Ukrainian rock () is rock music from Ukraine.
Ukrainian contemporary music, including rock, emerged from the VIA music scene of the 1970s and 1980s. This controlled form of music, was a response to the Rock and roll infiltrating from the outside of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. An important role in the popularization of rock music in Ukraine was played by the Chervona Ruta music festival.
The most popular modern Ukrainian bands include BoomBox, Braty Hadiukiny, Druha Rika, Haydamaky, Komu Vnyz, Lama, Mad Heads XL, Mandry, Mertvyi Piven, Okean Elzy, Plach Yeremiyi, S.K.A.Y., Taras Petrynenko, Tartak, TNMK, Viy, Vopli Vidoplyasova and others. Famous Ukrainian heavy metal bands include Fleshgore, Firelake, Nokturnal Mortum, Astrofaes, Drudkh, and Hate Forest. Metal Heads Mission is the biggest metal festival in Ukraine and ex-USSR countries.
History
Beginnings
The history of rock music in Ukraine started in the second half of the 1950s with the spread of beat music among the youth in countries which were then part of the Soviet Union. This process resulted in the emergence of VIA youth collectives, which were a form of compromise between the official ban on "bourgeois" Western music by Soviet authorities and increased demand for modern entertainment during the Khrushchev Thaw era.
Government pressure and frequent bans forced many musicians of that era to perform underground, and the Iron Curtain combined with censorship limited the possibilities of bands to adopt new musical styles. As a result, musical compositions tended to be eclectic and used elements of different styles in a selective manner. VIA songs lacked the traditional protest elements, and their topics were limited to lyrical and romantic images. At the same time, close connections with bard music, as well as the wish of young performers to underline their national identity, led to the integration of folkloric motives into Ukrainian rock music, which showed parallels to the folk revival trends in the West.
1960s
thumb|Ukrainian musician [[Taras Petrynenko, one of the founders of Eney]]
Among the first music collectives to perform modern popular music in Ukrainian language were bands such as Berezen', Dzvony, , Chervoni Dyiavoliata (all from Kyiv), Lysy, Prometey, Bliky (all from Lviv), (Kosiv). They usually identified their musical style as "beat", which in the Soviet Union became synonymous with rock'n'roll. Many Ukrainian bands of that time used folk instruments such as sopilka, tsymbaly and bandura, adopting elements of folk and jazz rock.
thumb|Volodymyr Ivasiuk, one of the defining figures in the history of Ukrainian VIA music
In the environment where one-band performances were increasingly being banned by authorities, an especially important role in the promotion of popular music in the Soviet Union was played by festivals, both local and all-Union ones. In 1971 and 1972 "Chervona Ruta" and "Vodohray", two songs written by Ukrainian songwriter and composer Volodymyr Ivasiuk, became the winners of the Pesnya goda music television festival in Moscow. As a result, Ivasiuk, a medical doctor by profession, became a star not only in Ukraine, but around the whole USSR. This met strong opposition from both officials, who were bothered by the national motifs presented in his songs, and professional composers, who were envious of his success. The campaign of pressure against Ivasiuk ended with his death in 1979, which took place under suspicious circumstances. The composer's funeral turned into a demonstration of defiance against Soviet authorities, and many of its participants were later questioned by the KGB. The death of Ivasiuk coincided with the general decrease of VIA's popularity. The emergence of electronic music, disco, new wave and soft rock forced many musical bands to dissolve or to change their formats. An important event in the history of Ukrainian music during the last years of Soviet rule was the festival, whose first edition took place in Lviv in 1990. Among performers who played at the event were rock bands Mertvyi Piven, Plach Yeremiyi, , , as well as future members of Skryabin. During that period, music festivals became a vivid expression of protest against the Soviet regime and played an important role in the Ukrainian independence movement.