Before the classical music influence, folk song and church music grew very popular among music lovers. During the19th century, some more music composers came forth such as Anton Rubinstein and Nikolay, his brother. Tchaikovsky was among the most popular music personalities in the era. A few of his most talked about and admired works are Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and The Nutcracker, and his Sixth Symphony, Pathétique. Some of these compositions are available at free Russian music download portals, where interested music enthusiasts can have a look. Right from the 20th century, with the Soviet invasion, music and art experienced several restrictions. This era resulted in many romantic ballets in Italian and Caucasian styles. In the middle of the 20th century, folk music grew popular among the masses. Igor’ Stravinskiy, Sergey Prokof’yev, Aram Khachaturyan, and Dmitriy Shostakovich were among the popular artists prior to the Soviet era. Alfred Schnittke became famous during the Soviet era. In the 1970s, magnitizdat operated underground and distributed rock, forbidden rock and jazz scores. During the 1980s, Jazz became very popular.

Ensuing jazz, Russina rock followed with equal vigor and captured the audience. The post Soviet era brought rock bands into view such as Mumiy Troll, Pilot, Zemfira, Splean, Alisa, Piknik, etc. Some of the prominent music websites offer free Russian music downloads and if you are an admirer of the brands you can download some. Rock music was under strict vigilance by Soviet authorities till the late 80s but in the post 90s era after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of many new countries, electronic music became very popular in Russia.