Summary: As we embark upon our From Russia, With Soundcheck lead-up week to the Sochi Olympics, we talk with Michael Idov, editor-in-chief of GQ magazine's Russian edition. The former New Yorker joins us from Moscow to give us a snapshot of the pop scene in Russia today, from aging ladykillers and budding young TV idols to Williamsburg-inspired foodie culture and underground hip hop. On how Russia's pop music scene differs from its American counterpart: The scene is really fractured here. It's fractured by age -- and it's fractured by class. The biggest stars in Russia... are Stas Mihailov, Vaenga, and Grigory Leps -- who, by the way, was recently called a "persona non grata" by the U.S. government for some shady dealings, so he's denied a visa for life. All of these three people really appeal to the 40-something, 50-something women demographic. And that demographic is huge enough and spendy enough to actually make them incredibly wealthy and very busy, concert-wise. A recent video from Russian pop star Stas Mihailov. On where young people in Russia get their music today: The main thing you need to know about the young people in Russia is that they get all their music through a social network called VKontakte, which is a clone of Facebook -- with one huge distinction -- it has a built in music player where you can pretty much listen to and stream just about everything that everybody else is listening to on that social network. It's completely illegal in a certain aspect, but it's basically a peer-to-peer network built into a social network, which is brilliant. On popular music television shows in Russia today: There's MTV -- there's a homegrown channel called Music TV which is an MTV by any other name; there's a homegrown licensed version of "The Voice," called "Golos," which is the Russian for, you guessed it, "The Voice," and it's a huge hit; there's a homegrown "American Idol"... all of these things are there, and they create stars just like their American and generally western counterparts do. For example, Nyusha is a huge pop star appealing to maybe a slightly younger demographic. Singer Nyusha gained fame through Russian TV. On pop stars' career longevity in Russia: You have to remember that in Russia, no star is ever washed up.... Every time I would come to Russia, I would see these ads for various members of ABBA, and A-ha, and Boney M -- they're all here! -- Scorpions, Deep Purple... Russia is an alternative universe for all these guys who are still huge stars. And the homegrown stars are like that too. There's a woman named Natalie who was a big star about 20 years ago. And this year, she's had an enormous hit that basically you could hear coming out of every radio, every car, in the country, called "Oh My God, What A Man."
