Musicians make most of their money playing at weddings.
Uzbekistan was annexed as a Soviet republic in 1924. Its borders were drawn along sloppy ethnic lines, with the intention of stirring up a little conflict among the various Turkic peoples there to keep them in line. One result is that Uzbekistan has a national popular-music culture that is not even a decade old. Its artists have just emerged from the shadows of Soviet repression, shaking off the title of People's Artist of Uzbekistan to find their own identity. But my personal take on the music is that more change is due to greater exposure to western influences than it is to pushing out Russian influences.