By SABRINA TAVERNISE
MOSCOW, March 3 — They pout and strut on stage. They strip and kiss between songs. They are Russia's biggest musical export since Shostakovich, and surely its most controversial.
Russia's new pop sensation — two teenage girls called Tatu — reached No. 1 on the charts in England in January. In all, they have hit No. 1 in 10 countries, a first for a Russian band. They were closing in on the American Top 20 as they began a tour in the United States last week.
But their image is making people squirm. Ivan Shapovalov, a Russian child psychologist-turned-advertising executive, discovered the duo, Yulia Volkova and Elena Katina. To the horror of children's advocates, the singers were 14 when Mr. Shapovalov chose them from among several hundred young women he auditioned when creating the band. They dress in schoolgirl uniforms with short skirts.
Mr. Shapovalov, 36, plays coyly on references to youth. He acknowledges that he selected the English school uniforms to emphasize the girls' youth. He also says he has seen child pornography while surfing the Internet, the main objection in England, where the band's video caused an uproar in January.
But Mr. Shapovalov denies that Tatu's image is based on pornography. The performers, now 18, are not children. Nor are they being forced, he said. In his view, Westerners, put simply, are prudes.
"All our inspiration is from childhood," Mr. Shapovalov said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles last week. "Why should this be hidden? Social organizations are afraid of violence, but what kind of violence is there with Tatu? They are two teenagers singing about love."
The scuffle goes to the heart of a major cultural divide between Russia and Western countries like England and the United States. Most Russians see the West as sexually repressed. During President Bill Clinton's impeachment, Russians admired his manliness instead of judging his morals. In Russia, feminism is a dirty word, despite the Soviet era's emphasis on women's rights.
Some Russian intellectuals argue that, though the girls may not be musical powerhouses as far as talent is concerned, they have already helped improve Russia's image abroad. In Eastern Europe, where anti-Russian sentiment is still strong, young people are singing Tatu's Russian songs. They have brought Russia into the American mainstream, as guests on the Jay Leno show this week with a top-playing single on American radio.
"People are saying that it's a pity the country that gave the world Pushkin and Gagarin is now represented by lesbi@n nymphets," said Artyom Troitsky, a music critic and founder of Russian Playboy. "But that's garbage. Compared to how Russia is usually seen — the dirty war in Chechnya, Russian mafia, corruption, money laundering — these two teenage girls are nice and clean."
The group is the product of the sexual free-for-all that ensued after the fall of the Soviet Union. After the strait-laced Soviet state collapsed in 1991, sex exploded onto city streets, television shows and advertisements.
"In the Soviet Union, anything erotic, and particularly nontraditional, was completely banned," said Igor S. Kon, a well-known Russian sex therapist. "That which is forbidden is all the more desirable. In that sense, these girls have a very well- thought-out image."
But the new freedoms that brought openness in sexual relations also carried economic woes. The Soviet economy collapsed and a raw, new capitalism emerged, plunging millions of Russians into poverty. In the scramble to survive, prostitution and human trafficking jumped, as did production of child pornography.
In England last month, child rights activists deplored Mr. Shapovalov's approach. Channel 4 in London called it "sick" and attacked the record label for supporting their "open pedophile message."
"What we objected to and didn't find funny was Ivan marketing them as an underage sex fantasy," said Michele Elliott, director of Kidscape, a children's protection group. "These girls are talented. It's a shame they were marketed off the backs of hundreds of thousands of sexually abused children."
Mr. Shapovalov, in the interview, condemned the child pornography industry, but said Western countries, in particular England and the United States, are equally responsible for it as some of its biggest consumers. One of the reasons, he said, is sexual repression.
"I am getting calls from England asking if I really went to children's pornography sites, when half of England is sitting on the Internet looking at them," Mr. Shapovalov said. "It's too bad that Russia is paying with its image for open relations, but that's life. Russia makes it and the whole world watches."
Cultural differences aside, the band was built to shock. Ms. Katina and Ms. Volkova combine a sometimes-baffling mixture of kissing and embracing with schoolgirl uniforms that often appears more male fantasy than lesbi@n love. It was as if Mr. Shapovalov, having studied MTV, drew up a list of exactly what would be most likely to catch the attention of both Western and Russian audiences.
"They were 14 when I found them," he said, adding that his friends "looked at me as if I was a maniac."
Bob Guccione Jr., founder of Spin, an influential music magazine, and currently publisher of Gear, a men's magazine, said Tatu was "a timeless success gimmick of someone that has found a button to push.
"This is not a problem that will bring down civilization," he said. "It's like getting worked up over Kabuke."
America, it seems, has not taken offense. The girls were unruly as Jay Leno guests, kissing lustily in defiance of a request that they not and wearing T-shirts that used a potent Russian expletive to denounce the possible war in Iraq. In short, their tour has been a success, said David Junk, the head of Universal Records in Russia, the American record label that represents the group.
"I've been trying to get Russian bands to break out of Russia for years now, and finally we've done it," Mr. Junk said. "Hopefully it's the beginning of the Russian invasion."
Mr. Troitsky disagrees.
"From the point of view of music, it is nothing," he said. "There are plenty of serious things going on in Russia right now. This is just a pleasant little nonsense."
Thanks to Rally V |
