Sunday, October 23, 2011

Виктор Цои/Viktor Tsoi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Tsoi / http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D0%BE%D0%B9,_%D0%92%D0%B8%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87
(The Russian one gives more sources)

Виктор Цои русский музыкант. Actually, he was part Korean, so one could say he was simply россиянин. Semantics aside though, he was one of Russia's greatest rock stars. Some Americans might know him from one of his songs which was featured in the game Grand Theft Auto 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ1XalSmHmQ.

Starting out during the tail-end of the Soviet Union, his first shows were primarily in the underground music scene of the time. He established himself through his use of political themes during a time when the Soviet Union still practiced censorship.

During the period of Glasnost and Perestroika, Tsoi began to gain more fame as the loosening up of censorship allowed his music to be heard more widely. He and his group eventually become one of the most popular rock groups in the Soviet Union.

Despite this, Viktor Tsoi remained a normal guy. He was dedicated to his family and lived a modest life. These were some of the things that made him so appealing to Russians.

He died in 1990 in a car accident, leaving many Russians sad over the loss of one of the more dynamic figures of Russian Rock.

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