Music shops "Pik" and "Melody"

"Music shops "Pik" and "Melody" are important places of the pre-internet era in Luhansk." These two shops are selling CDs in a large range (sometimes impossible to find of in other cities of Ukraine). They were somewhat analogous musical "beams" in various cities of the former Soviet Union at the time of the late socialism, where music lovers came to share vinyl records and Western music. These stores, of course, sold pirated goods - pirate discs were often imported from Moscow. In this regard, Moscow’s influence could be traced. You could find everything there - from jazz to extreme avant-garde at the price of 5 - 10 UAH. One could come, take 20 discs and listen to them for two hours, communicate, even with sellers who were often in musical thrash. It was a normal culture of the free time in the absence of a place where everyone could come just as current hipsters in vinyl bars. So, instead of a club, there was a shop with free policies. Isolation gave rise to interesting stylistic decisions, art moves that at that time few could contemplate. Having listened to CDs, musicians were guided by the thought "let's do it like Portishead" or "like KORN". I think artists also did not have a clear understanding that they were in Luhansk. The Western mass culture was seen as a novelty: skateboards, subcultural trends freshly perceived as something progressive, without much reflection. Interests in local culture arises in 2010s", - said Anton Lapov.

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