Bard (Soviet Union)

For other meanings of the word, see Bard (disambiguation). The term bard (бард) came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s (and continues to be used in Russia today) for singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment. Due to the fact that in bard music those who perform the songs are usually those who wrote them, it is also referred to as author song (авторская песня). Bard poetry differs from other poetry mainly in the fact that it is sung along with a simple guitar melody as opposed to being spoken. Another difference is that this form of poetry focuses less on style and more on meaning. This means that fewer stylistic devices are used, and the poetry often takes the form of a narrative. What separates bard poetry from other songs is the fact that the music is far less important than the lyrics; chord progressions are often very simple and tend to repeat from one bard song to another. A far more obvious difference was the commerce-free nature of the genre; songs were written to be sung and not to be sold.
See more at Wikipedia.org...