Pussy Riot I Can't Breathe Review

The Info

Pussy Riot is a Russian Punk band most famous for serving a sentence for hooliganism after staging an anti-Putin performance in an Orthodox Church. Two of the band's members — Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova — served two years in prison. Those two members of the band feature in the first music video of I Can't Breathe.

I Can't Breathe is quite an oddity compared to the band's usual flair and rebellious punk-spirit. For example, here is a different song by the band:

Wait for it..... and PUNK!

The Pro's

This song actually does a lot of things right, which is especially impressive since this is Pussy Riot's first english release.

1. The song opens with a strong methodic beat and metallic noises that suggest a dark industrial mood , and then overlays that with soft detached lyrics. Overall, this is a pretty solid choice. The dark mood is appropriate for a requiem like this, and it ties the song with the city through the industrial and metallic tones. Additionally, the contrast between the blaring beat and the soft tone of the singer screams reflection and ties the song to our deep-seated understanding of the conflict between industrialism (the mechanical) and individualism (the emotional).

2. Pussy Riot attempts to help the greater good throughout their song, I Can’t Breathe. They want their audience in Russia, as well as the rest of the world, to know about Eric Garner’s death and to highlight the abusiveness of the police force not just in America, where the event happened, but throughout the world. They do not seek personal gains from singing about this event, but rather want to convey the parallels between the police brutality in America and in Russia. The idea of heroism is slightly different in Crime and Punishment because Pussy Riot is not looking to be a “hero” in Russian society, rather a group to voice society’s opinions.

3. In Crime and Punishment the main character, Raskolnikov, finds heroism when he kills the Ivanovna sisters because he thinks that his actions will benefit the common good; he mentions that it was his “destiny” to kill the two women. On page 274 of the novel, Raskolnikov admits that, “it wasn’t a human being [he] killed, it was a principle!”. Through this we can see that he believes that he has a right to violate moral codes because he is “benefitting” others.

   Throughout the novel the reader can see that Raskolnikov became deeply affected by his crime and on page 418 his idea of being a hero changes. He claims that, “because, if [he] tormented [himself] for so many days: would Napoleon have gone ahead or not?-it means [he] must have already have felt clearly that [he] was not Napoleon” and, “[He] did not kill so that, having obtained means and power, [he] could become a benefactor of mankind.”

   Because Raskolnikov no longer believes in his own theory due to the fact that he did not gain what he had hoped for, he decides to part from it. Pussy Riot, however, stand by their message because they themselves have been victims of police brutality. Both Pussy Riot and Raskolnikov demonstrate that one who decides to stand by an idea or a belief must have experienced it.

4. In Pussy Riot’s song, I Can’t Breathe, the group highlights Eric Garner’s struggle against the police brutality through their actions in the music video as well as their song lyrics. They want the audience to feel the emotions that were present during Eric Garner’s last moments and to show his individual and courageous fight against the police force. In Eric Garner’s story, he represents an individual against the government, which is similar to Pussy Riot as a group.

5. Pussy Riot represents a group against the government who faces discrimination because they are a feminist anti-Putin punk rock band who advocates for people who face political oppression. Members of the band have been arrested and beaten by the police force in Russia. Pussy Riot also represents a group against society because they are challenging what is socially acceptable and many people believe what they are doing is wrong and that they should be punished for their actions.

6. In Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov represents an individual against society because:

   • He claims that he is “extraordinary” and the rest of society is “ordinary”, except for the few people who he believes have the capability of being extraordinary. This ideology distances himself from the rest of society because he believes that he is far superior than others and does not need to associate himself with them.
   • He begins to alienate himself from the rest of society due to the psychological effects of his crime. His mind disconnects from his body and he cannot control his actions, therefore making him become consumed in his crime and the idea of being a murderer. He begins to realize the power he has over others because he has such a large secret that he refuses to tell anyone, besides Sonya. This, in addition to him being “extraordinary”, adds to him feeling superiority over the rest of society and creates a disconnect between him and the rest of the world

7. the women in Pussy Riot and Garner are being consumed and suffocated by the strife among the citizens and their society (represented by the two females being buried alive)

8. Pussy Riot: they are both speaking against the injustice of their government by wearing police uniforms that belong to officers in Moscow, and also acting against America and their actions toward Garner by titling their video I Can’t Breathe. This just demonstrates that protest is universal, no matter where the injustice occurs it is still injustice and can be shared communicated to all people across the world.

9. Both videos also choose to focus on the one event. in Garner’s video its himself and the officers in Pussy Riot’s video its the constant scene of the two females being buried alive. By concentrating the video on just that one actio onlookers can center their focus and really think about the action taking place with no outside distraction. The image is brutal and rough but it forces audiences to really question their world and society.

The No's

Not too many no's, but a few (to be added) big bugs in the song.

1. The song closes with a reading (not the recording) of Eric Garner's last words. I understand why this was done: the audio of the original is muddled with other voices and the audio quality would seem out of place in a professional production like this song. However, the main issue with the reading is that Eric Garner's repeated cries I Can't Breathe are urgent, but are not gutteral like they were in reality, and because of that the cries lose much of their weight. This is corrected by the metallic build at the end to some degree, but overall the ending loses some of its potential impact because of it.

   Similarly, the voice acting is done by a person whose voice is noticibly different from Garner, which also detracts from the realism in the portrayal, and thus the efficacy of the piece.

   It is possible that the differences between the reading and the real audio may have been artistic choices; for example, perhaps they wanted to portray Garner as more brave and coherent in his last moments. But this is not the situation to do that. The reason why Eric Garner and his execution is so powerful is because it is real, because it is not a abstract chain of events told to us in the third person like with Trayvon Martin; we have video, we know exactly what happened. We have seen hundreds of stories, songs, poems, musicals that explore drowning, death and cries for help, but those are not effective as Eric Garner because we write them off as fantasies and escapism. Eric Garner is powerful because it is something that happened indisputably, so failing to confront the listener about the reality of the situation detracts from the gravity of the piece.