The aim of the study is to characterize the ballad and the specifics of its realization in Russian musical creativity of the 20th century in the historical context with the identification of the reasons for the author's appeal to the genre. The article presents the constant features of the genre, the main trends in the development of the ballad in the historical period under consideration, analyzes the principles of interpenetration of the ballad and other genres, and identifies the reasons for its popularity in composers' work and mass culture. For the first time on the material of diverse compositions of Russian musical academic art and samples of mass culture the manifestations of balladry in the framework of mixt combinations with large-scale genres (symphony, concerto, cantata, etc.) are studied. The ballad is considered from the point of view of a tool that allows authors to build the artistic world of the work, to appeal to various ancient aesthetic concepts, as well as to circumvent ideological barriers. This is the scientific novelty of the study. As a result of analyzing the available data, the author came to the conclusion: in the process of development in the ballad formed features that can be divided into constant and mobile. At the same time, it is established that such specific properties of the genre as allegorical statement, multiplanarity, mobility of categories of time and space, as well as the possibility of genre synthesis are determinant for the demand for ballads in musical art and mass culture.