History of music in Belarus

Belarus is an Eastern European country with a rich culture of folk and religious music. The country’s music traditions can be dated back from the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithunia. In the early section of the 20^th century, the Soviet control of the country somewhat limited musical making because nationally oriented music was considered to be rebellious and dangerous to the Soviet power. The country’s musical cultures spread with its folk to the countries such as Russua, Canada, United States, Kazakhstan, Latvia and the Ukraine. The music of Belarus was exposed mainly to Russia pop music during this period and also after their independent in the year 1991. Also, in 2002 Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree requiring about 50% of all the FM broadcast music to be Belarusian in their origin, and since January 1, 2005 the rule was made even sticker which is 75% of the daily broadcast music which must be in Belarusian. But it does not regulate the songs language, so most of broadcast music is still in Russian.

 

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