Russian Musical Beats and the Western Gaze

Against the exoticizing coverage in Pitchfork, the current beat scene in Russia has little or nothing to do with Soviet nostalgia. Why does the West continue to frame Russian culture in terms of it?

by Valentina Michelotti

In November 2010, Pitchfork.com, the self-proclaimed herald of cutting-edge Western music culture, published a visually rich and lengthy piece by journalist Finn Cohen, titled “Beg, Borrow, or Steal: New Beats From Moscow,” on the development of a type of contemporary electronic music loosely known as “bass music” in Moscow. Eloqu…