We analyzed songs using XML to manually mark up the lyrics. We searched for the following elements in the lyrics:
Our sample was mostly selected from the "Top of the Pops" list published annually by The Moscow Komsomol newspaper. The way this chart was compiled was through letters from readers; thus, although not very objective, this ranking was somewhat less censored than the official sales numbers and could not be manipulated by selling two-in-one records to boost a state-sponsored artist's popularity. We also threw in some hand-picked songs for years where this chart was sparse, lacking musicians remotely resembling rock music, or not published at all. This was done by considering which musicians were lacking in the sample, the debut years of musicians, and the legacy of the songs as reflected in post-soviet rankings of rock music. Although our list inevitably includes some musicians which could be labeled "estrada", or state-sponsored, for the most part the list is comprised of acts that made their way from the bottom up, starting in underground "apartment concerts" and progressing to mainstream popularity through word of mouth. Due to time constraints, we were limited in the number of songs we could analyze; our list misses many important songs and musicians as a result, but it still reflects the wide variety of sub-genres within rock in the Soviet Union.