In Russia's post-Soviet thaw, the red of the Communist era is being replaced by the prospects of green. At least that's what's caught the eye of the U.S. record industry as the onetime Siberia of world pop culture starts to turn out its first generation of international pop-music contenders.
"All the Things She Said" by t.A.T.u., a pair of saucy, dance-pop Lolitas from Moscow, is the fastest-rising single in the United States, ranking No. 5 on the most recent Billboard sales chart. Driven by that video's aggressive sexuality, the group's debut album, "200 Km/H in the Wrong Lane," jumped 57 spots in the latest album chart to No. 53.Meanwhile, pop-country band Bering Strait earned a Grammy nomination for its bluegrass-inflected instrumental "Bearing Straight." Expatriates from Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow, the seven musicians have been in Nashville for almost five years struggling to break into the born-in-the-U.S.A. country idiom. The two acts have very little in common, other than strict classical music training and mid-'80s upbringings with easy access to "decadent" Western pop culture.