How Soviet Rebels Turned X-Rays Into Secret Jazz Records

During the height of censorship in the USSR, especially throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviet government banned a wide range of Western cultural imports, including music genres like jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and blues, which were deemed ideologically corrupt or subversive. But cultural hunger doesn’t die easily, and underground communities found ingenious ways to resist.

Enter "bone records" also known as "ribs" or "roentgenizdat" (a play on samizdat, or underground publishing). These were bootleg vinyl records made by pressing banned music onto discarded X-ray film, salvaged from hospitals. Because proper vinyl was scarce and tightly regulated, these fragile, flexible plates became a secret medium for sonic rebellion.

The X-rays used often showed eerie images of skeletal structures, ribcages, spines, or fractured bones, which earned the records their ghostly nickname. They were cut on homemade lathes, and grooves were burned into them using modified phonographs or improvised machines. The quality was rough, but it didn’t matter, it was a lifeline to the forbidden sound of freedom.

Despite being illegal and punishable by imprisonment, bone records spread Western music like wildfire, fueling a black market for culture. They weren’t just records, they were acts of resistance pressed onto images of human fragility.