Russian Music Making a Comeback

In honor of its tenth anniversary, Yandex.Music released a report on how Russians' musical preferences have changed over the past decade. The most popular genres in 2010 were foreign and Russian pop music, foreign rap, dance tracks, and releases by independent Russian musicians. And the top three songs ten years ago were all from American groups, such as Eminem and Riana's “Love The Way You Lie.” Ten years later, in 2020, the top three songs are “Youth” by the group Dabro, “Shine” by Ramil’ and the joint composition “Crash” by Klava Koka and NILETTO. The most popular genres are Russian pop and rap music, dance tracks, and R&B.

According to the Director of the Institute of Musical Initiatives, Danil Perushev, the increased interest in foreign music in the 2010s was fueled by a need to “gulp down” decades of Western pop culture, as access was previously limited. Perushev believes that the renewed interest in Russian music is a return to the norm: “The time has passed, and the audience’s interest naturally returned to those heroes who speak the same language with them about understandable problems. In addition, now, in principle, there is more Russian-language music… So we find ourselves in the situation where there is a huge supply and a strong demand for domestic music.”