Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian popular music has been actively responding to the reality of war and exploring the topic of trauma. Many Ukrainian popular music artists have faced the same traumatic experiences as their audiences, which led to a close relationship between such artists and their audiences, as artists’ messages are perceived as sincere and valid. This article examines the lyrics and music videos of Ukrainian popular songs that were created after Russia’s full-scale invasion and deal with such topics as witnessing war, loss, separation, displacement, and mental health issues (including as a result of combat experiences). Guided by academic literature on trauma and cultural narratology, it examines popular songs that have a significant number of views (200,000 or more) on YouTube. The article argues that Ukrainian popular music reflects the trajectory of the full-scale invasion through constructing narratives of trauma at different stages of the post-2022 reality of war (from initial to delayed responses), whilst also creating an imagined community of people who take part in shared meaning-making. Having considered the developments in Ukrainian war-time popular music over the first three years of the invasion, this article shows that popular music becomes an important and easily accessible site of memory. The article highlights the importance of discussing language’s ability to convey trauma and artists’ meaning-making approaches when utilizing lyrics and visuals to narrate trauma in their music.

The Tenementals, Glasgow: A History (Vol. I of VI). Strength in Numbers Records, Glasgow, Scotland, 2024.

RaShelle R. Peck, Nairobi Hip Hop Flow: Diasporic Blackness and Embodied Performance in the Underground. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2025. 250 pp. ISBN 9780520389793/9780520386488/9780520386495 (hbk/pbk/ebk).

In Germany, the modern jazz festival programmer descended from earlier multifaceted roles established during the interwar and war periods as cultivated by both German and international jazz critics, record collectors, and impresarios. While impresarios historically occupied multiple roles as fans, critics, and producers; they often inhabited the quintessential cosmopolitan role of (white) male jazz critic and discoverer of Black musical creativity. This article examines the impact of the legacy of this archetype in the German context, with the case study of JazzFest Berlin. In particular, we trace the particular contours of Joachim-Ernst Berendt’s (1922–2000) embodied enactment of masculinity within the postwar German jazz festival world, beginning with the seminal founder of the JazzFest Berlin. Drawing on feminist initiatives of the first American women jazz organizers, we compare this female-centric legacy with the particular style and ideologies created by Berliner Jazztage programmer Nadin Deventer, the first female programmer of this historic festival, who brings an innovative and socially engaged approach, in part by staging less constrained gender expectations. Through interviews and an examination of publications, programme reviews, and more, we reveal how the figure of the jazz impresario has been disrupted by increased attention to the roles of professional women programmers who consciously embrace diverse competencies and seek greater recognition of the intersectional barriers for women, women of colour, and foreigners within the German jazz scene.

Tyler Bickford, Tween Pop: Children’s Music and Public Culture. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. 2020. 240 pp. ISBN 978-1-4780-0819-4 (pbk). $25.95.

On Tales from the Border: Skank for Choice (2019), a benefit album to support local reproductive rights organizations in Rio Grande Valley, Texas band L@s Skagaler@s position their music and ska in general as an explicitly activist space. Despite calling the album and accompanying concert ‘ska themed’, musically, the album features little of ska’s elements: upstroke rhythms, prominent brass and walking bass lines—the hallmarks of ska music—are all absent. Instead, the album offers three hardcore tracks, before the band’s drummer takes center stage and delivers three bilingual hip-hop songs. This article seeks to understand what ‘ska’ as a signifier means in this context. It posits that L@s Skagaler@s utilizes double meanings, such as ‘skank’ in the title and a feminist pseudonym, to gesture toward both ska’s history and feminist activism. Ultimately, this highlights the anti-racist and anti-colonial moments in the genre’s history, while also posing a corrective to the depoliticized ‘third-wave ska’ sound.

Stephen Sedley and Martin Carthy, Who Killed Cock Robin?: British Folk Songs of Crime and Punishment. London: Reaktion Books / English Folk Dance and Song Society, 2021. 280 pp. ISBN 978-1789145038 (hbk). £14.99.

Vivien Goldman, Revenge of the She-Punks: A Feminist Music History from Poly Styrene to Pussy Riot. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2019. 216 pp. ISBN 9781477316542 (pbk).

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Jon Stratton, Jon Dale and Tony Mitchell, eds., An Anthology of Australian Albums: Critical Engagements. New York and London: Bloomsbury, 2020. 223 pp. ISBN 9781501339875 (hbk).