful lyrics, fashionable dance and musical rhythms. Individual numbers of the polyphonic diversity of the divertissement are often held together on the stage with an entertaining or simple plot, and theaters of one or two actors, ensembles (ballet, musical, etc.) - with an original repertoire, their own dramaturgy. Pop art focuses on the widest audience and relies primarily on the skill of the performers, on their technique of reincarnation, the ability to create spectacular spectacle with laconic means, a bright character - more often comedic-negative than positive. Denouncing his antiheroes, he turns to metaphorical features and details, to a bizarre interweaving of plausibility and caricature, real and fantastic, thereby contributing to the creation of an atmosphere of rejection of their life prototypes, opposition to their prosperity in reality. For pop art, topicality is typical, a combination in the best examples of entertainment with serious content, educational functions, when fun is complemented by a variety of emotional palette, and sometimes socio-political, civic pathos. The show business generated by bourgeois mass culture is devoid of the latter quality. Almost all operational "small", "light" varieties, including the common "skits", are characterized by a relatively short life span, fast depreciation of masks, which depends on the exhaustion of the relevance of the topic, the implementation of a social order, change of interest and needs of viewers. Being one of the most mobile forms of art, at the same time, the more ancient arts, pop art is subject to the disease of stamping, a decrease in the artistic and aesthetic value of talented finds, up to their transformation into kitsch. Development is strongly influenced by such "technical" arts as cinema and especially television, which often include pop performances and concerts in their programs. Thanks to this, the traditional forms and techniques of the stage acquire not only great scale and prevalence, but also psychological depth (the use of close-up, other visual and expressive means of screen arts), vivid entertainment.

In the system of the performing arts, the stage today firmly occupies a separate place, representing an independent phenomenon of artistic culture. The popularity of the stage in the widest and most diverse audience strata makes it respond to the conflicting aesthetic needs of various groups of the population in terms of social, age, educational and even ethnic composition. This feature of pop art largely explains the presence of negative aspects in the professional, aesthetic and gustatory merits of pop art. The massiveness of the pop audience in the past and the present, its heterogeneity, the need to combine entertainment and educational functions in pop art, imposes specific requirements on the creators of pop art, imposes a special responsibility on them.

The complexity of the study of pop music, as well as the development of methodological approaches to their creation, is due to the fact that it is generally a conglomerate of various arts. It synthesizes acting, instrumental music, vocals, choreography, painting (for example, the genre "instant artist"). Sport (acrobatic and gymnastic numbers) and science are wedged into this synthesis of arts (among pop genres there is a mathematical number - "live counting machine "). Moreover, there are pop genres based on the stunt component, which requires the manifestation of a person's unique abilities and capabilities (for example, a number of pop and circus subgenres, hypnosis, psychological experiences). The plurality of expressive means, their unexpected and unusual combinations in various synthetic forms on the stage are very often more diverse than in other performing arts.

List of used literature.

Bermont E. Variety Competition. //Theatre. 1940, No. 2, p. 75-78

Birzhenyuk G.M., Buzene L.V., Gorbunova N.A.

Cober. The highlight of the program: Per. with him. L., 1928.S. 232-233; Stanishevsky Yu. Number and culture of its presentation // SETS. 1965. No. 6.

Konnikov A. Variety World. M., 1980.

Ozhegov S. I. and Shvedova N. Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language: 80,000 words and phraseological expressions

Rozovsky M. The director of the show. M., 1973.

Russian Soviet stage // Essays on history. Resp. ed. doct. lawsuit, prof. E. Uvarova. In 3 T. M., 1976, 1977, 1981.

Uvarova E. Variety theater: Miniatures, reviews, music halls (1917-1945). M., 1983; Arkady Raikin. M., 1986 .; How they had fun in Russian capitals. SPb., 2004.

Sharoev I. Directing variety art and mass performances. M., 1986; The many-sided stage. M., 1995.

If in the chair in front of me there is some unreasonably tall man, it starts to seem to me as if I have a hard time hearing. In any case, such music ceases to be pop music for me. However, it also happens that what is happening on the stage is perfectly visible, however, despite this, it does not become a fact of pop art; after all, some artists and directors concentrate all their efforts on pleasing our ear, caring little about our eye. Especially often one encounters an underestimation of the spectacular side of pop art in musical genres, but the symptoms of the same disease can be observed in artistic reading and in entertainments.

- Well, - you will say, - again we are talking about long-known things, about the fact that many pop artists lack stage culture, that their numbers are sometimes devoid of plastic expressiveness and are visually monotonous.

Indeed, all these serious shortcomings, which have not yet been overcome by pop art, often appear in reviews, and problematic articles, and in creative discussions. To some extent, they will be touched upon in this article as well. However, I would like to pose the question more broadly. The point here, obviously, is not only the lack of skill as such. This disadvantage even touched upon those pop genres that are addressed only to sight. Acrobats, jugglers, illusionists (even the best of them, great masters of their craft) most often sin with the same visual monotony, lack of plastic culture. All varieties of the genre are reduced, as a rule, to the alternation within the number of approximately one circle of performed tricks and techniques. The stamps that are formed from year to year (for example, an acrobatic male couple, tall and small, working at a slow pace, performing power movements, or a melancholic juggler dressed in a tuxedo with a cigar and a hat, etc.) only reinforce, legitimize spectacular poverty pop genres. Traditions, once alive, become fetters for the development of art.

I will cite as an example two jugglers - winners of the recent 3rd All-Russian Contest of Variety Artists. I. Kozhevnikov, who was awarded the second prize, is the type of juggler just described: a bowler hat, a cigar, a cane make up the palette of a piece performed flawlessly in skill. E. Shatov, winner of the first prize, works with a circus projectile - a perch, at the end of it is a narrow transparent tube with a diameter of a tennis ball. Keeping a balance on his head, Shatov tosses balls into the tube. Each time the perch grows, gradually reaching almost ten meters in height. With each new section of the Persha, the performance of the number becomes visually sharper, more expressive. Finally, the length of the perch becomes such that it does not fit into the height of the stage (even as high as in the Variety Theater). The juggler comes to the fore, balancing over the heads of the front row spectators. The ball soars upward, almost disappears against the background of the ceiling and ends up in the tube. This number, in addition to the extraordinary purity with which it is performed, is remarkable in that the visual scales, changing from time to time, are perceived by those sitting in the auditorium in a holistic unity. This makes the spectacular effect extraordinary. Moreover, this is a specifically pop entertainment. Imagine Shatov's number on a TV screen or in a movie! Let alone the fact that an element of unpredictability is excluded in a previously filmed television or film plot (because of this, the stage and circus will never become organic to the screen!) Shatov's number is his charm.

Shatov's art (to a much greater extent than, say, Kozhevnikov's number) loses if it were transferred to the sphere of another art. This is the first evidence of his true variety art. If such a transfer is easily accomplished without obvious losses, we can safely say that the work and its author are sinning against the laws of pop art. Especially revealing for the music and speech genres of the radio stage. Many of our pop singers and singers are best listened to on the radio, where they are freed from the need to look for the plastic equivalent of the melody being played. In front of the radio microphone, the singer, for whom the stage is a sheer torment, feels great. A pop singer by nature, on the contrary, experiences a certain inconvenience on the radio: he is constrained not only by the lack of contact with the audience, but also by the fact that many of the nuances of performance present in the visual side of the image will be absent from the sound. This entails, of course, a depletion of the effect. I remember the first recordings of Yves Montand's songs, brought by Sergei Obraztsov from Paris. The artist himself turned out to be much deeper, more significant when we saw him singing on the stage: the charm of the actor was added to the charm of music and words, creating the most expressive plastic of the human image. Stanislavsky liked to repeat: the viewer goes to the theater for the sake of subtext, he can read the text at home. Something similar can be said about the stage: the viewer wants to see the performance from the stage, he can learn the text (and even music) while staying at home. At least on the radio. Is it worth, for example, to go to a concert to hear Yuri Fedorishchev, who is doing his best to restore Paul Robson's performance of the Mississippi song? I think that in achieving his goal Fedorishchev would have been much more successful on the radio. Listening to "Mississippi" on the radio, we could marvel at how accurately the musical intonations of the Negro singer were captured, and at the same time we would not have the opportunity to notice the complete plastic inertia of Fedorishchev, which contradicts the original.

The directors of the program, in which I happened to hear Fedorishchev, tried to brighten up the visual monotony of his singing. During the performance of the French song “One Night”, before the verse, in which the civil theme begins - the theme of the struggle for peace, the light in the hall suddenly goes out, only the red illumination of the backdrop remains. In the most pathetic part of the song, which requires vivid acting means, the viewer is forced to become only a listener, for all that he sees is a black motionless silhouette against a dim red background. Thus, directing, striving to diversify the number for spectators, renders the performer, and indeed the work as a whole, a truly "disservice". The amazing paucity of lighting techniques, which led to a shift in emphasis in the case described above, is one of the diseases of our stage. The system of lighting effects is built either on a straightforward illustrative principle (the theme of the struggle for peace is always associated with red, not otherwise!), Or on the principle of salon beauty (the desire to "present" the performer regardless of the artistic content of the number, its style) ... As a result, the most interesting lighting possibilities have not yet been exploited. The same can be said about a costume: it rarely serves to enhance the visual image. If there are good traditions in using the costume as a means to emphasize the origins of the role (say, a velvet jacket with a bow by N. Smirnov-Sokolsky or a mime costume by L. Yengibarov), then a simple and at the same time helping to reveal the image of the costume is extremely rare. Recently, I happened to witness how a badly chosen suit significantly weakened the impression made by the number. We are talking about Kapigolina Lazarenko: a bright red dress with large bustles bound the singer and clearly did not correspond to the gentle, lyrical song "Come Back".

Lighting, costume and mise-en-scène are the three whales that support the spectacular side of the stage performance. Each of these topics is worthy of a special discussion, to which my article, naturally, cannot pretend. Here I will only touch upon that side of a specific stage mise-en-scène that cannot be adequately reproduced on a TV and cinema screen. The stage has its own laws of space and time: close-up, foreshortening, editing in cinema (and television), which violate the unity of these categories, or rather their integrity, create a new space and a new time, which are not entirely suitable for the stage. The stage deals with a constant plan, since the distance from the performer to each of the spectators varies insignificantly, only as much as the actor can move into the depths of the stage. The same should be said about editing: it takes place on the stage (if only it happens) inside the whole, which is constantly present on the stage. This montage can be done either by lighting (a technique successfully used in the performances of the Moscow State University pop studio), or it takes place in the mind of the viewer. To put it simply, he singles out some parts in his perception of the visual image, while continuing to keep the whole in his field of vision.

In order not to seem unfounded, I will give an example. The play "Our Home is Your Home" by the Moscow State University pop studio. In this collective, a very interesting search for the expressiveness of the show is being conducted. At the same time, often lyric poetry or allegory, based on the associativity of connections, turns out to be the main element of the story. But it is important to note that both poetry and allegory turn in the studio's performances in the form of a figurative, visual storytelling (for example, painted geometric figures in one of the numbers help to reveal the satirical meaning of many important concepts). In a scene about the organization of youth leisure ("Youth Club"), four demagogues-screamers, erected, as if on a podium, on four massive pedestals, pronounce in turn scraps of phrases that together make up an amazing gibberish of windbag and bureaucracy. The viewer's attention is instantly transferred from one screamer to another: the speaker accompanies his words with a gesture (sometimes in a complex counterpoint with the word), the rest remain motionless at this time, I imagine this scene filmed in a film. Her text and mise-en-scène seemingly foreshadow the future montage with certainty. Each cue is a close-up. Machine-gun sequence of close-ups, replicas, gestures. But then there were two significant losses. First, the lack of accompaniment to each line: the frozen poses of the rest of the characters. And the second is the transformation of all lines into an alternation of phrases without transferring our attention from one character to another. Counterpoint, which becomes the authors' strongest weapon in this scene, inevitably disappears in the film.

It would be wrong to say that the discrepancy, the contra-point between the word and the image, is the property of pop art only. Both the theater stage and the screen know him. But the ways to achieve this effect are different. And on stage, they are very important. Here the counterpoint is nude, shown as a deliberate clash of opposites designed to spark a spark of laughter. I will cite as an example performers who constantly, from year to year, improve their use of this weapon of the stage. I mean the vocal quartet "Yur" (Y. Osintsev, Y. Makoveenko, Y. Bronstein, Y. Diktovich; director Boris Sichkin). In the song "Business Travel" the quartet sings, while the artists' hands turn into travel certificates (open palm) and school stamps (clenched fist), seals are put, money is given, etc. All this does not happen in the form of an illusion. -stations of the text, and in parallel to it, sometimes only coinciding, but mostly - being in the counterpoint series. As a result of the unexpected collision of words with gestures, a new, unexpected meaning arises. For example, business travelers traveling to different directions have no business, except for playing dominoes on the train. Hands, stirring the knuckles, "put" on the text, which says that they are recklessly spending their money on counter business trips. From this, the gesture of the hands stirring imaginary bones in the air becomes very eloquent.

The last work of the quartet - "Television" - is undoubtedly his greatest creative success in using the means of visual expressiveness of the stage. Here already the members of the quartet perform equally as paroists, as readers, mimes and as dramatic actors. In addition, they demonstrate an outstanding choreographic skill: in a word, we are witnessing a synthetic genre in which words, music are closely intertwined with pantomime, dance, etc. Moreover, the freedom of combination and instantaneous transitions from one medium quality to another is as great as it can be only in pop art. During the performance, almost all genres that exist in
television. Their change, as well as the change in the means used by the artists, creates a very picturesque sight. The stage is undoubtedly one of the spectacular arts. But there are many performing arts: theater, cinema, circus, and now television, which also reveals significant aesthetic potential. What are the relationships within this group of arts? It seems that pop theater still remains within the framework of theatrical art, although it has many similarities with some other forms. Naturally, the theater (understood in the broad sense of the word) is constantly changing its boundaries, which in some way become already narrow for the stage. However, some qualities of pop art, despite significant evolution, remain unchanged. These include, first of all, the principle of the visual organization of the form of a variety show. And if we talk about the form, then the main thing in the modern stage (up to some musical genres) is the image.

In this article, it was not possible to consider all aspects of the topic. My task was more modest: to draw attention to some theoretical problems of pop art, which largely determine its position among other arts and explain the nature of the creative searches of our pop masters. Theoretical rules, as is known, remain the rules obligatory for everyone only until the day when a bright innovative artist comes and breaks the boundaries that seemed insurmountable even yesterday. Today we are witnessing synthetic genres of Est-Rada art: the canons of the past cannot withstand the pressure of new discoveries. It is important to note that the ongoing changes have on their banner a constantly changing, but basically unshakable principle of the stage as a show.

A. VARTANOV, candidate of art history

Soviet circus magazine. March 1964

The first theatrical performances were once staged right on the street. Mostly, the performances were staged by itinerant artists. They could sing, dance, put on various costumes, depicting animals. Everyone did what they did best. The new art form gradually developed, the actors improved their skills.

The first theater in the world

The word "theater" in translation from Greek means a place for performances and the spectacle itself. The first such cultural institution is believed to have originated in Greece. It happened in the 5th-4th centuries BC. NS. This era was called "classical". It is characterized by harmony and balance in all elements and components. Ancient Greek theater came about through the worship of various gods.

The Dionysus Theater is the oldest theater building. The god of winemaking, vegetation and nature was highly revered by the ancient Greeks. Cult rites were dedicated to Dionysus, which gradually grew into real tragedies and comedies. Ritual festivities have turned into real theatrical performances. The structure was an open-air space. The spectators were initially located on wooden seats. was so revered in ancient Greece that the authorities gave money for performances to indigent citizens. It was forbidden to watch the performances of married women.

The first temple of the arts had three main parts:

• orchestra - dancers and a choir performed on it;
• auditorium - located around the orchestra;
• the skene building, where the rooms for the artists were located.

There was no curtain and the usual stage, and all the female roles were played by men. The actors changed their roles several times in one performance, so they had to dance and sing perfectly. The actors' faces were changed using masks. The temple of Dionysus was located next to the building.

The ancient theater laid the foundations and essence of the modern. The closest genre is the drama theater. Over time, more and more different genres appeared.

Theatrical genres

Theatrical genres in the modern world are so diverse. This art synthesizes literature, music, choreography, vocals, visual arts. They express a variety of emotions and situations. Humanity is constantly evolving. In this regard, a variety of genres appear. They depend on the country in which they are born, on the cultural development of the population, on the mood of the audience and their requests.

Let's list some types of genres: drama, comedy, monodrama, vaudeville, extravaganza, parody, mime, farce, morality, pastoral, musical, tragicomedy, melodrama and others.

The genres of theatrical art cannot compete with each other. They are interesting each in their own way. Spectators who love the opera theater visit the comedy theater with no less pleasure.

The most popular types of theatrical genres are drama, comedy, tragicomedy, musical, parody and vaudeville.

Both tragic and comic moments can be seen in the drama. It is always very interesting to watch the work of the actors here. The roles of this genre are difficult and easily involve the viewer in empathy and analysis.

Comedy plays have the main purpose of making the audience laugh. To make fun of certain situations, the actors should also try hard. After all, the viewer must believe them! Comedic roles are as difficult to play as dramatic ones. At the same time, the element of satire makes it easier to watch the performance.

Tragedy is always associated with a conflict situation, which the production tells about. This genre was one of the first to appear in Ancient Greece. So is the comedy.

The musical has many fans. It is always a vivid action with dances, songs, an interesting plot and a dose of humor. The second name of this genre is musical comedy. It appeared in the United States at the end of the 19th century.

Varieties

The types of theaters are directly related to the genres that are represented in them. Although they express not so much the genre as the form of the acting. Let's list some of them:

• operatic;
• dramatic;
• children;
• author's;
• one-actor theater;
• theater of light;
• musical comedy;
• theater of satire;
• poetry theater;
• dance theater;
• pop;
• theater of robots;
• ballet;
• theater of animals;
• theater of invalids;
• serf;
• shadow play;
• pantomime theater;
• song theater;
• street.

Opera and Ballet Theatre

Opera and ballet appeared in Italy during the Renaissance. The first appeared in Venice in 1637. Ballet emerged as a separate theatrical genre in France, transforming from dances at courts. Very often these types of theaters are combined in one place.

Opera and ballet are accompanied by a symphony orchestra. Music becomes an integral part of these productions. It conveys the mood, the atmosphere of everything that happens on the stage and emphasizes the performances of the actors. Opera singers work with voice and emotion, while ballet dancers convey everything through movement. Opera and ballet theaters are always the most beautiful theatrical establishments. They are located in the richest city buildings with unique architecture. Luxurious furnishings, a beautiful curtain, large orchestra pits - this is how it looks from the inside.

Theatre of Drama

Here, the main place is given to the actors and the director. It is they who create the characters of the characters, transforming into the necessary images. The director conveys his vision and leads the team. The theater of drama is called the theater of "experiences". KS Stanislavsky wrote his works, studying the work of dramatic actors. They stage not only performances - plays with complex plots. The Drama Theater includes comedies, musicals and other musical performances in its repertoire. All productions are based only on dramatic literature.

Theater for every taste

Musical theater is a place where you can watch any of the theatrical performances. Operas, comedies, operettas, musicals and all those performances in which there is a lot of music are staged there. Ballets, musicians and actors also work here. Musical theater combines opera, ballet, operetta theater. Any kind of theatrical art related to pop or classical music can find its fans in this theater.

Puppet show

This is a special place. Here you plunge into the world of childhood and joy. The decoration here is always colorful, attracting the attention of the smallest spectators. Puppet theater is often the first theater that children get into. And the future attitude of the kid to the theater depends on what impression he makes on an inexperienced spectator. The variety of theatrical performances is based on the use of various types of puppets.

Recently, puppeteer actors do not hide behind screens, but interact with puppets on stage. This idea belongs to the well-known S.V. Obraztsov. He put on a glove doll named Tyapa on his hand and played superbly on the miniature stage, acting as his father.

The origins of this type of theater are located far in Ancient Greece. Creating dolls for rituals, people did not know that it would grow into real art. Puppet theater is not only an introduction to art, but also a method of psychological correction for the little ones.

Comedy theater

He united in himself actors who can sing and dance. They should easily get used to comedic images and not be afraid to be funny. Very often you can see "Theaters of Drama and Comedy", "Theaters of Musical Comedy". Combining several genres in one theater does not interfere with preserving its flavor. The repertoire may include operettas, satirical comedies, musicals, dramas, musical performances for children. People go to comedy theaters with pleasure. The hall is always full.

Variety theater

Enriched the types of theaters relatively recently. And he immediately fell in love with the viewer. The first stage theater appeared in the middle of the last century. It was the theater in Leningrad, which was opened in 1939. In 2002 it was named “Variety Theater named after A. I. Raikin ". Entertainers include contemporary singers, dancers, presenters. Variety artists are show business stars, dancers and showmen, as they are now called.

In pop theaters, they often hold recitals, concerts dedicated to any memorable dates, and performances by contemporary authors are performed. Comedians hold concerts here, put on comic-strip shows, performances on classical works. Musical theater can offer similar performances.

Satire theater

We are very fond of the audience! From the time of his appearance, he reflected the life of the townspeople, showed all the shortcomings and ridiculed them. The actors have always been known by sight, they perfectly performed comic roles not only on stage, but also in cinema. Satire theaters have always been in the forefront of those who were forbidden to stage certain performances. This was due to censorship. Making fun of the negative aspects of human behavior, it was often possible to cross the line of permissibility. The bans only attracted even more viewers. Great actors of the theater of satire, who are well known: A. A. Mironov, Olga Aroseva, Spartak Mishulin, Mikhail Derzhavin, Alexander Shirvindt. Thanks to these people, theaters of satire have become beloved by the audience.

Over time, types of theaters appear that are either long forgotten, or are completely different from anything that exists.

New trends

New types of temples of art will surprise the most sophisticated viewer. Not so long ago, the first Robot Theater appeared in Poland. It is played by robotic actors who convey their emotions with their eyes and gestures. The performances are so far designed for a children's audience, but the project leaders intend to constantly expand the repertoire.

In summer, theatrical performances take to the streets. This has already become a tradition. This year many festivals took place in the open air. Small stages were erected right next to the theaters, on which the performance was fully performed. Even opera and ballet dancers are already moving beyond the theater to attract as many audiences as possible.

Dance on the stage - short dance number , solo or group, presented in prefabricated pop concerts, in variety shows, music halls, miniature theaters, accompanies and complements the program of vocalists, performances with original even speech genres . It was formed on the basis of folk, everyday (ballroom) dance, classical ballet, modern dance, artistic gymnastics, acrobatics , on the crossing of all kinds of foreign influences and national traditions. The nature of dance plastics is dictated by modern rhythms, formed under the influence of related arts: music, theater, painting, circus, pantomime.

The history of the development of the dance direction can be conditionally divided into two milestones: the period up to the 20th century and the period of time starting from the 20th century up to the present.

In addition to medieval wandering artists and their performances, divertissements can also be considered the progenitors of modern pop dance. They were scenes that were shown between musical acts or parts of dramatic performances in the 17th-18th centuries. Opera arias were performed in the divertissements, the viewer could see excerpts from ballets, listen to folk songs and, finally, enjoy the dances. In Russia, the origins of the dance stage are found in the performances of dancers in Russian and gypsy choirs, from the middle of the 19th century - at festivities. The end of the 19th century was marked by the holding of group concerts on the stage of gardens, "voxals", and cafes.

Popular dance of the 19th century. - cancan(French cancan, from canard - duck), French dance of Algerian origin, 2-beat, fast pace. Typical pas - throwing a leg, jumping. Distributed since the middle of the 19th century, it was widely used in classical operetta and variety shows. We can say that with the advent of the cancan, a new dance era begins. Cancan appears in Paris around 1830. It was a female dance performed on stage, followed by a high throwing of the legs. In the 1860s, many dance classes were opened in St. Petersburg, where they danced mainly cancan.

Another popular dance of the 19th century is the "Cake Walk" dance

Cake walk -(also cakewalk, cakewalk; English cakewalk - walking with a pie) is a popular African-American march dance since the middle of the 19th century. Characteristic features: fast tempo, time signature - 2-beat, syncopated rhythm, chords that reproduce the sound of banjo, playful comedic (often ironically grotesque) warehouse. Sharply accented rhythms, typical for cake walk, later formed the basis of ragtime, and two decades later determined the style of pop jazz. Cake Walk was part of the humorous performances of the 19th century North American minstrel theater, in which he was performed to fast syncopated music in the spirit of later ragtime. In the last years of the 19th century, cake walk, which separated from the minstrel stage, became widespread in Europe in the form of a salon dance. pop dance choreographer dramatic

On the minstrel stage, cake walk had a special symbolic meaning. It was a promenade scene in which discharged negro dandies, arm in arm with their equally fashionably dressed ladies, reproduced in comic form the solemn Sunday processions of white ladies and gentlemen. Reproducing the outward manner of the planters, black dandies ridiculed their stupid importance, mental stupidity, smug feeling of imaginary superiority. The motive of hidden mockery contained in the cake walk found its specific reflection in the sound sphere.

Dance music, the expressiveness of which was based primarily on percussive sounds and a significantly complicated metro-rhythm, played a significant innovative role, opened new ways for the development of modern musical art. In the psychology of the widest audience, first only in the United States, and then in Europe, new musical principles were introduced, opposing everything that European composer's creativity had affirmed for centuries. The musical form of cake walk is found in salon piano pieces, and in pop numbers for traditional instrumental ensemble, and in marches for a brass band, and sometimes in ballroom dances of European origin. “Even in waltzes, syncopation appeared, which Waldteuffel and Strauss never dreamed of” (Blesh R., Janis H. They all played ragtime). The cake walk genre was used by many academic composers (for example, Debussy, Stravinsky, etc.).

The cake walk was innovative not only in music, but also in terms of choreography. This manifested itself in special movements of the legs, which seemed to be "independent" from the body of the dancer. Just like in other dances of the minstrel theater, the performer's body remained in a strictly controlled, balanced state, his hands hung like helpless, shapeless "rags". All the dancer's energy, all his phenomenal skill and dizzying pace were embodied in the movements of the legs. Precise synchronized accents produced by the heel of one foot and toes of the other; a kind of "knocking" trampling with wooden soles; running forward on the heels; free, as if disorderly "shuffling". The ratio of “indifferent body” and “waving” legs, unusual for traditional ballet, emphasized the humorous effect of external equanimity, inseparable from the image of a frozen mask.

Cake Walk had a huge impact on the art of dance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He gave life to a number of dances that have supplanted the polka, square dance, country dance and other popular dances of the recent past from the cultural life. These newest dances - grizzly ber, bunny hag, texas tommy, tarki trot, etc. were distinguished by a special 2-beat, inseparable from cake walk, and its characteristic "swing" effect. Their evolution ended with the well-known two-step and foxtrot, which gained wide popularity all over the world and remained in the household dance repertoire for many years.

The initial heyday of all these dances coincides with the culmination of ragtime popularity and the beginning of the "jazz era".

The stage has taken an important place in the mass culture of Russia, and the events of recent decades show that stage, as the most popular form of art, plays an important role in public life, becoming a popular means of expressing cultural demands and value orientations of various strata of society. In view of the fact that the stage is one of the most socially responsive and mobile forms of art, the study of this phenomenon will help to better understand the spiritual processes taking place in society.

At the beginning of the last century, the gramophone business in Russia was gaining strength - the number of factories and plants producing records grew, their quality improved, and the repertoire expanded. In fact, a new industry emerged, unlike any other known industry. It is tightly intertwined problems of a technical and creative, commercial and legal nature. Composers, poets, singers, orchestras and choirs, coupletists and storytellers took part in the recording of the records, organized by gramophone dealers. The atmosphere of the studios resembled the backstage of a theater with all theatrical attributes. Famous singers - proud and unapproachable, who know their own worth - were offered contracts with the courtesy inherent in any manufacturer-entrepreneur, anticipating success with the public and a good collection. The stars of the second magnitude and half-starved guest performers were greeted in a different way. Passions boiled and intrigues were seething near the megaphone - such was the seamy side of the gramophone case.
Collecting records began to come into fashion: in the houses of wealthy citizens there were music libraries of a hundred or more numbers.

The most common term, which appeared long before the emergence of the concept of variety art, is "variety show", but not as the name of a concert institution, but as a designation of a whole variety of art. If we turn to the history of the emergence of the concept of "variety show", then its origins can be found in the programs of entertainment numbers, shown in the conditions of cafes and restaurants in the industrial regions of England at the end of the 18th century. The word "variety show" itself, translated from French, means variety, variegation. This term began to unite all artistic forms of entertainment. Indeed, it is precisely the diversity that characterizes the performances of artists at fairs, in music halls, in concert cafes, in cabaret theaters, although, as it will be possible to establish as a result of further analysis, this is not at all the main and distinctive in this field of art.

At the beginning of the 20th century, all kinds of small theaters opened in Russia, and against this background, another concept began to be used - stage, which denoted entertaining concert performances in open areas. Today, as a general concept that unites all varieties of art of easily perceived genres, one should accept the concept of "pop art" (or, in short, pop art), which has been used in Russian art history for a hundred years.
Already in the first decade of the XX century. the term "stage" begins to flicker in the press not only in the then generally accepted sense - "a platform, an elevation, for example, for music" - but also broadly, including all actors, writers, and poets entering this "platform". On the pages of the authoritative magazine "Golden Fleece" in 1908, an article "Estrada" was published. Its author shrewdly saw the antinomy that arises before everyone who goes on the stage:

a) the stage is necessary for the development and maintenance of abilities, and for the formation of the personality of the artist;

b) the stage is harmful for both.

The author saw "perniciousness" in the actors' striving for success at any cost, aligning with the tastes of the mass public, turning art into a means of enrichment, a source of life's benefits. Indeed, similar phenomena are inherent in the modern stage, therefore in our work we introduce such a concept as "variety art", that is, playing for the audience, the desire to capture the attention of the viewer at any cost, which in the absence of true talent, taste and sense of proportion among performers leads to the perniciousness that the author of the above article referred to. Other articles appeared that considered the stage as a phenomenon of a new urban culture. After all, it was during this period in the city that a person's dependence on natural conditions (first of all, on the change of seasons) gradually weakened, which leads to the oblivion of calendar and ritual folklore, to a shift in the timing of holidays, their desemantization and deritualization, to their transition to the form of "ceremonial ", According to P.G. Bogatyrev, to the decisive prevalence of verbal forms over non-verbal ones. In the same years (1980-1890) in Russia the emergence of mass culture takes place, which, in turn, reproduces many generic properties of traditional folklore, which are characterized by the social-adaptive meaning of works, their predominant anonymity, the dominance of the stereotype in their poetics; the secondary nature of plot motivations in narrative texts, etc. However, mass culture sharply differs from traditional folklore by its ideological “polycentricity”, increased ability to thematic and aesthetic internationalization of its products and to its “streaming” reproduction in the form of identical copies unthinkable for oral creativity.
In general, in Russia, the urban stage of the late 19th - early 20th centuries is characterized by dependence on the audience to which it is oriented. Accordingly, the range of pop forms - from "salon" to the most "democratic" - is extremely wide and varied both in the nature of the "stage" and the type of performers, not to mention the repertoire. And yet, we can conclude that the term "stage" at the beginning of the 20th century was still used purely functional: as "pop repertoire", or "pop singing", etc., that is, not only as a definition of a site where the action takes place, but also as an element of a musically entertaining show.

As a result of the need arising after October to nationalize "all kinds of stage" and small private enterprises, many single actors, as well as small, often family groups, etc., the concept of stage was established as a designation of a separate art. Over the course of decades in Soviet Russia, and then in the USSR, systems for managing this art will be developed and changed, various associations and complex multi-stage forms of independent subordination will be created. In Soviet aesthetics, the question of the independence of pop art remained controversial. Various kinds of regulations, companies regulated pop practice. "Struggle" with satire, Russian and gypsy romance, with jazz, rock, tap dance and others artificially straightened the line of development of the stage, affected the evolution of genres, on the fate of individual artists.

In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia for 1934, an article was published, dedicated to the fact that the stage is a field of small forms of art, but at the same time the issue of the genre composition of the stage was not touched upon. Thus, attention was paid not so much to the aesthetic as to the morphological content of this term. These formulations are not accidental, they reflect the picture of the searches of the 30-40s, when the scope of the stage expanded almost limitlessly. During these years, as E. Gershuni writes, "the stage loudly made a claim for equality with the" big "art ...". First of all, this is due to the emergence in Soviet Russia of the forerunner of contemporary art, PR, the social technology of mass management. In fact, a mass entertainer (usually a local trade union activist) took under ideological control not only holidays, but also everyday life. Of course, not a single holiday took place without a pop concert. It should be noted that the entertainer himself, in everyday life, as a rule, had a pop feeling. After all, he always needs to be in the spotlight, to entertain and amuse the audience.

In the course of the development of Soviet art, the content of the term "stage" continued to change. The concept of pop art appeared, which was defined as “an art form that unites the so-called. small forms of drama, dramatic and vocal art, music, choreography, circus ”.

The Russian recording industry began to develop in 1901. In fact, it was not entirely Russian, but rather a French industry in Russia: the "Pathé Marconi" company opened its branch in Russia, began to churn out records. Just as in Europe the first recorded singer was Enrique Caruso, in Russia the first was also a world-famous opera singer - Fyodor Chaliapin. And the first Russian records, as well as in Europe, were with classical music.

The musical picture of pre-revolutionary Russia was complete. Academic music and pop music coexisted organically in one cultural space, where pop music developed in the general mainstream of romance lyrics (reflecting its diversity and evolution) and dance culture of its time. A special place was occupied by the folklore part of the stage - Pyatnitsky's choir, performers of folk songs - L. Dolina, epics - Krivopolenova and Prozorovskaya. After the defeat of the first revolution (1905), songs of prison, hard labor and exile were popular. In the genre of topical verse and musical parody, artists performed in different roles: "tailcoats" - for a fashionable audience, "lapotniks" - for peasants, "artists of a ragged genre" - under the city bottom. Popular dance rhythms penetrated the minds of people with the suggestion of salon and city brass bands, which specialized in the performance of dance music. Tango, foxtrots, shimmy, two-step were learned in salons and studios. The first performances of A. Vertinsky in the genre of musical and poetic novellas date back to 1915.

The heyday of the Russian stage took place against the background of the unprecedented growth of the new "mass media", like gramophone records. Between 1900 and 1907, 500 thousand gramophones were sold, and the annual circulation of records reached 20 million pieces. Along with light music, they also featured a lot of classics (Chaliapin, Caruso).
Popular choirs of D. Agrenev-Slavyansky, I. Yukhov and others compete with soloists, performing songs in the "Russian style" ("The sun rises and sets", "Ukhar the merchant", etc.). Orchestras competed with Russian choirs. balalaika players, horn players, guslars.

In the 10s, the first truly folklore performers became famous, such as the ensemble of M. Pyatnitsky. In theaters and cabarets in St. Petersburg and Moscow, artists appear with the "intimate" manner of French chansonniers (A. Vertinsky). By the end of the 19th century, there was a clear division of the song into "Philharmonic" (classical romance) and "Variety" proper (gypsy romance, old romance, mood songs). At the beginning of the 20th century, mass songs were spread, which were sung at political gatherings and demonstrations. This song is destined for a number of decades to become the leading variety of Soviet song pop.

After 1917, the situation began to change. The ideological state is a phenomenon that has not yet been fully understood and studied. The revolution was spiritually based on an idea that was forcibly implanted in society, depriving people of the right to choose, making this choice for them. But a person is so constructed that his consciousness, in spite of everything, resists what is imposed on him, even from the best intentions. The state decided that it “needed” a classic, “needed” a Soviet song, “needed” folklore. And unconsciously, even the masterpieces of classical music began to be perceived as part of the state ideological machine aimed at neutralizing the individual, dissolving a separate “I” in a monolithic “we”.

Pop music in our country is the least ideologized part of the musical process. Unwittingly, she became the only outlet for Soviet people, something like a breath of freedom. This music in the minds of an ordinary person did not carry anything edifying, appealing to natural feelings, not suppressing, not moralizing, but simply communicating with a person in his language.