The USSR had very dope music and it’s all on Youtube now. This is the one I always find myself coming back to, because it’s so experimental. Surely a blow to the “USSR was gray and depressing”. This is music that would give the most famous composers at the time and today a run for their money.

IIRC, every music in the USSR was licensed by Melodiya, the sole record company – because obviously you didn’t need two in the USSR. The company was established in 1964 and starting in the 70s, they started licensing western bands as well, like Deep Purple or the Beatles. So yes, rock was available in the USSR, it wasn’t some black market shady stuff.

You can still find vinyls online by the way, if you look for them as “USSR records” or under the label name Melodiya. Maybe even the Cyrillic name Мелодия; I haven’t looked that far yet.