A review of the recent film The Girl on the Train points out: ‘The practice of referring to grown women as girls continues; here is the one on the train, as opposed to the gone one, or the one with the dragon tattoo’ (Bradshaw, Reference Bradshaw2016). Jacqueline Warwick and Allison Adrian's volume Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music similarly uses ‘girlhood’ to include both girls and women. The use of ‘girl’ for females of all ages, however, is analysed and interrogated at various points throughout the volume. Girlhood is a ‘fluid and contested’ category, constructed socially and historically, and current discourse is ‘indicative of the expansion of girlhood into what was once considered adulthood’ (p. 4). Alongside girlhood, this volume focuses on the concept of voice, explored in relation both to vocalisation and as ‘a metonym for agency’ (p. 5). Warwick and Adrian note how frequently female voices are criticised and policed, ‘considered ineffectual, contemptible, or even unlistenable’ (p. 4). Nonetheless, girls manage to ‘raise their voices and make themselves heard’ (p. 4). This volume enables a range of female voices to be heard in 12 chapters organised into four sections.

The first section, ‘Voice and agency’, explores how female musicians, music industry professionals and music consumers negotiate their marginalisation as females. Lucy O'Brien documents the experiences of women in ‘girl bands’ throughout the decades. Building on the feminist work of women musicians from the punk era through riot grrrl, current all-female bands, arguably for the first time in the history of the music industry, are often considered as musicians first, rather than as ‘a novelty or gimmick’ (p. 28). Marion Leonard explores gendered experiences and practices in relation to non-musician roles in the music industry, such as promotion and A&R. Although clearly concerned with adult women rather than young females, she focuses on ‘how ideas of “girlishness” are influential in the working lives of women’ (p. 37). Her interview data reveals the various ways in which professional women ‘identify themselves as “girls”, negotiate ideas of being “girly”’ and how ‘conceptions of “girlness” are mapped onto them’ (p. 38). Lyn Mikel Brown and Dana Edell's chapter includes their own voices as adult female researchers and the voices of young women activists, discussing how they negotiate the tensions inherent in their relationships with feminist role models in the pop music industry.

In the second section, ‘Voice and vocality’, the focus shifts to the literal voice. In the most densely argued chapter of the volume, Diane Pecknold analyses the ‘new girl voice’ in pop. Rife with technical failings and highly technologized, the voices of performers such as Rebecca Black and Kesha are widely criticised. However, Pecknold argues, critical evaluations of such voices as ‘bad’ encompass more than mere technical ineptitude and a lack of authenticity. In the case of young female pop singers, vilification of their particular vocal style is ‘a condemnation of its social effects’ (p. 93). Linking with Pecknold's argument, Barbara Fox DeMaio's chapter argues that vocal pedagogical approaches neglect anatomical change in the larynxes of pubescent girls, to the detriment of their confidence and continuation as singers. The final two chapters of this section discuss singers at either end of the age spectrum, with Dana Gorzelany-Mostak considering the meaning and impact of precocious ‘opera sensation’ Jackie Evancho, and Alexandra Apolloni exploring the effects of disability and age on the voices of ageing female ‘ingénue’ singers. In each case, the intersections of gender, age and life experience are expressed through the singing voice in distinctive ways.

Performances of girlhood on various media platforms are considered in ‘Voice and authenticity’, the third section of the volume. Morgan Blue analyses Disney Channel sitcom Liv and Maddie, in which twin sisters present contrasting performances of tween femininity. While offering both ‘girly’ and ‘tomboy’ representations, one way in which the two girls are distinct from each other is through singing. The normatively feminine girl, Blue argues, makes herself most visible and audible through singing which, in contrast to merely speaking, ‘might afford girls greater likelihood of being seen and heard’ (p. 177). The musical creativities of tween girls are also discussed by Sarah Dougher, who explores the ways in which musical authenticity and identity are perceived and constructed by tween girl participants in rock camps. These girls use not only rock music consumption as a means of empowerment but also, more significantly, rock performance to find both their ‘literal and metaphorical’ voice (p. 204). Kyra D. Gaunt explores the disjuncture between the realities of black female identity, experience, cultural practice and representation, and the mainstreaming of twerking resulting from Miley Cyrus's ‘We can't stop’ music video. With its focus on the dance practice of twerking, this chapter is arguably the least explicitly concerned with voice in its literal sense. However, Gaunt's argument for the need for young people to negotiate ‘disparate expectations about their self-representation and style’ (p. 227) in the ‘new reality’ of social media platforms such as YouTube is timely and important.

The final section addresses themes of ‘Voice and narrative’. Lori Burns's analysis of duets recorded by Tori Amos with her young daughter focuses on the ways in which the two voices, mature and youthful, ‘interact to create a musical and lyrical counterpoint’ (p. 236) that reflects the processes of ‘aging and coming of age’ (p. 253). Robynn Stilwell's discussion of ‘voice, identity and agency’ in The Hunger Games trilogy takes account of the various voices of the heroine Katniss Everdeen, both her first-person narration of the story and the gradual emergence of her singing voice. Stilwell draws parallels between the narrative arc of Katniss's emerging voice and the voices of girls in general. Her point that ‘the voice is pivotal as both an agent and symbol of maturation in girls’ (p. 261) is key to many of the discussions throughout the volume.

Taking account of the fluidity of the concept of girl, the volume addresses issues relating to girlhood and voice through a rich and fascinating range of chapters that explore young female perspectives on music performance, employment, mediation and consumption. While some of the chapters fit more neatly under the volume title than others, this is a valuable and significant collection that meets a need for more research into popular music and gender, particularly in relation to the experiences, practices and representations of girls and young women.