Bone Music: A Testament To Rebellion & Love Of Music

Western music and its possession were banned in post WWII Russia as Stalin ruled that all the records allowed in the country were to be by Russian composers and musicians.

The ban did not make people less eager to listen to rock and roll, jazz or blues but smuggling vinyl was dangerous, and acquiring the scarce material to make copies of the few records that made it into the country was expensive and very risky.

A unique and ingenuous solution to the issue emerged in the form of “bone music," or sometimes called "bones 'n' ribs" music, or simply Ribs.

Ruslan Bogoslowski, a young 19 year-old sound engineer from Leningrad, changed the game when he invented and built a device to bootleg western albums to distribute across Russia but hit a dead end when he could not find the raw material to press his copies onto.

All petroleum products and derivatives, including vinyl, were very hard to come across at that time.

In his searches for an alternative material to use, one day he stumbled upon a pile of discarded X-rays and decided to give them a try.

It worked.

For over 20 years, Bone Music was the only way Russian music lovers could get western music, which they played at "music and coffee parties" in their kitchens, away from the KGB ears and eyes.

During his "career" Bogoslowski handmade about 1,000,000 bootlegs onto X-ray film of everything from classical to the Beach Boys but also ended up spending five years imprisoned in Siberia for breaking the law.

Bone Music is a real testament to the underground courage to subvert authority, to rebellion and to the love of music.

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