How Russian Folk Music and Tetris Became BFFs

How Russian Folk Music and Tetris Became BFFs: The Unlikely Story of Two Unlikely Companions

Russian Folk Music

Tetris, the classic video game, has been around for over three decades. In that time, it has had a resurgence in popularity, finding new life on mobile devices and in popular culture. One place it has seen a recent resurgence is in Russian folk music.

Origins of Russian Folk Music

Russia is a country with a rich and complex history, and its folk music reflects that. Russian folk music has its roots in the music of the Slavic people, who were the first to settle in Russia. Over time, Russian folk music absorbed elements from Tatars, Mongols, and other cultures that came into contact with the Slavs. Russian folk music also borrows heavily from the church music of the Orthodox Church.

Characteristics of Russian Folk Music

Russian folk music is characterized by a wide variety of instrumental folk songs that were developed over the centuries. Russian folk music is often divided into two different categories, village music and urban music. Village music is more traditional and typically features instruments such as the balalaika and accordion. Urban music, on the other hand, includes elements of Western music and often features more modern instruments such as the piano and violin.

Both village and urban Russian folk music have been influenced by a variety of different cultures over the years, including Mongolian, Turkish, Gypsy, and even Western European. This melange of influences has resulted in a unique form of music that is easy to identify as distinctly Russian.

Tetris

It’s hard to imagine two things that have less in common than Russian folk music and the video game Tetris. One is a centuries-old tradition of music and dance, the other a 1980s video game. But in 2009, the two became unlikely BFFs when a Russian folk musician created a version of Tetris set to traditional folk music.

Origins of Tetris

Few video games have had as lasting an impact as Tetris. The tile-matching puzzle game, which was invented by Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984, has been played by millions of people around the world and has been adapted for just about every gaming platform imaginable.

But Tetris didn’t just come out of nowhere – the game has its roots in Russian folk music. Pajitnov, who was working as a computer programmer for the Soviet Academy of Sciences at the time, was inspired by a traditional folk song called “Korobeiniki” (which you might know better as “The Tetris Theme”). He used the melody of the song as the basis for his game, which originally featured stick figures instead of tetrominoes (the now-iconic Tetris shapes).

Interestingly, “Korobeiniki” is itself based on an 18th-century poem of the same name. The poem tells the story of a young man’s romance with a woman named Tatiana. In the original Russian version, Tatiana is a wealthy landlord’s daughter and the young man is a peasant; in Pajitnov’s adaptation, Tatiana became one of the tetrominoes and the young man was replaced by falling pieces.

Pajitnov’s bosses at the Academy of Sciences owned the rights to Tetris (a fact that would cause him no end of headaches in later years), but they allowed him to keep working on the game in his spare time. In 1985, he managed to get a version of Tetris running on an IBM PC; it was this version that caught the attention of British computer magazine PC World, which published a review of it in 1986.

How Tetris Became Popular

Tetris is a video game that was invented in the Soviet Union in 1984. It became popular in the United States after it was released on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1989. The game is simple: players try to fit together falling tetrominoes (shapes made up of four squares) to make complete rows, which then disappear and earn points.

The game’s popularity can partly be attributed to its catchy theme song, “Korobeiniki,” which is based on a Russian folk song. The song’s popularity increased when it was used in a Tetris commercial in 1996. Since then, “Korobeiniki” has been used in many other Tetris-related products, such as Tetris earrings and Tetris soap.

How Russian Folk Music and Tetris Became BFFs

It all started with a Russian folk song called “Korobeiniki.” The song tells the story of two lovers who are forced to part ways. The melody of the song is catchy and upbeat, and it quickly became popular in Russia. When the video game Tetris was created, the developers wanted to include a Russian folk song in the game. They chose “Korobeiniki” as the song for Tetris because it fit the game’s pace and style.

The Connection Between Russian Folk Music and Tetris

Some people might not know that Russian folk music and the game Tetris have a connection. In fact, the two were brought together by a man named Vladimir Pokhilko. Pokhilko was a Russian psychiatrist who was looking for a way to help his patients with anxiety and stress. He found that when his patients listened to Russian folk music, their anxiety levels decreased. Pokhilko then had the idea to use Tetris as a way to help his patients relax even further.

Pokhilko realized that the rhythms in Russian folk music and Tetris were similar. He found that when his patients played Tetris, they became more relaxed and less stressed. Pokhilko’s research showed that the combination of Russian folk music and Tetris could be an effective treatment for anxiety and stress.

How Russian Folk Music Helped Tetris Become Popular

Few video games have achieved the level of international popularity and acclaim as Tetris. The simple, yet addictive puzzle game has captivated players for over three decades, and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down. One of the reasons for Tetris’s enduring appeal is its soundtrack, which features a catchy rendition of the traditional Russian folk song “Korobeiniki.” But how did this song become tetris’s theme music?

It all started in 1984, when Russian composer and musician Vitaly Koslovsky was working on a folk music album. He came across “Korobeiniki” while researching traditional Russian songs, and he immediately knew that he wanted to include it on the album. However, Koslovsky was not familiar with the melody of the song, so he asked his friend Nikolai Titov to help him transcribe it.

Titov, who was also a computer programmer, happened to be working on a new game called Tetris at the time. He thought that “Korobeiniki” would be perfect for the game, and he convinced Koslovsky to let him use the song as its main theme. The rest, as they say, is history.

Thanks to Titov’s astute use of “Korobeiniki,” Tetris quickly became one of the most popular games in the world, and the song has since become synonymous with the franchise. It’s safe to say that without Russian folk music, Tetris would not be the cultural phenomenon it is today.