The articles included in this book provide valuable insights which show how the Ottoman imperial past continues to exist as a social variable in the Balkans, working within a complex interplay of cultural issues and political contexts. This is an important collection depicting the continuous process of constructing images of the self and the other.

Huseyin Oylupinar, University of Alberta, Folklorica

This book should interest those who want to understand how popular music and culture affect, reflect, register, and satirize ordinary people's experience of political and economic life. The use of the book and its chapters for classroom lectures is greatly facilitated by the accompanying CD.

Timothy Rice, Slavic Review

At the heart of Donna Buchanan's study of Bulgarian ethnopop is a well-documented history of the place of Romani performance practice and aesthetic sensibilities in the development of the much disputed, post-socialist dance/music genre chalga. This volume offers a wealth of solid information concerning Balkan history and culture that is viewed through the lens of theoretical constructs such as orientalism, balkanism, and cosmopolitanism. The accompanying figures and tables are extremely useful as is the CD-ROM that offers numerous plates, sound and video recordings.

Ethnomusicology

This excellent collection compares and contrasts the musical lives of peoples of the Balkans....This is the first volume devoted to the subject and its complexities. A sophisticated work...it is directed largely at scholars but it speaks to numerous disciplines in the arts and the social sciences....Recommended.

Choice Reviews