Vocal stylistics in rock music covers a variety of intonational sources and is cognized on the basis of historical and genetic research in the field of ethnomusicology and medieval studies. If the instrumental attributes of rock music are quite well covered in the available literature (this is helped by jazz studies, where the instrumental side is the main object of consideration), then rock vocals still remain on the margins of rock studies, and therefore requires development, methodology of its study, systematization, including in Ukraine.
The aim of the research - the experience of systematizing genre stylistics in Ukrainian rock music, in particular, its vocal component in the aspects of genesis, evolution and modern representations, the object of research - is vocal stylistics in rock music, the subject - is its reproduction in the work of modern Ukrainian rock bands. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific and special approaches to the study of the stated topic, including the deductive method, which defines the course of consideration from the general ("light music" as a social phenomenon) to the particular (jazz, rock and pop music) and the specific (Ukrainian alternative rock in the work of contemporary bands by regions the Center – West – South – East). To outline the features of rock music in the system of its layers, the comparative method was used, in particular, comparative characteristics of vocals in jazz, rock and pop music using the apparatus of paradigmatics. Special musicological approaches are grouped around the methods of stylistic and performance analysis, which serve to identify the individual features of the work of the frontmen-vocalists of the rock bands involved in the consideration.
The dissertation offers an analysis of the historical stages of world rock vocals within of the rhythm and blues system (in relation to rock music – rather, blues and rhythm), which were gradually formed in the music of the most recent times: 1) Initial (or pre-stylistic); 2) Early style: in the form of the appearance of rock and roll; 3) Estrada-rock-and-roll; 4) Hard-rock; 5) Art-rock; 6) "Modernized" or "estradized".
In the conditions of the total spread of rock culture and the decrease in demand for academic classics, a phenomenon is observed in the modern practice of public music making, which was named "rockization" proposed in the dissertation. It is related to jazzing (Jazzing of classical music), but differs from it in the scope of application. We are not talking about individual samples, but about the strategy of modern musical culture, in which the popularity of rock music makes it possible to convey to a mass listener any content colored by the stylistic of rock. An alternative to "rockization" is "estradization", which is a feature of the creativity of almost all modern Ukrainian rock bands.
The dissertation proposes a periodization of the main stages of the formation of Ukrainian rock music, which includes four stages: 1) Preparatory or introductory; 2) Legalization or philharmonic; 3) Stagnant or the stage of forced transition to the underground; 4) Stabilization or the stage of self-identification. In the analytical etudes proposed in the dissertation, devoted to the characteristics of the albums of modern alternative Ukrainian rock bands, there are highlighted as general (tendency to vocal cycling, expansion of the verbal-linguistic context in the direction of entirely Ukrainian or entirely English) too and specific, individual features (key the stylistic platforms on which they are based). One of the most popular modern in Ukraine rock bands – «Boombox» (Kyiv), choosing Funk Rock as a within platform, within his style combines various genre features – from a rock-ballad to an estrade song-romance. The band «One in a Canoe» (Lviv) is based on the Indie Rock platform, modifying it in terms of national Ukrainian intonation. The band «Epolets» (Odesa) and its frontman Pavlo Varenytsia represent an eclectic style, dominated by Grunge&Blues combined with elements of Disco and Hard Rock. The band «Royal Corvus» (Kharkiv) and frontwoman Alina Hornostayeva demonstrates an English-language retro-model of rock vocals in their albums, which allows us in this dissertation to single out one more feature (along with "rockization" and "estradization") of modern Ukrainian rock – "academization".
Keywords: Rock music, Jazz, Pop rock, Ukrainian rock, Cultural code, Alternative Ukrainian rock bands, Musicology, Vocal style, Style formation in Ukrainian rock music, Improvisation, Interpretation, Transcription, Jazzing, Rockization, Vocal performance, Melodic intonation, Rock vocals, Extreme vocals.
