Traditions of the 19th century ballads in the songs of the band "The King and the Jester"

This article deals with those features of the literary ballad genre, which are reflected in such songs of the group “King and Jester” (Andrei Kniazev is the lyricist) as “Fred”, “Faithful Wife”, “The Forester”, “The Hunter”, “The Bear”, “The Men Were Eating Meat”, “The Widow and the Hunchback”, “Necromancer”, “Reflection”, “The Master of the Forest”. The purpose of the article is to prove that “King and Jester” rely on genre tradition and classical examples, which means that their texts can be considered as an experience in reconstruction of ballad forms. Methodological basis: the work of the punk group “King and Jester” is examined using literary methodology (the author analyzes the lyrics of songs, identifies genre features that allow them to be classified as literary ballads). The author comes to the following conclusions: the rock poet turns to the romantic ballad due to the crisis of his worldview, since this genre, in addition to narrative and fantasy, carries an elegiac tonality, as well as a motif of the tragic insolvability of life’s collisions, the fatal doom of the hero who finds himself internally congenial to the world of the “scary fairy tale”, from which he appears on stage. The scientific novelty of the article is associated, first of all, with the subject of the study: it is shown that punk rock does not break with tradition, but, on the contrary, relies on it and preserves the constant features of the ballad genre, reveals a hidden craving for cultural dialogue and integrates into tradition. The article contributes to the study of Russian rock poetry as a phenomenon of modernity, and also deepens the understanding of the mechanisms of the ideological, thematic and cultural dialogue into which the rock poet enters with the classical tradition that precedes him.

ballad, romanticism, genre transformation, genre characteristics, punk rock, rock poetry, rites of passage, inversion, literary ballad, romantic ballad