This Ain't Pop Stage. Through the Winding Paths of 20th-Century Ukrainian Pop Music

Music is an integral part of our lives: it accompanies us through headphones on our way to work, plays from car speakers or a laptop, is strummed on a guitar with friends, sung a cappella in a shelter, or simply lives in our thoughts. For the first time in a century of Russian cultural expansion, we are truly reviving and re-evaluating our own Ukrainian music, pushing out the foreign.
From 20th-century folk tunes to modern hits, Ukrainian music is getting louder. Almost everyone knows and hums «Chervona Ruta» or «Chornobryvtsi» but the time has come to discover what is hidden behind the familiar melodies of Soviet-era Ukrainian pop.
Did you know that the children of UNR (Ukrainian People's Republic) figures created Ukrainian jazz, the anthem of Kyiv was written in just two days, and the famous «Song About a Teacher» («Zore Svitova») hides a real military secret? Phil Pukharev, a Ukrainian journalist and author of the Telegram channel «PLAY» about Ukrainian pop music of the Soviet period, has created a book guide that reveals the stories of key figures in Ukrainian pop, famous songs, and the most important events of the Ukrainian pop scene.