Policies and Practices of Sound Recording in the USSR: the Listening Canon in Soviet Culture

This study is devoted to the study of the auditory landscape of the USSR, in the construction of which the recording institute played a central role. The main task was to conceptualize the term “listener canon”. The Soviet state had a number of specific features in organizing the cultural space of the population; the ideological framework and censorship apparatus influenced all spheres of life with varying intensity throughout the existence of the country. The recording industry was one of the completely monopolized structures operating within the framework of a planned economy. The work analyzes the conditions and factors contributing to the formation of musical preferences in Soviet society. The concepts of power-knowledge by Michel Foucault and the concept of taste and social divisions by Pierre Bourdieu were chosen as theoretical tools. Through the detailed structuring of time periods and their inherent features, certain patterns are built, the formation of which occurred through sound recording practices, as well as listening practices. An important element under consideration in the research work were records, as the main carrier of sound information in the 20th century, as well as other sound documents of the era and technical means of reproduction. It was necessary to include interviews with respondents who had in-depth knowledge of the subject of the study, which helped confirm the assumptions arising in the analysis process, as well as reveal the informal features of listening practices in Soviet times, shedding light on the complex relationships between state control and cultural expression in the context of authoritarian regime.