BONE RECORDS
Reviving the forgotten story of Bone Music
WHERE IT BEGAN
Year 1955
Moscow, Russia
During the Cold War, Soviet authorities sought to suppress Western cultural influence: music, art, and films were now banned. However, a defiant youth movement known as the stilyagi circumvented these restrictions by crafting their own musical records from repurposed X-rays. These homemade records, bearing the ghostly imprint of bones, were aptly dubbed "music on the ribs" or "bone records," a testament to the stilyagi's resilience and ingenuity
In the 1950s, Stilyagi, or "style hunters," emerged, mirroring the trends of hipsters today. Distinguished by their bold and stylish clothing, the stilyagi shared a passion for Western music genres like rock 'n' roll and jazz. While accessing music today is a mere click away, the stilyagi faced challenges in acquiring their desired tunes. They either risked the black market to obtain records by Ella Fitzgerald or Elvis Presley or resorted to pressing their own copies on whatever vinyl they could find.
