Modern Russian rock is the generation that emerged in the late 1990s — Zemfira (Ufa), Bi-2 (Minsk-Jerusalem-Moscow), Splean (St Petersburg), Mumiy Troll (Vladivostok) — inheriting the Leningrad Rock Club lineage but absorbing 1990s British alternative (Britpop, The Verve, Radiohead) and American grunge production. Standard rock line-up plus synth and occasionally live strings, tempos 90-160 BPM. Lyrics are Russian, dealing with urban ennui, love, and occasional politics. Zemfira's grain, Bi-2's balladic sweep, Splean's Cure-adjacent gloom, and Mumiy Troll's lounge-inflected pop-rock form four distinct poles.

The turning point was Mumiy Troll's 'Morskaya' (1997), an album Ilya Lagutenko finished while living in London, which imported Britpop polish into Russian rock. In 1999, 23-year-old Zemfira Ramazanova (Bashkir-Russian, from Ufa) debuted with 'Zemfira' — 'SPID (AIDS)', 'Ariveder'chi' — and instantly became her generation's leading female rock voice. In parallel, Alexander Vasilyev's Splean released 'Line of Life' (1997) and Bi-2 broke through nationally in 2001 with 'Полковнику никто не пишет (No One Writes to the Colonel)', named after the Gabriel García Márquez novella.

Zemfira's voice should be heard for its grain and its jumps: in 'SPID' she leaps an octave suddenly from the low register, and her Bashkir folk vocal habits surface at those moments. Bi-2's baritone-plus-tenor layered vocals on 'Полковнику' give the song its epic weight; Splean's Vasilyev talks-sings almost flat and lets the lead guitar's short phrases fill the space; Mumiy Troll's Lagutenko drawls upward in a lazy tenor over an 80s-flavoured drum machine on 'Vladivostok 2000'. Four voices, four distinct approaches.

Zemfira, 'Iskala' (2000), her lyrical peak. Then 'SPID' (1999) for youth and urgency. Bi-2, 'Полковнику никто не пишет' (2001) for East-European literary rock scale. Splean, 'Liniya Zhizni' (1997) for dark lyricism. Mumiy Troll, 'Vladivostok 2000' (1997) for the coastal lounge-rock feel. Late-night subway music, reflecting on your own face in the window.

Zemfira went public in 2020 about her partnership with the film director Renata Litvinova. She was designated a 'foreign agent' in 2023 after issuing anti-war statements in 2022; her music remains streamable inside Russia but her radio play and TV appearances are restricted. Bi-2's two frontmen use band-name stage names — Shura Bi-2 (Alexander Uman) and Lyova Bi-2 (Igor Bortnik) — both hold Israeli citizenship. Ilya Lagutenko of Mumiy Troll has toured Japan multiple times and appeared at Tokyo events tied to the 2020s city-pop revival, since his Britpop-Anglo influences overlap with the reference frame Japanese city-pop revival audiences use.