Far from Broadway or Hollywood and what most U.S. viewers see as a modern musical, Soviet cinema developed its own style of musical comedy and melodrama, often heavily rooted in older forms like vaudeville or operetta but also reaching for disco, rock, or elsewhere for influence. To many growing up with Soviet films, these sometimes dated and even quaint seeming movies full of catchy music and talented stars, and often loaded up with a little too much philosophical and satirical meaning for a typical song and dance picture to carry, make up much of the heart of it.
(A subjective and shifting list.)