The Pussy Riot phenomenon generated vast amounts of commentary, but little serious analysis of its musical aspects. The group was either accepted unquestioningly as a ‘Russian punk group’, or seen as another kind of project entirely: one which drew on punk aesthetics but was ultimately inauthentic as punk, engaging instead with discourses of protest and performance. This essay seeks to reinstate the centrality of music to the Pussy Riot project, in order to establish what it was about Pussy Riot’s aural and visual representation that invited doubt about its musical credentials, and even, subsequently, its authenticity in relation to its political agenda. The essay argues that in constructing Pussy Riot as a product for dissemination on the internet, the group’s recording and performance activities laid bare the stages of construction and mediation that are inherent in the production of music, undermin-ing the ideology of musical authenticity.
