Russian rock
 

Disclaimer: I'm not Russian but grew up in the USSR, left my country shortly after the empire's breakdown, so my opinions may be subjective, questionable and totally incorrect.

Now, my favourite Russian rock :)

Mashina Vremeni (Машина времени, Russian for Time Machine).

They were called Russian Beatles. They where accused of stealing melodies -- from Creedence Clearwater Revival to Elton John. But who cares, we didn't hear any of that at that time anyway.

The first their song I heard at the age of 13, I think. I was stunned. That sounded so different from everything else that one'd hear on TV or radio. I remember that feeling.

It's called Blue Bird (Синяя Птица).

Voskreseniye (Воскресение, Russian for Resurrection).

While Mashyna Vremeni got some rare official appearances in 80-th, and one could find an LP if looked hard, Voskreseniye was banned. Imagine the joy when you could see the band in concert after decades of secretly sharing their tapes.





Their songs heavily rely on lyrics to deliver the message. This one is about a violinist who's music used to define the world, and now he's old and possibly drunk, left the stage and forgot his jacket, but his music lingers on. Something like that :)