A Leaving Certificate for Lithuanian Pop Music
- Sept. 7, 2015
Which is only logical – upon closer examination of the changes in the compilations of this series it becomes clear that there would be not much sense in continuing it. Not because its content is dull or inappropriate, but quite the opposite – because Note Lithuania has already completed its mission and this content (new, cosmopolitan Lithuanian pop music) has been noticed with its help or on its own, and successfully lives a busy life in a territory that is much broader than Lithuania.
First of all, while earlier the records in the series had at least conditional stylistic descriptions (e. g. Pop/Rock/Electronic), even those have eventually vanished. This is not surprising – contemporary popular music increasingly ignores even such abstract classifications and becomes ever more eclectic. It is especially true in the case of its particular strand that gets most of the playing time on this CD and can be described most accurately using keywords like indie, baroque pop, synthpop, dream pop etc.
It is equally difficult to draw a line between the so-called mainstream and the underground in this sphere; for instance, Alina Orlova, Kamanių šilelis, Sheep Got Waxed, Without Letters, Golden Parazyth or Beissoul & Einius could in theory be classified as both. Or at least one could say that their roots are in the underground, but they have outgrown it, and most probably the wider audience itself, too, has considerably expanded its musical purview over the recent five years, and has realized that it is also pop music rather than some weird leftfield stuff intended for a narrow circle of connoiseurs. And this is precisely that broad Western perception of pop music that has been long overdue in Lithuania.The orientation towards the international scene is also obvious in the compilation. What catches the eye first is that most of the artist and song names, as well as the lyrics, are English. On the one hand, it is an advantage – surely, it is easier to capture the foreign audiences' attention this way, and it also demonstrates that the musicians gathered here perceive being a part of the international musical community a natural state (and singing in English with an obvious accent is certainly not an issue anymore).
Yet at the same time this international stance somewhat obfuscates a certain local distinctiveness, which, for instance, is highly prized in the underground dark and experimental music scene. These matters are debatable, but subjectively it seems that such ‘anglophony’ is excessively associated with international success. The welcome exceptions here are Kamanių šilelis, very Lithuanian in their entire spirit, and Ministry of Echology with Eazystyle MC, who manage to turn Lithuanian language into something that sounds surprisingly organic coupled with the vibrations of reggae, and even Alina Orlova had gained widespread international acclaim when only a small part of her songs were in English.
The sound of most of the featured tracks complies with the global standard as well. If one were to hear them without any additional contextual information, it would be a challenge to say with confidence where their authors came from (and indeed, some of them are not tied to Lithuania anymore, albeit coming back regularly). Everything sounds just as contemporary cosmopolitan youth music, produced according to similar principles from the USA to Australia, is supposed to sound. This is good, although it also means that Lithuanian indie pop music has lost some of its earlier angular teenage charm.This is inevitable, however. In any case, this lack of production polish still remains in other, more experimental Lithuanian musical scenes, and the kind of music that is featured on Note Lithuania 2015 has completely different objectives. Still, even in the context of this compilation it is precisely those acts which are more experimentally inclined and do not follow the obligatory trends of contemporary indie pop/rock that offer the most intriguing contributions. These include The Bus, Domas Strupinskas, Sheep Got Waxed and Kamanių šilelis. Again, this is a subjective impression.
Objectively, though, one could state the following: Lithuanian pop music, produced primarily by a new generation of artists, has entered a qualitatively new stage of its development. Many of the things which used to be an object of aspiration, such as ‘international’, ‘Western’ sound, international recognition and a carefully constructed public image, have now become real. Hence, the most progressive and sophisticated Lithuanian pop music does not need any extra help to break through to the wide world anymore, and Music Lithuania's CD Note Lithuania 2015 can be called both a memorable.
Jurij Dobriakov