My Bad Grammar and Bad Taste in Russian Music is Discovered

For the purposes of this entry, familiarize yourself with this man, Dima Bilan. Obviously, the first thing you’ll notice is the mullet. (Side note: Russians love mullets.) His music is sort of like an overproduced version of Justin Timberlake, or maybe would be better described as Russia’s belated answer to Ricky Martin. For some songs, his writers have come up with an English version as well as a Russian version or vice-versa, as in the case of “Never Never Let You Go.” His followers are mostly 10-25 year-old girls.



Mr. Bilan snared me with a relatively famous tune, “Время-Река,” or “Time is a River,” which has a second verse that would not sound out of place in Radiohead’s The Bends. Needless to say, however, it’s still music for teenage girls. A half verse:

Как же сложно может быть (How hard can it be)
Невозможно все забыть (It’s impossible to forget it all)
А также можно по течению плыть, плыть (But it’s also possible by the course to swim, swim)

At my weekly Russian lesson, we went over a phrase with the modifier “в течение” which means “in the course” or “during.” I asked why not “по течению,” (the same noun, “current” with the preposition “around/about/by”) and the jig was up. As I know now, the latter modifier is only used when you are talking about swimming. It was also very prominently and recently used in that song. My Russian teacher didn’t mention directly that she knew where I picked up the phrase but when she nearly quoted the last line of the lyrics above, then winked and tried to hold back her mocking laughter, it was pretty clear that she knew.

I don’t care what she thinks. Maybe I find Bilan’s metaphor of time as a river eloquent. Maybe I’m writing an article comparing the song, which contains the lyric “Я утону, пойду к дну” (“I’m going to drown, to go to the bottom.”), to Maksim Gorky’s На дне (At the Bottom). Maybe I like listening to music where the singer isn’t shouting the words monotonously, like the leader singer of almost every Russian rock band. If I ever decide to grow a mullet, though, please intervene.