The battle of Waterloo took place in what is now southern Belgium in June 1815, more than two hundred years ago. It has been able to remain as a European lieu de mémoire since that moment, remembered recurrently in many ways for decades. The main argument of this article is how that circumstance benefited the Swedish group ABBA when they participated in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The success with the song ‘Waterloo’ was possible because of a sense of remembrance towards Napoleon’s final defeat, shared even by people who did not know anything about history. But they were not the first who used Napoleonic references in their music: the emperor and his wars had been chosen many times before by singers from several countries. The role of ABBA in reinforcing Europop through a historical event connected with a love situation is the other main point of this research.
At a historical moment of polycrisis, it has never been more urgent to re- engage with the multiple semantic possibilities of survival. This article explores varying accounts of survival that emerge in the interplay between community media and popular music traditions in Ajusco, a small town south of Mexico City in which Indigenous languages are no longer spoken, but in which an “originary” identity has been preserved. Interlacing the ethnographic and the historical, the article shows how activities to maintain popular and folk musical traditions, especially mariachi, respond to questions of community identity, safety, livelihoods, and ecosystem survival. Here, music may be drawn into a virtuous cycle, as distinct ecological, economic and cultural iterations of survival come into relation, often complementing and supporting each other. Building on this research, the article proposes the concept of “transmedialities of survival” to describe the complex interactions across distinct media technologies through which concepts of survival are disseminated.
Kiko Mora, ed. 2024. Mediterranean Musicscapes in Contemporary Spain: From Mosaic to Net. New York: Bloomsbury Academic. 272pp. ISBN 979- 8- 7651- 0215- 2 (pbk).
In the early stage of German rap, German- speaking artists were inspired by American role models; however, social and cultural backgrounds were, and remain, different in Germany as compared to the United States. This article examines the subcultural and commercial development of German rap over the last four decades. By analysing economic structures, artists’ biographies, lyrics, and media responses, how German rap has developed as a form of mainstream subculture is clarified. In addition, similarities with the United States are identified and the cultural traits of German rap culture are illustrated.
This article explores a hitherto unknown chapter in Dean Reed’s artistic career in Eastern Europe. Based on an analysis of primary sources, including original interviews with the singer’s collaborators and friends, it examines the reception of Dean Reed and his music in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, as well as the individual and institutional agents who facilitated or benefited from his career. It considers him as a prominent representative of the “other America” who followed the trajectory of singers such as Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger, whose artistic functioning behind the Iron Curtain, however, also had its own particularities. Special attention is paid to Reed’s importance in mediating and accelerating cross- border cooperation and the exchange of popular music within the selected region. Through Reed’s international career, the article highlights the characteristics of individual national scenes which challenge the notion of a unified popular music culture of the European socialist camp.
