rokery

[Mike Berry]

I asked out local expert on "rokery, Hilary Pilkington,  for her
views on rokery and she passed on the following which may be of
interest.

Having been working with 'rokery' in Moscow since 1988, I would say
it means a whole set of markers based on style, bikes and music. I
currently translate it as 'bikers' since the bike is the centre of
the lifestyle. However, since many, especially young Russian rokery
do not have bikes, for them other markers such as a common interest
in hard rock and the style (leather jackets, biker boots, bandanas and Harley
Davison insgnia) are probably more important. Over the last two years
a new generation of younger rokery are emerging you are less centred
around bikes and more around American rock styles. They call
themselves rokery but would not be accepted as such by the
'authorities' on the scene. There is a bit on the role of the rokery
on the Moscow youth scene in my book 'Russia's Youth and its culture'
(chapters 7 and 8), Routledge 1994. There will be a lot more in a
forthcoming book on 'Gender, generation and identity in contemporary
Russia', also Routledge, some time early 1996.
Hilary Pilkington


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Berry
Centre for Russian and              Tel: 021-414-6355
East European Studies,              Fax: 021-414-3423
University of Birmingham,           email: m.j.berry.rus at bham.ac.uk
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.

                   ***** Umom Rossiyu ne ponyat' *****
----------------------------------------------------------------------