Lectures in Music Studies: Aleksandra (Sasha) Drozzina, Ohio State

Aleksandra (Sasha) Drozzina, assistant professor of music theory, Ohio State, presents "Monetochka and IC3PEAK: Russian Popular Music and/as Resistance." The speaker writes:

This lecture examines closely the music and lyrics of Russian singer-songwriters Monetochka, from her 2024 album Molitvy. Anekdoty. Tosty. (Prayers. Anecdotes. Toasts.), and IC3PEAK, from their 2025 album Coming Home, whilst accounting for the music’s socio-political context. This repertoire, born out of personal émigré experience, gives voice to the inner monologue of Russian citizens, who are also anti-Putin but are not able to say so publicly given the country’s war censorship laws in place since 2022. On January 2, 2023, Monetochka was added to the Russian official “foreign agent” list for her statements. In September of 2024, a criminal case was opened against her, citing evasion of “foreign agent” duties and preventing her return home from Lithuania, where she now lives. IC3PEAK have also relocated. On these albums, the artists protest the Russo-Ukrainian war in a sonically gentle manner and their soft vocal delivery often borders on speaking and even whispering; notably, this chilling calmness marks a stylistic departure for IC3PEAK, who are known for their aggressive yells but now present a subdued version of their old selves.

I explore how these wistful dissident songs differ from the recent Western trend of “whisperpop,” and how they are delivered to new vast geographies of the Russian and Russian-speaking diaspora. These songs are protests that highlight problems yet performed from a safe physical distance. I argue that the intimacy heard on these two albums is a special kind of diasporic intimacy that is created specifically by artists living in exile, directed at both émigrés and those, who remain in Russia. For both listener groups, the diasporic intimacy signals a farewell to the motherland––this may be the literal location that was left behind but also the bygone time period’s distinctive lifestyle details. The image of Russia before the war endures in the listener’s mind only. Three years into the war, these artists are indefinitely dispersed and are exhibiting sounds of exhaustion in their new songs, as they uphold their message of resistance.

Aleksandra (Sasha) Drozzina is assistant professor of music theory at the Ohio State School of Music. She earned her PhD in Music Theory from Louisiana State University. Her dissertation entitled “Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and Pärt: Religion and Spirituality during the Late Thaw and Early Perestroika,” contextualizes selected religious and spiritual works within the 1970s and 1980s in the Soviet Union. 

Her recent research interests explore Russian popular music and its intersections with Russian politics today. She is the current Chair of the Russian and Soviet Music Interest Group at the Society for Music Theory.