Trends of the Song Genre Development in the Soviet/Russian Cinema in 1930-1960s years

The song is the most democratic and popular musical genre widely used in cinema art, beginning with the silent period. Due to its rhythmic-melodic and compositional characteristics, the song provides great opportunities for its various usage as a structural element of a film and in the creation of the unique sound-visual imagery. In Russian cinema the song reflected not only the artistic but also socio-historical features of its time, some of which have only recently been clarified, with the discovery and publication of previously inaccessible archival sources. A lot of documentary and archival materials, often labeled "top secret" which have been available only by the end of 1980s, reveals the dramatic and sometimes tragic confrontation between the ideologists of Socialist Realism and the supporters of the so-called Formalism, and those simply evading the "general line of the Party". The discovery of the inner world of an individual (as distinguished from the collectivist), shown in chamber wartime pictures, finds its continuation in the cinema of the late 1950s-1960s. Of particular importance are the text and even the single word of the song, and also the personality of the performer, expressed in a unique manner of singing, in a special intonation and timbre, which do not always presuppose presence of a professional strong voice. The song is an indicator of many processes taking place in Russian society, which is also relevant for the newest Russian cinema. The song in the modern film becomes, on the one hand, a sign of the hero's belonging to a certain subculture, and on the other hand - the expression of one’s otherness and inner loneliness. The article defines the important trends in the development of the song genre in Soviet-Russian cinema for several decades, which makes it possible to create a basis for analyzing new audiovisual phenomena in the newest Russian cinema.