Whose Is This Carol?

Via Global Voices Online, there's a festive version of the Whose is that song? phenomenon at Ukraine List: you might have heard of an American carol called Carol of the Bells (this Londoner only knows it as 'that song in the Christmas episode of West Wing season 2'), but not that it's adapted from a Ukrainian folk song Shchedryk. (Anthony Potoczniak, an anthropologist at Rice, is on the case.)

Meanwhile, Bosnia Vault relays this story from B92 on ex-Yugoslav hip hop's 'musical offensive against nationalist politicians, corrupt businessmen and priests meddling in politics', including artists from Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo and Croatia. Says Serbia's Marčelo:

'What we're offering is an alternative to MTV and to American hip hop. Our fans are not looking for a gold chain and a gold tooth. They already have that in turbo folk, so hip hop is seen as something rebellious outside the slimy mainstream.'

One presumes that the Shorty of Marčelo ft. Shorty's 'Definicija' is a different one from the Shorty of Dođi u Vinkovce...

Showbusiness Ethnopolitics: 4th25

BBC Radio 1Xtra will be reporting tomorrow on the hip-hop collective 4th25, made up of US soldiers from the First Cavalry, and their album, Live From Iraq, recorded while the members were on active duty in Baghdad. (Their name's pronounced Fourth Quarter, as in the final phase of an American football match.)

In fact, the BBC is lagging behind somewhat over Live From Iraq, which depicts the soldiers' experience of serving in Iraq. The album started to come to attention last June, when 4th25 was featured in Newsweek along with a similar group from the 1st Armoured Division of the US Army.

An ecstatic review in Spin magazine at the time compared the group to Michael Herr's reports from the Vietnam War, and even described them as 'the ultimate embeds'. The yet-unsigned band is promoted with a trailer video for the title track is composed of graphic front-line footage.

Generals, politicians, unfaithful girlfriends, and untrustworthy fellow soldiers are frequent targets on Live From Iraq - as are Destiny's Child, for epitomising civilian hip-hop's military chic in their Soldier video. Now based in Texas, the group is working on a second album provisionally entitled The Gospel, and is even negotiating film rights.

This may, or may not, be the moment to point out that a similar biography was the first step towards Marko Perković Thompson becoming one of the most popular musicians in Croatia. So watch out for Neal Saunders. You never can tell.