The tunes and words of the West were banned, forbidden, dangerous. Still, many bands flourished in spite of state repression. It was after the government toppled in 1989 that they had trouble surviving. It's a double dose of opera for Andrea Bocelli fans. Others also enjoyed the stature that comes with forging something new.
Some musical traditions are easy to trace.
The free-flowing sound of the blues, for example, was born from slave chants. Contemporary folk music can be traced to an earlier British Isles. Even Jerry Lee Lewis' rowdy piano playing arguably has some ties to the stately notes of Mozart. Unless you have the audience, you don't need the other stuff. Music from the Great Frozen North, the tunes of Finland, Norway and Sweden, is undergoing a period of revitalization.