“Love for the rich, porn for the people”? Popular music in theAtt Balkans forska omas a ting locus for negotiation of 1 belongingKatarina and social Ek-Nilsson distinction Vladislava Vladimirova, Uppsala University

FÖREMÅLEN I MUSEISAMLINGARNA För en utomstående kan detta tyckas märkligt, och abstract In contemporary scholarly discussions, similaribland styles väcks of music frågan, that vilketare popular har hänt in different från politikerhåll, parts of I museernas magasin trängs föremålen. Rader av om inte museernas samlingar kunde/borde avyttras, spinnrockar,the Balkans, vagnar, have beenmöbler, defined mangelbräden rhetorically as etc.“porn-nationalism”, är “deviant and violent activity”, “social ill”, and even sadism. This article discusses two such styles, the so närcalled nuturbofolk alla föremål in post-Yugoslavian ändå inte visas, spaces, för att and skapa chalga större prydligt sorterade på hyllor i jättelika utrymmen. resurser till verksamheten. Textilierin Bulgaria, ligger prydligt which haveinpackade similar i syrafriagenealogies silkespapper and social contexts and kinship links, but have not been studied och specialgjordacomparatively. syrafriaI will briefly kartonger. present Dyrbarheter the history ofsom the twoFrågan styles, kanrespectively tyckas inbåde the 1980sbefogad and ochthe earlyenkel 1990s, men är silver,in smycken, order to contextualize konstföremål, their men social också roots mer and triviala show the interplayi själva ofverket global komplicerad, and local music av models bland andandra tastes. följande I vardagsföremål,find this important skyddas inav allehandaorder to make säkerhetsåtgärder. an argument for1 theskäl: analytical Museet potentials har en of gång comparative tagit emot research. föremålen Further, som I briefly mention some of the dominant perspectives in donationerexisting research eller in somorder inköpto point från, to aspects, i de perspecflesta- fall, När etttives, föremål and factors – det må that vara have ett received ordinärt less vardagsföremål scholarly attention. privatpersoner. Finally, I suggest Man that får eventutgå frånanalysis, att ande evolvingsom skänkt som methodtidigare in haranthropology, hanterats can dagligen provide newi egenskap analytical av tools ellerand help sålt increaseföremålen, understanding liksom museets of the representanter, popularity and har bruksföremålsocial significance – blir ett of turbofolkmuseiföremål and chalga. så genomgår åsatt dem ett kulturhistoriskt värde. Museet har påtagit det samtidigt en metamorfos. Det blir inte längre sig ett ansvar att på bästa sätt bevara föremålen för möjligt att vidröra utan att man tar på sig särskilda framtiden, så långt det är möjligt, och det vore därför bomullsvantar och det får inte längre användas för INTRODUCTION oetiskt att avyttra dem. sitt ursprungliga ändamål. Vispen får inte mera vispa, Expectedly, this style of music has received many Emblematicmobiltelefonen among inte those längre phenomena sms:as med. that En gränsare char har- Omdefinitions, museerna but skulle here börja I will avyttra introduce sina föremål it, following så skulle the acteristicpasserats of i post-socialismföremålets livslopp, across enstate ny borders,status och is theen allmänhetensmusic historian förtroende Vesa Kurkela, för museerna as dance sannolikt music thatskadas. is a rapidsärskild spread magi of har a distinctiveladdat föremålet. genre ofFör popular en utomstående music in Museercomplex gör hybrid inga of ekonomiska various styles värderingar and traditions, av föremål, includ - allkan Balkan det förefalla countries både and egendomligt beyond. Even och though komiskt each att föring attpop, inte folk bidra and ethnictill marknadsmässiga music, from Serbian, bedömningar Macedo - och spekulationer, och kan därför inte gå in i en countrydet som has nyss a distinctive hörde till name exempelvis for it (and en familjsin some högst cases nian, Greek, and Turkish popular music, older Bulgarian vanliga köksutrustning plötsligt måste behandlas med försäljningsverksamhet. Museiföremåls värde är helt och more than one) in this article I will use predominantly pop songs, Balkan Romani music, Western pop, rock, största varsamhet för att den förvärvats av ett museum. hållet kulturhistoriska, inte ekonomiska. Ekonomiskt techno, and rap, and even the currents of Afro-Cuban theSkillnaden terms turbofolk mellan (from en porslinsurna post-Yugoslavian från regions) 1700-talet and är alltså ett museiföremål i princip inte värt något alls, chalgaoch en (from plastbunke Bulgaria), från as these 2000-talets have become IKEA generic är i detfor eftersommusic. At det its aldrigstylistic kommer core, some ut på chalga en marknad. features distin- 2 guishable rhythmic patterns also recognizably linked to themuseologiska main geographical sammanhanget foci of this upphävt. study. Museiföremål utgör källmaterial för forskning. Vilka “oriental” or belly dance. These characteristics can be as- Cirka 1% av museernas föremålssamlingar brukar vara föremål som skulle kunna avvaras kan inte avgöras, sociated with an imagined “East” reminding of dance 1 utställda. Procenten ändrar visserligen innehåll vartefter eftersom vi inte vet vilka frågor som kommer att This is a paraphrase of a famous commentary by the rapper Rambo music styles found throughout the eastern Mediterra- Amadeusbasutställningar published in byggs the electronic om, föremål news site ställs Express. ut iBelow tillfälliga is bli relevanta för framtida kulturhistorisk forskning. a utställningartranslation by the eller author lånas of uta quote till andra from themuseers interview: utställningar, “Again, Visserligennean (Kurkela, kan 2007:144). idag endast Because ett urvalof this, ur it dagensis often pumpingmen faktum nationalism, kvarstår insists atton partition vid varje ... People givet with ögonblick income up är föremålshavpresented in görasnational – alltofficial kan inte discourse sparas and– men academic de todet 300 eneuros mycket per month liten are del the targetav den of nationalism.totala föremålsskatten It is served tidigarepublications urval insom opposition föregångarna to high på museerna culture harand gjort good to them. When someone is payed over 500 euros per month, then en gång måste respekteras, eftersom de gjordes med onesom starts är talking tillgänglig about their i utställningsform. wardrobe and cafes. When Digitalt the income ökar taste (Šentevska 2014; Statelova 2005).The music and comestillgängligheten to more than a thousand,successivt then genom the top themeatt föremålsfoton is healthy food, utgångspunkt i den tidens vetenskapliga intressen. 2 dancing feature distinctive performative, plastic, and theirpubliceras plans for påthe mångasummer museersand winter hemsidor, vacation; when men income närheten reach- Befintligaexpressive museisamlingar aesthetic. In the måste time hållas immediately intakta för attfollowing kunna esoch more tillgången than three tillthousand, museernas then all samlingar the evasion är ceases. ändå begränsadPeople then bildathe democratization utgångspunkt för of museivetenskaplig socialist countries forskning, (early 1990s) det talkför about allmänheten, weather forecasts trots attand ”tillgängliggörande” love. However, most people har högstahere have an average salary of 300 to 500 euros (if they even receive a villit could säga forskningbe conceived om alsomuseer as “freedom” (inte bara frompå museer). false social - salary).”prioritet (Mitrović, i museernas 2015) verksamhet. 1 ist morality that took its basis in disparaging any signs 2 Jag avser här professionella museer som finansieras med offentliga The term “turbofolk” is popularly attributed to the Montenegrian medel och har utbildad personal, och bortser helt från allehanda FÖREMÅLof eroticism as partSOM of KULTURPRODUKTERthe de-individualization process rapper Rambo Amadeus, who coined it to capture the emotional dy- privata eller kommersiella samlingar som kallar sin verksamhet Föremålenof totalitarian har regimes i etnologisk (Kon mening& Riordan sin betydelse1993; Kourtova som namics”museum” of the men music. som “Chalga”, i själva according verket inteto the uppfyller Bulgarian de Musico krav -på logistprofessionell Rosemary museiverksamhet Statelova is a word som of ställts older upp origin, av den describing internationella urban produkter2013). av kultur. Detta innebär alltså att föremål eller entertainmentmuseiorganisationen music from ICOM the 19c.(International performed Councilby ethnically of Museums). mixed andraAs fysiska East företeelserEuropean inteimaginaries i sig själva of utgör freedom ”kultur”. were instrumental bands. The term was revived in the 1990s to denote a 2 Se till exempel www.digitaltmuseum.se, där flera svenska museer För att förstå vad som menas med detta påstående måste somewhat different music and social phenomenon (Statelova, 2005; strongly associated with the West, Western popular visar delar av sina föremåls- och fotosamlingar. Valchinova-Chendova, 2000). vimusic först with försöka its imagery förklara and kulturbegreppet. aesthetic served as a source

NätverketNätverket 2016:2020: 22:20: 69–862–7 ISSN:ISSN: 1651-0593 1651-0593 692 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/http://natverket.etnologi.uu.se # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction for chalga and turbofolk too. Soon after its inception, spheres did not attract as much research attention, however, chalga started being attacked and condemned. perhaps because they did not show such strong associ- In addition to the intelligentsia, in Bulgaria, for example, ations with chalga and the latter could not be used as a the socialist popular music celebrities, who abruptly marker in such straightforward way. Studies of turbo- lost their state-promoted privileges, and popularity in folk provide contradictory or ambiguous ideas of how the competition with new chalga stars, announced it the taste for it intersects with social class, profession- as of lower quality and vulgar. Internationally, analysts al groups, political views, and level of education. Little pointed to turbofolk lyrics’, stage performances’ and research has been based in quantitative or ethnograph- clothing’s resemblance to pornography (Monroe 2000). ic data, so many publications reiterate generalized or Thus, throughout the 1990s, simultaneously with the biased impressions or beliefs shared widely in society rapid spread of chalga and turbofolk among vast groups or by other researchers. It should be acknowledged that of the population in the Balkans, they were denigrated different aspects of identity intersect in complex ways, as signs of bad taste, low education, low culture and and highlighting certain aspects essentializes certain social class, and rural origin. identities in misleading simplifications. Negative attitudes to turbofolk have received a One area where both turbofolk and chalga are per- good deal of discussion in the literature through the sistently seen as instrumental, are the fields of national application of the critical framework of Said’s orien- or Balkan identities, and nationalism. The strong tradi- talism (Said 1978; Šentevska 2014) and the concept of tion of research that translates turbofolk and by analogy balkanism. Balkanism expands some of Saids’ insights in later years chalga, into nationalism, is grounded in onto the Balkan Peninsula as Europe’s internal pe- turbofolk political mobilization in the Kosovo conflict. I riphery and its internal “other”: “in it, but not really of think it is a result of the less or more distant relationship it. They are Europe’s dark shadow, its inherent Other, of the genre with folklore, but also the strong academic and possibly, its very own internal Orient” (Buchanan, devotion to the topics of ethnicity and nationalism in 2007:xviii; Razsa & Lindstrom 2004:633). The concept the Eastern Balkans. The preoccupation with nationa- of balkanism problematizes the dichotomy between the lism has produced interesting and useful insights and West and the Balkans as a center and a periphery, as a perhaps contributed to the field of musicology studying West against East, North against South, and civilized the interface between popular music and nationalism. against barbaric (Todorova 1997). The exclusive focus on nationalism, however, is reduc- All studies of turbofolk and chalga emphasize the tionist and political in itself. genres’ role in identity formation and expression in the Balkans. Varied theoretical perspectives have been used Within this conceptual tradition, the cultural to discuss the imposition, performing, communicat- theorist Alexei Monroe in an analytically sound but ing, and negotiating of identities. Along these, scholars rhetorically loaded article from the year 2000 argues have paid attention to music as emotionally, politically, that turbofolk is maintaining the nationalist order and symbolically, and economically loaded social landscape agenda of Serbia as a militant culture (Monroe 2000). (Dragicevic-Sesic 1994; Ibroscheva 2014; Ivanova 2000; Employing Noam Chomsky’s insights about popular Kourtova 2013; Kronja 2004; Ranova 2006; Sotirova culture as integral to the construction of consent to 2012). Still, it is interesting to ask why post-socialist dominant ideology, Monroe shows how turbofolk is scholars attributed such a role to chalga and turbofolk, a quintessentially post-modern product. It utilizes and not to other music and entertainment fields. While Western techniques such as the proliferation of exces- I do not offer a straightforward answer to this question sive consumption, of the spectacular and of deliberate here, my discussion is suggestive: scholars have a stake sensory overload (op. cit.). What is distinctive about it, at the construction of these phenomena, both nationally however, Monroe argues, following the famous Slovene and internationally. philosopher Slavoj Žižek, is the packaging of consump- In the 1990s, some scholars applied binary models tion in a nationalist form: “while in the West, the spec- in studying chalga as a reference that marks identity. The tacle is the speed and glamour of consumption itself, in following oppositions have been identified: urban-rural, Serbia the spectacle is the consumption, in its fullest educated/intellectual-non-educated, Western-Orien- sense, of the nation” (op. cit.). Monroe characterizes this tal, good taste-vulgar, moral/modest-immoral. Other phenomenon which he calls porn-nationalism as:

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…almost every permitted representation in the dominant qualities; and finally, first-person articulations of rela- Serbian media strategy is lurid, vulgar and excessive. Taken tionships to the music. as a totality, the signals of the media involved can be read as a type of national pornography. The actual (and extremely In this programmatic paper, I suggest that we can lurid) pornography in the Serbian infosphere is dwarfed by study anthropologically turbofolk and chalga, applying a a unrelenting pornography of the national that (re)produces classical approach, i.e., event analysis. While this is not constant arousal and constant gratification, making every- a detailed ethnographic study, my purpose is to discuss thing remotely national explicit and, for many in Serbia and some significant aspects of this music field both in the beyond, obscene. (Monroe 2000) realm of discourse and practice and to illustrate some of In a much recent and more nuanced study of turbofolk, its generative potentials. In this sense, I will not present Atanasovski suggests that nothing points to the state a comprehensive picture of chalga or turbofolk. Rather, intentionally constructing turbofolk music as a channel I offer some observations and analyses, in order to of Serbian nationalism. Before, during, and after the pinpoint chalga’s and turbofolk’s multiple potentialities conflict in Kosovo, turbofolk together with other styles as fields of individual and group agency, in navigating in of popular music and a wide range of propaganda media a complex field of meanings and practices. I adopt the have been used by the regime to mobilize people (Ata- strategy of questioning the exclusive association of these nasovski 2015). genres with identity and nationalism, and state imposi- Turbofolk as the engine of porn-nationalism, tion of knowledge and power. In addition, I will apply Monroe claims, both questions and reproduces images an intersectional approach in order to show how diverse of the Balkans as peripheral, un-cultured, and “Other”. and multiple meanings can be attributed simultaneous- The concept of porn-nationalism might reveal a hidden ly to these musical and performance genres through state agenda in relation to turbofolk, but it poses both symbolism and other associations, and how these are political and analytical problems. It contributes to bal- employed for economic profit, marketing, consumption, kanism by reducing the complex engagements that local and imposition of power, on the one hand, but also for consumers of turbofolk have, and the multiple meanings everyday communication and negotiation of identity, that are attributed to and communicated in the music. emotion, and aesthetic, or finding psychological refuge Finally, like other research of turbofolk and chalga that from life stress and anxieties. In this study, the intersec- focuses on nationalism and identity exclusively, it does tional perspective is taken to be a method that seeks to not explain the longevity of the music, its increasing explain social outcomes, such as gender discrimination, audiences across ethnic boundaries throughout Bosnia, as produced not independently, but in interaction with Croatia and Slovenia (Čvoro 2014), its ability to create other factors, such as social class, professional groups, and new synergies with other styles and to change and ac- ethnicity, which reinforce each other (Cho, Crenshaw commodate new forms, images, messages, symbols. & McCall 2013; Crenshaw 1991, 2004; Yuval-Davis According to another dominant trend in the study 2011). Intersectional analysis can provide critical optics of turbofolk and chalga, the phenomena are part of for the study of the politics and economy in relation to transforming identity work among Balkan nations, music and gender. where the main axis are Ottoman heritage and oriental In the study, I employ personal observations and backwardness, on the one hand, and European moder- experiences of the growth of chalga in Bulgaria since nity, on the other. Analyses along this axis within the the 1980s. I identify this method as autoethnography, fields of Cultural Studies, Linguistic Anthropology and following Jones, Adams, and Ellis who define autoeth- Folklore Studies, have produced sophisticated under- nography as the use of personal experience to analyze standings of how such synergetic music genres are also and critique culture. Autoethnography has the following fields of anxiety, mediation, re-negotiation of the nation’s characteristics: 1) it provides relevant and sometimes position in relation to the targeted European moderni- critical comments of current cultural practices; 2) it is ty and civilization (Georgiev 2012; Livni 2014). While engaging and contributing to existing research; 3) it such approach addresses the ambivalence and contra- embraces vulnerability; 4) it strives to engage audiences dictions within the music genres, it accommodates to a in reciprocal relationship ( Jones, Adams, & Ellis 2016). lesser extent other equally important characteristics: the My experience of chalga has evolved alongside my dynamic transformation and diversity within turbofolk shifting position in society, determined largely by my and chalga; emotional and affective qualities; festivity personal affinities and dispositions, and my age, edu-

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 71 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction cational, social and material environment. As I explain and situations that are part of my personal history and below, I have expressed opposition to chalga in my are emotionally loaded for me, (which I have strived identity building work, and even ignored it. As theo- to escape previously through my professional engage- rists show, in autoethnography, “members’” orientations ment with other areas of the world). My vulnerability and interpretations are significantly influenced by role increases by the act of publicly presenting my personal expectations related to specific member roles (Anderson experience and analyzing it. As theorists of autoethnog- 2006). Chalga, as I discuss here, has become a field where raphy point out, researchers have to “make choices about social fissures find expression, fissures within all kinds which selves and experiences to share as a way of miti- of social formations, such as families, friendship groups, gating vulnerability and potential exposure to criticism” professional groups, or larger communities. Few people ( Jones et al. 2016:24). This reflection is a continuation have remained unaffected by it. In order to understand of my identity work and self-representation within both its role and power, and provoked by one-sided analysis of academic and more private environments. “The choice it, I use my experience and self-analysis here to question to make a self vulnerable is often made with the hope and add to previous research of chalga. I take inspiration that audiences will engage with and respond to our work from classical anthropological rendering of the method in constructive, meaningful—even vulnerable—ways” as a way to contest and complement powerful academic (op. cit.:25). discourses including insiders’ portrayals of themselves In the following section, I mention some ideas from and their culture (Buzard 2003). Simultaneously, I hope the field of event anthropology that I believe can offer a this work will deepen my developing self-critical re- more nuanced understanding of the role and meaning of flection on my personal relation to chalga and Balkan popular music. After this, I introduce briefly the history society. As Anderson notices, “autoethnographic inter- of turbofolk and chalga since the 1980s. I review some rogation of self and other may transform the researcher’s of the binary oppositions that are marked in existing own beliefs, actions, and sense of self ” (Anderson 2006). research as meaningful in identity formation processes In line with autoethnography’s ambition to engage audi- in which such music is the field. Finally, I discuss some ences in reciprocal relationship, I also strive to contrib- of the potentialities that event analysis can have when ute to people’s awareness of the complexity of the social applied to turbofolk and chalga. phenomena pertaining to chalga, and turbofolk, both in academia and wider. EVENTS AS GENERATIVE LOCI While I borrow a definition from the so called “evocative” autoethnographic tradition, that emphasizes In an earlier publication I have questioned the popular the descriptive, literary qualities of research and invokes interpretation of festivals primarily as sites for securing the epistemology of emotion, this paper is grounded in popular support and building up legitimacy for the elites the tradition of analytical autoethography too. In order or for state power among local population in Russia to increase the critical and analytical value of the work, I (Vladimirova 2017). I show that such a framework draw on the memories, stories and reflections that three focuses on an analytically pre-constructed function of relatives and three acquaintances of mine shared during such events by singling out assumed intentions of one the Christmas holidays of 2017. The majority of such group of stakeholders and obscuring a range of other narratives come from people who more or less like and experiences that different participants might have. Such listen to chalga and whom I informed about my inten- analysis takes for granted that certain ideas and values tion to write about the subject. These conversations were are leading in a society where all members perceive the not recorded but I took notes after the events, so a few same symbols in a predictable way which shapes their accurate quotations have been possible to use in this text. experiences (Handelman 1998). In my search for the- The age of the informants ranges from 27 to 80. Finally, oretical insights that are conducive to a more nuanced in order to reveal and reflect on my bias in the following analysis of festivals as one expression of popular culture, analysis, I engage as much as possible the existing litera- I came across the recent re-articulation of the Man- ture and published ethnography on chalga. I extensively chester School of anthropological thought and Max use published materials in my account of turbofolk as Gluckman, who offered an innovative approach for well as information and comments I got from colleagues research of social change. Events in this anthropological and friends in Sweden who come from the region. tradition were seen as critical junctures of change, rather This paper is a first attempt to reflect on places than examples of social structure, norm, and pattern

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(Gluckma 1956; Mitchell 1956). Max Gluckman and his sums up such diverse and sometimes antithetical under- followers combined influences from structural function- standings of turbofolk: fake folklore, kitsch, “Oriental alist thought and Marxism to focus on processes seen as howling”, mass culture, subculture, “camouflage of the unfolding in situations and not predetermined by norms harsh social reality through compulsive entertainment”, and rules, or the laws of progress and history (Evens & a way to legitimize the aggressive class of nouveau Handelman 2006). The most renowned methodologi- riches, tool of Serbian nationalism, voice of the winners, cal contribution of the school, the extended case study, or respectively of the losers of post socialism, authentic known also as situational or event analysis, established Serbian pop-music, uniting factor of all Balkan nations new ethnographic praxis focusing on empirical cases (Šentevska 2014). Below I will add some variances of rather than selecting material to support theoretical ar- these definitions plus discuss understandings of chalga guments. These served as the foundation of theorizing that can perhaps be extended to turbofolk. As Šentevska and analysis of diverse interests and incommensurable and few other scholars observe, most of these definitions and incoherent dimensions of human agency within exclude the opinions and attitudes of those people who lived situations. Event analysis takes into account the like, listen to, and create turbofolk and chalga. constant flux of social relations and causalities between Event analysis looks at these genres of popular actors and contexts at local and global levels (Glaeser music in a less deterministic way and provides space for 2006; Handelman 2006; Kapferer 2006). the analysis of a broader diversity of meanings, inten- In combination with post-structuralist thought, tions, and emotions projected on them. I suggest that Bruce Kapferer adapts ideas from the philosophy of we take as an event both the rapid spread of chalga and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, to argue for the event turbofolk in the early 1990s, as well as individual per- as a creative and generative nexus of novel social pos- formances and the ongoing re-creation of the genres. sibilities. He replaces a focus on controlled agency and The breakthrough that event analysis can achieve is patterned relations for lived practice and experience as to reveal the contradictions and incoherence existing unfolding and opening up for “multiplicity of sensory in the fields of chalga and turbofolk, and in the ways and cognitive processes which permits all kinds of different stakeholders experience them. I also explore agency and effects”. The event, then is the “critical site the ways that these are instrumental in negotiating of emergence, manifesting the singularity of a particular existing relations and meanings and in propelling the multiplicity within tensional space and opening toward emergence of new ones. At the same time, as Kapferer new horizons of potential” (Kapferer 2015:15). It can stresses, a vision of the event as “creative and generative be studied and known through its “actualizations” or nexus,” which breaks with essentialist and deterministic “realizations” rather than as predetermined by histori- thinking, does not disclaim entirely the importance of cal, social, psychological, or cultural processes. The event more systematic or controlled processes, of past events, is then “a creative crucible of new, hitherto unrealized or of psychology (Kapferer 2015:15). Further, festivals potential” rather than a mirror of the world and a result accommodate intentions, ideas, models, and symbols of the past (ibid.). It is not premised on the past and that are grounded in a complex of different traditions is not pre-determining the future, or constitutes a link and systems of meaning, often in multiethnic urban en- from a repetitive, regulated, predictable system. Rather, vironments (Apostolov 2008). Such multiplicity cannot a radical empirical approach to the study of the event is easily be subjected to any strict limitation and control, “to explore the novel potentiality of a becoming that is prediction and channeling, either in space or in time. As always not yet” (op. cit.:16). Such approach resonates with contemporary an- empirical observation shows, it provides creative spaces thropological interest in phenomenology and ethics for multiple (re-) interpretations and re-presentations (Mattingly 2018). Without exaggerating these method- post-factum that can be used and re-used to support ology and theoretical insights as universal in the study endless new projects and political agendas. of festivals and popular culture, I think that they can help produce interesting and deeper analysis of chalga BALKAN HERITAGE and turbofolk in the Balkans. Scholarship on turbofolk AND INTERCULTURALITY shows many attempts to analyze the multiple dimen- The majority of turbofolk studies are exclusively dealing sions of this phenomenon (in contrast to somewhat with Serbia and other post-Yugoslavian countries and weaker academic interest to chalga). Irena Šentevska only some mention that similar phenomena exist in

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 73 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction neighboring Balkan states. More recent scholarship of popularity are hard to identify at this point of research has started to see into the phenomenon some traces of and time. common Balkan identity that goes beyond balkanism, The female singer Lepa Brena deserves to be men- i.e., the shared inferiority complex or ascribed margin- tioned here as extremely popular and beloved in Bulgaria ality, and some musicologists have even suggested a new in the 1980s. Her video clips and music records were joint research agenda (Ceribašić, Hofman & Rasmussen not officially sold by the single socialist music company, 2008). Studies on chalga, on the other hand, look for Balkanton. As part of a well-established network of its local roots, or claim it is a borrowing from neigh- informal (black) marketing, audio cassettes with her boring Yugoslavia, Turkey, or Roma culture (Rice 2002). songs were imported from Serbia privately, and then But each of these traditions only represent a part of reproduced for personal use or black marketing. Even more complex cultural and social processes. In order to though not everyone listened to her music, most people analyze these processes more broadly, I believe it can be knew of her and could recognize her songs. helpful to study the origins of both styles in their respec- Another genre that musicologists name as direct tive contexts, but also in their mutual connections. Such predecessor of chalga is wedding music (Ranova, 2006). analyses have been initiated within the edited volume by The beginning of this style is also traced to the 1980s Buchanan (2007). Connections between Balkan popular (Silverman 2007). While the older generation of my music are complex, they are legacies of the Ottoman informants know the songs mentioned in the literature Empire heritage in the second half of 19th century, so- on wedding music, they do not recognize them by the cialism in 20th c. and its following dissolution and crises, same name, but refer to them as “music for the table”, as well as global capitalism, politics, and ideas. or “for after a few drinks”. Many more emic names can Musicologists have pointed out to chalga’s similar- be listed, if broader ethnographic research is conducted. ities with urban popular music in Bulgaria of the early “Table music” according to some of my interviews, is 1920s (Buchanan 2007; Statelova 2005). The music “unofficial” folk music, i.e. songs that professionalized might point out to such origins of chalga, but if we folklore of socialist time has not recognized or censors look into the social continuity and people’s narratives, have pointed to as unacceptable, because of their associa- chalga’s beginnings should be traced to the early 1980s tion with an unprivileged ethnic group, as inappropriate, and the huge popularity of what was called in Bulgaria or obscene. Such music has been ignored as non-existent “Serbian” or “Yugoslavian” music. Experts name this by the authorities, and yet performed and enjoyed on a kind of music “Newly Composed Folk Music” (NCFM) mass scale, in diverse circles of society. Together with the and connect it to important political transformations varieties of village folklore that did not pass censorship of Yugoslavian state regime in the 1970s. While many but were still remembered, it can perhaps be defined as associate NCFM with growing consumerism and mar- cultural intimacy, to borrow Michael Herzfeld’s term ketization, others point to its dissident character (Ras- (Herzfeld 1997). mussen 2013). According to informants’ descriptions, In Yugoslavia, the origins of turbofolk are also from for Bulgarians “Serbian” music of the time combined the the early 1980s. In the context of socialist countries, Yu- sense of Western dance music and visions with sounds, goslavia has the aura of a “Western ally”, much higher rhythms, and emotions that are more “native” to the standard, consumption, and finally, relative freedom. region. While there are perhaps some regional differen- Many activities and freedoms that in Bulgaria would be ces, the part of Bulgaria I have grown up in, i.e. the capital defined by the official adjective “debasement” (i.e. im- and the South-West, was not far from the Yugoslavian morality) were not condemned in neighboring Yugosla- borders, and many people during my childhood had via. At the same time, Yugoslavia was more accessible strong interest in NCFM music. If I try to reconstruct for Bulgarians in comparison to other Western and even by memory the social characteristics of this audience, I socialist countries, because of similarities in language, see some very loose demarcation lines, perhaps mostly shared ethnic minorities, and similar historical heritage. in education and job identity. For example, in order to The historical context that eventually brought up mark belonging to intelligentsia, a person would deny turbofolk can be followed to 1948, with Josip Broz listening to “Serbian” music. This said, I like to point out Tito’s break up with Stalin, his Resolution and so-called that many were perhaps also more passive listeners than self-managed socialism. Under this regime, all enter- active ones, i.e. would enjoy it if someone else plays it, or prises were given to the management of workers. The at least tolerate it. Unfortunately, more accurate statistics breakup with Stalin harmed the country’s economic

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 74 Vladimirova, V. # balance since Russia and its satellites enforced an backward people. This set it in opposition to the Yugoslav embargo. That made Tito turn to Western powers, state that actively sought to promote and project an image of a progressive liberal society through openness to Western mostly the USA from where he received considerable influences. (Čvoro 2014:10) financial and other help. This resulted in a period of lib- eralization in every aspect of life and the appearance of As Čvoro writes, in this period, popular music is one of a consumer society. Yugoslavia tried to portray itself as a the areas in which cultural identity and difference were state where socialism had a more human face. Western articulated and communicated. While this is first termed influence was also used as a way to navigate nationa- as taste, soon the objections to NCFM focused around lism within the country. It fostered Western influenced one particular aspect: its “oriental” sound, i.e. richly-or- popular music, first in the form of jazz and Italian pop namented melodies with various trill patterns. This style and afterwards rock-and-roll, despite its expressions of is symbolically associated with Turkish cultural domi- sexual freedom that did not fully follow state imposed nance under the centuries-long Ottoman rule in the norms of morality (Atanasovski 2015). region, and is thus marginalized both on the basis of As scholars argue, NCFM is a product of this “otherness” and on a civilization scale (Čvoro 2014; Ras- economic and political predicament of 1970s and 1980s, mussen 2013). Thus, from its accession, NCFM com- and those who look for its earlier roots are mostly prises a contradiction in popular symbolic attribution of contributing to its mythology (Čvoro 2014). NCFM meaning and identification: on the one hand it is seen started as experimenting to apply pop music idioms as folk and traditional, and egalitarian, coming from the such as song structure and lyrical themes dealing with sources of folklore, on the other – as foreign, as “other”, contemporary life on popular folk music, such as village as Oriental, an identity against which Balkan national singing or ritual instrumental music. NCFM combined identities are constructed. This is only one axis of unre- pop elements with “regional codes”, such as a distinc- solved contradictions. Such contradictions resort around tive rhythmic pattern, a melodic sequence and an in- the oppositions cosmopolitan–primitive, rural–urban strumental or textual motif associated with local iden- and European–Balkan. Scholars attribute these to the tities (Rasmussen 2013). The resulting music quickly complex political, historical and economic conditions in acquired recognizable stable features and themes, such the Balkans, both at the inception of NCFM and later. as love, regional belonging, family and everyday life Self-management policy in Yugoslavia introduced (Čvoro 2014). The combination between quintessential a shift to a market-based economy, which enabled the folk instruments, such as accordion, tapan and darabuka growth of the entertainment industry and development drums, and electric guitar, bass, keyboards and electronic of popular culture. However, because of its idiosyncratic drums is one of these features. Thus, materially and sym- economic, political and cultural position, popular culture bolically folk music and spirit is upgraded to the present, that developed also had a distinctive and peculiar cha- modern, and high status (Čvoro 2014:9). The process of racter. This ambiguity enabled the growth and flourish- updating folk life, sensibilities and identity to modern ing of the music industry, while also ensuring that the ones was explicitly or implicitly addressed in the music music remained at the margins of the official system itself, sometimes in joking or even ironic ways, through of values. At particular moments of “socialist devel- lyrics and performers’ stage behavior. opment” – in the 1970s and 1980s – NCFM was dis- Scholars point out to broader global momentum cussed through the frame of cultural values (the charge marked by the emergence of so-called “world music”, of of music as harmful kitsch) and ethnic identity (in the which NCFM seems to be contemporary. In Yugosla- orientalization debates). These highly charged ideolog- via and beyond, folk music was being transformed by ical frames became key points around which collective a number of rock and jazz musicians who began to in- identity was articulated. The cultural signifiers of “kitsch” corporate elements of folk as a way to experiment and and “oriental” were not only crucial in the formation expand their sound. Within this global process of at- of cultural self-perception in Yugoslavia, but continue tributing new status and value to folk music, local di- to frame debates about NCFM and turbofolk in the versities and contradictions deserve research attention. present (Čvoro 2014). According to some scholars, in contrast to jazz and rock, It is hard to evaluate retrospectively using ethno- NCFM was graphic methods to what extent debates and catego- ries inherent in Yugoslavian NCFM were followed in the antithesis to progressive modern Yugoslavia. It was seen as the domain of the uncultured, uneducated and generally Bulgaria. The generation of informants that I inter-

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 75 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction viewed, who were in their 20s in the late 1970s and music served as a specific “window” to the West and a 1980s, mostly iterate the attraction of the music for sign of the level of liberalization and democratization partying, the emotions it evokes, the associations with (Hofman 2017). In the later part of the 1980s and in traditional village folk music, and the sexual appeal of the 1990s, a number of younger female and male singers the female singers. Finally, that they felt it closer than gained popularity within pop folk music. other imported styles, because they could understand Scholars discuss the war in Kosovo as a key event the language. As illegally imported quasi-Western in the rearticulation of turbofolk music as a container product, “Serbian music” was seen at the time by many of predominantly nationalist messages and ideology as pointing to a higher status than the officially estab- (Monroe 2000). I am not able to verify empirically what lished, approved, and distributed Bulgarian folk music. broader audiences think of such a cuasal relation. Within In some ways, informants point out, “Serbian music” these events, particularly the image of Lepa Brena got could be interpreted as subversion of the official pro- transformed, despite the fact that it is another folk star, hibition and censure of Western popular music. In its Ceca, that got married to Željko Ražnatović (Arkan). subversive role, it is similar to uncensored Bulgarian folk Arkan was the founder of a paramilitary group (Serb music, dying out in peripheral villages together with its Volunteer Guard) involved in the genocide in Croatia last bearers and to the above mentioned wedding music. and Bosnia and Herzegovina and later sentenced for I base this statement not solely on my personal crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the memories of growing up in the capital of Bulgaria in Geneva Convention. Within some of her songs, Lepa the1980s, but in evidence from other interviewees. On Brena announced to the world (not much unlike others), official public level, “Serbian music“ was ignored as that she supports Yugoslavia, which she identifies with non-existent, so official debate about it and those who the drive to modernization and upward social mobility, listen to it could not appear until the 1990s. Neither any multiculturalism, social equality and economic wellbe- of the people I talked to discerns so much Yugoslavian ing. Because of Milošević pressure on her to entertain or Serbian nationalist messages in it, at least in its Bul- and motivate the army during the military events she garian context. One of the interviewees even remem- continues to be associated with Serbian nationalism in bered that Lepa Brena, whom many scholars associate media and research even today. Lepa Brena was picked with long-lasting “true” Yugoslavian ideology, identity up as one of the main tabloid targets in the 1990s on and values, was actually born and grew up in a small unproved allegations that she intensely denied, such Bosnian urban community, in a working-class Muslim as speaking with a Serbian accent, being married to a family. The same informant shared with me links to Serbian celebrity (tennis player), and converting from YouTube records where she performs more syncretic Islam to Orthodoxy, thus betraying her native culture, music, including rock, samba and tango. According to people and place. This is mostly an example where eth- scholars, Lepa Brena is the first truly market economy nicity is constructed in a post-imperial (post-Yugoslav) music star, whose career was shaped in a way similar to situation. the way other central state supported genres, like rock- Few other singers have been reported in the lite- and-roll, and jazz. At the same time, with her person- rature to perform blatant Serbian nationalism, such as ality, Western star appearance, and stage performance, Mirko Pajčin, known as Baja Mali Knindža, and openly she managed to mobilize wider audiences. Her huge sympathizing with Serbian paramilitary. Nevertheless, concerts were organized accordingly and in contrast to as Atanasovski argues, it is perhaps not accurate to claim previous folk performances. As scholars observe, she that Milošević produced or supported the rise of turbo- was popular in other Balkan countries too, for example folk in order to destroy the cultural alternatives to the na- in 1984, her concert in Timisoara, Romania, exceeded tionalistic project (Gordy 2010). The process is perhaps all expectations and instead of the anticipated 30.000, much more complex and can be connected to the history 60.000 fans attending. She ended her tour in Bulgaria in of the genre, the effects of the economic crises and the 1990 with the concert in the Levski Stadium in Sofia, in imposition of market economy (Ðurkovid 2001). The front of 100.000 people – the biggest musical event in loss of cultural alternatives described by Gordy resulted the Balkans for its time. This show was not only seen as mostly from the withdrawal of state support, the social just extraordinary music performance but also a political and economic crises which affected Western-influenced event par excellence. In these countries, Brena and her music genres, incapable of sustaining their activities. The

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 76 Vladimirova, V. # radical nationalistic examples of turbofolk, although In order to provide some logical structure of the presen- representative of the ideological system, could only exist tation, I arrange the section around some of the dicho- within the context of the genre’s extreme popularity tomies that have been most commonly presented as axis and appeal (Atanasovski 2015:90-91). In some instan- of meaning in turbofolk and chalga. ces, of course, nationalism in a context of radicalization can also transform the music and shape audiences. The LOCALISM AND SOCIAL CONTEXT multiple potentialities of the genre can develop in both Chalga originary story directions. At this point, it is interesting to compare turbofolk Numerous Bulgarian publications about chalga mention with evolving chalga in the 1990s, in the slightly diffe- its kinship with Serbian turbofolk, together with the rent context of economic and political liberalization in genre similarities with Turkish arabesk and Romanian Bulgaria. Lepa Brena and other older and new folk ce- manele. The enormous popularity of NCFM on Bulgar- lebrities preserved some of their popularity and the alle- ian ground is however more rarely stressed as the direct gation for Serbian nationalism did not follow it or raise predecessor and stimulus to chalga, as well as the source public debate in Bulgaria. Since the 1990s, however, such of its content, aesthetic, and imagery. Instead, chalga is stars remained more and more in the shade of a quickly traced back to the 1980s and the mythologized figure of growing number of local chalga singers. Like in neigh- the Hisara Preast (Statelova 2005:15). Dimitar Andonov, bouring countries, business interests were a major driver as his real name is, is a self-educated singer and per- of the process of evolving taste for the music and edu- former, who according to his myth, is either a rebel who cating audiences. One of the emblematic names for this escaped from his socialist family, or a monk who escaped industry and the birth nest of multiplying chalga stars from the monastery, to travel and perform contemporary is Payner Studio. Payner Studio was created in the early folk songs that had been banned by the regime because 1990s in a small provincial town in Southern Bulgaria, of their lyrics. According to more verifiable data, in the but is at present situated in a big building in the centre 1980s, he was making illegal records of his songs, that of the capital. Its ascendance in space is revealing about were sold via the black marketing networks privately or the development of market economy, consumption, taste on agricultural markets, together with other goods, most and values in post-socialist Bulgaria. often illegally imported by tourists and travelers from Despite all assertions in the literature, it is hard to neighboring Yugoslavia (Peycheva & Dimov 1994). The determine a single hearth origin of chalga, a phenome- second key event that historians of chalga keep repeat- non that quickly became so broad and diverse, borrowing ing is Krystal Orkestra that gained popularity in the from a variety of sources, imports, and inspirations. The transition to the 1990s and post-socialism. multiplicity of functions ascribed to and projected on it In their turn, some Western scholars, analyze also contribute to the complexity of the phenomenon. chalga as borrowing from neighboring post-Yugosla- Chalga has been described as an expression of the moral vian nations, and even as an imported post-Ottoman digression of the transition, where moral norms and heritage (Rice 2002). Both attitudes are puzzling, and political values “crashed”, and gave ground to criminal- I can only explain them within the framework of a par- ization, mercantilism and consumerism, vulgarization, ticular discourse. Within such discourse, there exist ex- pornography, and kitsch. It promises escape from the clusive national borders based in clearly-defined ethnic “confusing and depressing reality” (Agoston-Nikolova groups and territories. Within such fictive construction, 2008:12). It is irrational in that it helps negate old values Bulgaria is outside the realm of Ottoman heritage and in order to face insecure and unpredictable reality and its creation and reproduction, and its genres of folk cre- restructure it, including by humour and parody (Rice ativity are clearly defined and distinct from those of all 2002). The search for a particular temporal, spatial, and other Balkan national/ethnic groups. This fictive picture cultural origin is perhaps also part of a political project, has strong political connotations, which have been an attempt to construct chalga in a particular way, which utilized in many political agendas, with diverse purposes. is resonant with political, economic or social agenda. The example of mobilizing turbofolk in military conflict For the purposes of more nuanced scholarly analysis, is a good example of the inherent risk. In Bulgarian as I suggest in the following section, are illustrations of context, attempts to mobilize the nation through chalga diversity and non-resolute meanings attached to music. have been observed too, particularly in the activity of

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 77 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction the popular TV show star Slavi Trifonov whose music from the last twenty years, where the scholar is expected and television productions purposefully create an image to take the position of, and listen to and present local of the nation and sell that image as an inconspicuous voices, and finally respect them and fight for their inter- element of popular music culture (Kourtova 2012). ests (Robbins 2013)? The position “I do not like chalga” The historical context of the Balkans can perhaps is unacceptable for an anthropologist aspiring to the help explain the bias of this specific historical construc- discipline’s ethical norms, by projecting the attitude one tion. The relatively recent origin of most Balkan states has to the music by default to those that listen to it and in the second half of 19c and their preceding politi- like it. “I am not like them”. i.e. I am better, is the hidden cal history under the Ottoman Empire are the back- message. Even more important than ethical concerns, is ground against which such intensive efforts of building the positionality of this statement, and its dismissal of up a nation and national identity can be analyzed. The the validity and value of the perspectives of those who drawing of borders between these states, not so rarely listen to or like the music (Livni 2014). Interviews and under the dictate of random circumstances like wars observations with such people are noticeably missing in between the European powers, Russia and the Ottoman published research, even in studies that provide careful Empire, then the complex ethnic origin of such a mixed analysis of the attractions that the music has, as well as and long-lived empire like the Ottoman, has contri- its transgressive, revolutionary, emancipatory roles in buted to strong nationalist movements within each of society (Atanasovski 2015; Čvoro 2014; Kourtova 2013). these countries. Finally, such movements have been The trend of negation and criticism in the analysis strongly shaped following a model and support from of turbofolk is predominant since early 1990s, and the European nations (Livni 2014). Such nationalisms often attributed to its connections with the criminaliza- often involve as a referent neighboring Balkan states, tion and militant nationalism in Serbia (Gordy 2010; constructed as others, despite strong ethnic, linguistic, Kronja 2004). Simultaneously, Dragičević-Šešić sees in cultural and historical kinship ties (Todorova 2004). I turbofolk “a form of escapism built on kitsch, nationa- have no space to go in any detail about this complex lism, retrograde patriarchy, traditionalism and cultural research terrain, but I only suggest that it is in it that provincial backwardness” (Dragićević-Šešić 1994). This we can find the grounds for understanding some of the study established the critical paradigm for understand- specificities of the power of chalga and turbofolk. ing turbofolk not just as music, but as a broader cultural construct, reflective of the nationalist and criminal pa- Chalga and turbofolk as identity markers thologies of the 1990s (Čvoro 2014). Its high point was Even though I felt provoked to write this paper by a state campaign purging turbofolk from all state televi- scholarship that I thought was unfairly reducing turbo- sion channels in the mid-1990s. Paradoxically, the state’s folk to porn nationalism, I do not listen to chalga by my activism against turbofolk had the effect of distancing own choice! I want to write the preceding statement, it from Milošević and contributed to its growing pop- and I have wanted to repeat it frequently in encounters ularity. with Bulgarians. What am I trying to say or achieve As Statelova writes, among interested scholars, with this statement? The interplay between notions of two attitudes to chalga predominate: in the minority cultural taste also included the creation of a rift between group are those who try to tolerate and sympathize folk and rock as two key axes of sociocultural identity, with it, because it is “intertwined in the local landscape” encapsulated in the (still present) question, “what music (Statelova 2005:17). In the majority, whom she rep- do you listen to?”. In Yugoslavia, enjoying a particular resents and calls “hard core culturologists”, the “essential song or performer is not a culturally inconsequential cultural phenomenon associated with ethnic pop music choice; it is an indication of musical preference that is is the disgust felt for it” (op. cit.) It is this disgust and tied to cultural affinity (Čvoro 2014). What do other repulsion that is the basis of research interest. Statelova analysists of chalga aim by continuously pointing out takes a semiotic framework of culture and uses Mikhail that they do not listen to or like the music but study Bakhtin’s notion of the “carnivalesque”. In Bakhtin’s it as a persistent (negative) social phenomenon (Čvoro view, the carnival is a communicative event, or rather an 2014; Georgiev 2012; Statelova 2005)? How is such anti-authority communicative event. Carnival’s themes a position compatible with anthropological research normally achieve inversion, ambivalence, and excess. ethics and predominant interest in the “suffering slot” The human body, and particularly its disreputable or

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 78 Vladimirova, V. #

“lower strata” parts, are often used to symbolize the di- category, and Gordy similarly highlights that it is not chotomies between “high” or “low”. The high and low an “aesthetic” category, but a construction derived from dichotomy is particularly relevant in communication, as other basic social oppositions. It is precisely the rep- certain language is considered high, while other is low. resentational and conceptual fluidity of turbofolk that Within such framework, much popular communica- allows it to be framed as a cultural mediator. tion including television shows, books, and movies fall In the next section, I will discuss some of the in- into high and low culture categories (Bakhtin 1984). tersections of identity that chalga has been pointed As Ivanova well illustrates, in this structuralist trend to create and reproduce. In any of these intersections, of analysis, chalga is a ritual with its specific temporal chalga is a tentative marker that lacks stable and definite (night), spatial (the pub), and symbolic characteristics, meaning. that all point out to its carnivalesque role. To borrow an Urban-rural example, one of the most scandalous chalga singers of the 1990s, Sashka Vaseva, the Madonna from Dupnica, This binary opposition has been actualized by mo- is interpreted as the ultimate symbol of the “bottom” – dernization projects in 20th century. As modernity has Dupnitsa as semantically close to the Bulgarian word become associated with urbanization, rural and peasant for bottom (dupe), but also a symbol for the small, rural, have been often constructed in opposition to modern. non-modern town from the periphery. Then, Madonna, Thus, one of the cultural lines of demarcation, includ- with her image as an erotic pop star, her foreignness, ing via popular music, is the urban, cosmopolitan, and that in the Balkan picture of the world stands for the rural, village, local and primitive. Turbofolk and chalga ultimate chthonic source (Ivanova 2000:40). audiences have been generally described as lower or This analysis, however interesting and valid, has its working class families with limited education, and the limitations. Among those who are interested in chalga, rock/punk/new wave audiences that were perceived Sashka Vaseva has often been referred to with irony as the culturally sophisticated middle class (Spasenić and mockingly, as someone who is building a career by 2018). Such idea perhaps evolves from the common taking some elements from the imagery of chalga to belief that NCFM was in the taste of the countryside an extreme, i.e. eroticism. All my informants refuse to and those who have most recently migrated to the city link her with the chalga music that they like. Chalga, (Archer 2012). While there is no statistics about the re- if we take seriously the views of its fans, should not be sidency of the music audience, considering the present reduced to one or a few artists and events, but seen as a demographic picture of Bulgaria, for example, it is more broader and more hybrid range of choices. This is why likely that a big part of chalga audience is urban. The I believe that a Bakhtinian structuralism captures only group of people whom I interviewed for this study some aspects of this complex social phenomenon that have also diverse origin along this divide. The prede- are at the interface of chalga. cessor styles from the beginning of 20th century were A communication framework is also commonly also urban. The topics of most songs, the accompanying applied to the study of turbofolk and its history (Ras- videos, all refer to urban environments too. In terms of mussen 2013). Čvoro agrees that turbofolk has been its symbolic geography, of course this hypothetical de- perceived through a series of cultural oppositions mographic distribution of chalga fans is hardly of such (urban–rural and rock–folk) that shifted over time: in importance. Among the people I interviewed, members the 1970s, central was the question of taste and kitsch; of the younger generation point out to the urban themes in the 1980s, of the “oriental” threat to national identity; and aesthetics of the songs. While they could point out in the 1990s, a split between good Europeanism (urban to people that think of chalga aesthetic as un-cultured, opposition to Milošević) and bad Serb nationalism (pro- they do not self-identify with this position. At the same vincialism) became actualized; and in the 2000s, turbo- time, in more intimate environments, i.e. among friends folk became a signifier for transnational “Balkanness”, a and other chalga fans, people can make jokes that hint regional identity that stands opposed to the neoliberal to chalga as a symbol of lower culture and a definition of global capital. Čvoro explores how turbofolk mediates a “peasant”. This has been pointed to as one of the am- between daily politics and perceptions of national biguities of chalga. The concept of cultural intimacy can identity through culture (Čvoro 2014). Baker suggests help to better understand this phenomenon. Herzfeld that turbofolk should be understood as a conceptual introduced this concept in order to grasp the diversity of

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 79 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction interpretations and moral qualities attributed to cultural emulate the celebrity lifestyles of Western pop music forms, as well as the ways they are employed in commu- and Hollywood divas and adopt similar stage names, nication and social process (Herzfeld 1997; Light 2008). but that sound Bulgarian and sometimes folk, such as Within the group of chalga fans, it can also be part of Anelia, Tsvetelina, Malina, etc. cultural intimacy to call a fellow fan “peasant” without Pop-folk divas appear in fashion magazines, gossip aiming to insult. Thus, chalga, as well as turbofolk needs columns, talk shows and other media to discuss their to be seen as a field of knowledge and practice that is fashion tastes, diets, relationships and house furnishing. open to diverse contextual interpretations and endless The lyrics of songs are also characterized as simplistic, semiotic combinations. As such, and as every other field pornographic, dirty and vulgar. The topics they deal with of social activity, it has huge potential to be employed are currency, capital, and conspicuous consumption, the in directing agency according to different purposes, in markers of capitalist success. A recurring theme is the fulfillment of different agendas. role of personal profit to “real” love, romantic and sexual relations. In some renderings, money is translated into Cultured-uncivilized successful sexual relations and love affairs, in others, it is The urban-rural opposition is in complex intersection opposed to “true” love. Such ambiguities reflect and are with other dichotomies, one of which goes along the part of a tense public debate. Some scholars interpret axis of culture and civilization. The imagery and poetics chalga lyrics as a symbol of the cultural and economic of both chalga and turbofolk have often been described corruption shattering society since 1990 (Kourtova as trite, low-brow and kitsch. They employ sensual and 2013). sexual postures and messages, nudity and sometimes Đurković and Gordy suggest that turbofolk oriental imagery such as belly dance. This imagery pours emerged in the void created by the withdrawal of state from album covers, billboards, announcements, adver- support for pop and rock music, and by the deregulation tising, music videos, concerts and performances, and all of the entertainment industry. In many of the debates kinds of media. What is popular in the visual style of about the moral qualities of turbofolk scholars detect stars is open shirts and gold chains for men, and tight remnants from the “cosmopolitan socialist elite’s” detes- revealing outfits, highlighting the bodies of women tation to the culture of the working class and peasants. (Kourtova 2013; Kronja 2004). Art historian Branislav Dimitrijević came with the term The quoted research discusses these representations “cultural racism” to describe such systemic elitism and critically as instances of un-cultured and un-civilized hatred towards turbofolk, to which all atrocities of the behavior and bad taste. There is no detailed empirical transition are ascribed (Čvoro 2014). study, however, of transforming societal values and ideas In many academic accounts of chalga and turbo- of what is cultured, and its oppositions. Postsocialist folk, a primary importance is ascribed to the mediation moralities in Bulgaria or Post-Yugoslavian space, have of cultural belonging between the Oriental and the not yet received the research attention they deserve. The European, with all their symbolic expressions. In Balkan present norms, values, and models of cultured behavior historical context, European modernity is the model against which chalga and turbofolk are judged remained and sign for high culture, and the Orient is opposed to abstract and unclear, largely assumed. This is a research it, and consequently designates low culture (Georgiev question of its own and one of great complexity, especial- 2012; Livni 2014). I have no space to discuss here in ly if one takes a processual and phenomenology-inspired more detail the intersections between the symbolic ge- perspective on morality. More specific connections that ography of the Balkans and the civilizational charac- the existing literature make is the judgement of taste teristics of popular music, even though I acknowledge against the increasing value of consumption, capital, its importance. Nevertheless, I believe that it should and its accumulation; i.e. materialist and corporal per- not obscure other aspects of popular music that have spectives that are presented in opposition to socialist received less attention because of the exclusive focus on humanist, spiritual and romantic moral ideology (Kronja identity vis a vis modernity. While many scholars have 2004). Scholars associate turbofolk and chalga’s imagery used these intersections to criticize extensively chalga with a commercial and materialistic lifestyle that per- and turbofolk as marginal and debilitating, others point formers display both on and off stage (Agoston-Ni- out to extreme employment of Oriental elements as a kolova 2008). For example, Bulgarian female stars who revolt. Several scholars have also revealed the potential

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 80 Vladimirova, V. # of turbofolk and chalga to resist elitism, subvert it, and based on true emotions, such as friendship and love, oppose to it the values of pluralism and multiculturalism the aesthetic shows affinity to material luxury and ex- (Kourtova 2013). uberance. In this sense, chalga appeals both to nouveau Most of the people I interviewed for this study, riches and to those who imitate them in an attempt to however, do not identify chalga with oriental dance or an imaginary virtual escape from their lower economic music exclusively. Oriental elements are conceived of as status. It is because of this duality that some scholars intrinsic and “normal” for chalga style, in the same way have pointed to turbofolk as a way of escapism (Čvoro they are incorporated in other pop music productions. 2014:12). An informant reminded me of a popular western song The representations of affluence and conspicuous that uses an interlude of Bulgarian folklore song. “This consumption and the dual ambivalent relation to them, does not make it a folk song or Bulgarian. And who are hardly unique to chalga and turbofolk. Many other cares nowadays, anyway? It is a party.” popular styles of music play with such universal imagery The understanding of such complex intersections, I and symbolic oppositions, for example pop music. Also, believe, can benefit further from event analysis based on by this point of time, the diversity in the genres of chalga extensive empirical methodology and more first person and turbofolk is so huge, that to posit unified symbol- accounts, which can serve as the ground for research ism and values as the ground of a general argument questions and agendas instead of top-down approaches. about the genres, is not a rewarding scholarly enterprise. Even though some scholars seem to think of turbofolk Social stratification as a “unifying project” (Grujić 2009), I believe that its The level of culture and civilization debated within economic organization contradicts such perception. In the field of chalga and turbofolk further intersects with creating a music product, most economic actors behind notions of affluence and social class. Already NCFM turbofolk and chalga, are creative in designing a diver- has been treated in the literature as the expression of sity that can attract as many consumers as possible. The marginal identities and cultural degeneration that orig- diversity and dynamic development in the genre have inated from the poor, underprivileged, uneducated and been noticed in the literature, even though not studied rural backgrounds of most singers. The perceived aes- in much detail (Kourtova 2013). This diversification thetic inferiority of NCFM is expressive of a sociocul- contributes to the increasing popularity of the genre, tural differentiation between the working class and the and its attraction to a larger audience that embodies cultural intelligentsia in Yugoslavia (Čvoro 2014). Such more values, identities and group belongings than pre- distinction can perhaps be projected to socialist Bulgaria viously assumed. As one of my younger informants too, with one interesting peculiarity based in the “idio- (28 years old) recounts, her favorite female performer, syncratic economic, political and cultural position of Yu- Anelia, made her name as a starting singer with more goslavia”, where popular culture “was located between “main stream” chalga. Later however, she developed an a divergent and often contradictory network of influ- individual performance style around musical elements ences: between the historical roots in Eastern tradition and imagery that border on pop and rock music. Others, (Ottoman and Byzantine) and Westward leanings” like for example the above mentioned Slavi Trifonov (Čvoro 2014). Thus “Serbian” music even if low culture, and singers that started their careers in his shows, found have been ascribed certain status on the basis that it is their way into audience hearts by creating chalga that imported from a country closer to the West. is closer to professionally performed folk music and Chalga, on the other hand, has been generally seen aesthetics. The diversification of chalga since the 2000s as expressive form within the taste of the masses. Social- in my experience provided space for it among social ist cultural elites have made strong effort to dissociate groups that would previously distinguish themselves from it. A detailed empirical study will perhaps show from it. My examples here are some scholar colleagues that economic affluence as well as level of culture have and their families. This process can hardly be interpreted rather complex and sometimes ambivalent relations to as the sole result of the aggressive imposition of chalga music taste. As many authors point out, turbofolk and in public spaces and leisure time places, such as busses, chalga use symbols of conspicuous consumption and restaurants, discos, hotels, and resorts. According to the ascribe status to material affluence. Even in songs where account of a colleague scholar, she would not listen to lyrics appeal to anti-market moral norms and relations chalga music, and used to despise it in the past. Recently,

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 81 # “Love for the rich, porn for the people?” Popular music in the Balkans as a locus for negotiation of belonging and social distinction however, she has stopped to be agitated when they play the rapidly growing new (materialist and consumer- it, and she would even dance. “Chalga has changed and ist) values and morality, social relations, hierarchies, it is only a party music anyway”. and aesthetics. Turbofolk is also seen as an “ideological Other female informants from the younger genera- shorthand in the processes of social re-structuring and tion explain that what they like in their favorite singers re-stratification in changing economic and political cir- are beauty and the combination of purity and eroticism cumstances, playing an active role in their politicization” that they embody and express with their personal styles (Čvoro 2014). As examples, the same author mentions and songs. They do not recognize chalga as excessive ad- the perception of turbofolk as a “Balkan ghost”, “a vertising of consumerism, not more than other media symbolic attribute that designates a position of mindless and popular culture. Neither conceive of chalga as an and excessive enjoyment” (p.4); the mobilization of indicator of social class divisions. It is played every- music by the Milošević regime in 1990s; or as “reverse where, and at all kinds of parties, both at expensive and nationalism” that celebrates the exotic authenticity and cheaper places. In this way, chalga is egalitarian. Turbo- lust for life of the Balkans, in contrast to the “inhibited folk, according to research, is also popular in diaspora anemic and emasculated Western Europeans” (Čvoro post-Yugoslavian population. In this sense it is perhaps 2014:5). more egalitarian than its predecessors. More empirical As a term turbofolk can have a range of meanings, research is needed in order to analyze this phenomenon, including parody (it was coined by rap musician Rambo and event analysis can be a good theoretical framework Amadeus as a parody of folk in Yugoslavia), derision (it of such study. It can accommodate the wider array of is used as a negative label that suggests backwardness, meanings, instrumentalities, and articulations that are rural primitivism and nationalism) and value judge- enacted within the discursive and practical fields of ment (it suggests kitsch, the nouveau riche and general- chalga and turbofolk. ly low culture). However, it can also refer to intentional Scholars have pointed to the non-engaging sim- self-exoticization as a marker of imagined Balkan tem- plicity and superficiality of chalga, which provides an perament and mentality, where spontaneity, passion and easy way to relax and forget about problems, to feel free emotion have positive connotations (Čvoro 2014:20). and get into the party mood (Sotirova 2012). It creates Such analytical insights point to the ambiguities of tur- positive emotions, according to fans’ opinions, gives bofolk and chalga. However, further research is needed energy, provides space for spontaneity and sociality. It to understand the diversity, multi-vocality, intertextuali- can be appealing and provocative, but it is within the ty and dialogical character of turbofolk and chalga. agency of the audience to make their own meanings, If we see chalga and turbofolk through the lens of read the messages they want, and construct their own event anthropology, as critical junctures of change, we messages to others. It is within one’s power to construct need to look at them as processes that evolve within a a personal and group relation to it. Other adjectives that larger context. This context is equally part of the evolving informants attached to chalga are “hot”, “party”, “cool”, and developing music genres, rather than mere back- “liberating”, “youthful”. It can further be associated with ground. Looking at it from a macro perspective, music hedonism and ludic experience. Event analysis can help is part of a larger event, rather than only provide space incorporate these qualities and experiences of chalga for communication, identity formation, or power impo- and turbofolk on an equal basis with the music’s role in sition via ideology and knowledge. What is the role of ethnic, national, class, and cultural identity formation. these genres in the way transformations evolved, in the sphere of economy, morality, politics? How are they part CONCLUSIONS of the contemporary world, locally as well as globally? As While the study of turbofolk is predominantly focused I hinted in the beginning of this paper, turbofolk plays a on nationalism, the literature on chalga operationaliz- role in Western accusatory and condemnatory narratives es the notion of identity. Scholars accentuate different of Serbian nationalism, and becomes a political tool for aspects of identity, but predominantly elaborate trans- constructing dominant accounts about it globally. forming ideas and relations to the complex history of the Many fans perhaps do not reflect on Ottoman region and the tension between Oriental and European heritage, multiculturalism, or Balkan unity when they influences and ideas. Chalga and turbofolk are studied are listening to turbofolk or chalga. Nor do they perhaps as fields of re-conceptualized socialist heritage within ponder messages and contradictions around ethnic,

Nätverket 2020: 22: 69–86 https://www.antro.uu.se/natverket-etnologisk-tidskrift/ 82 Vladimirova, V. # educational, regional, economic, or political positions. Looking at individual chalga and turbofolk events, Nevertheless, as many scholars and informants quoted like concerts and performances, can provide further in this paper persuasively show, the genres have the insights into the microprocesses of the unfolding reality. potential to raise messages and awareness about such Such research shows that potentialities can produce issues. They contain also certain codes that are accessi- patterns and norms that shape processes, but do not ble to broader audiences, and sometimes part of cultural foreclose unexpected turns, personal ambitions and intimacy, that enhance the communication and negoti- other chance circumstances. Research about the contra- ation around a number of social issues. Some of these dictory turbofolk star Ceca, whom I mentioned above, I discussed above. I believe that more explicit public provides clues here (Volčič & Erjavec 2010). Event discussion, including scholarly positions, is needed in analysis can show how different and sometimes incom- order to raise popular interest and provide tools for more mensurable interests and processes underlie turbofolk (self )reflection on chalga and turbofolk. Scholarly po- and chalga, and the ways these coexist or clash and sitions, however, need to be better grounded in diverse transform. Event analysis reveals the incoherent dimen- emic views and present them in less one-sided and more sions of human agency within lived situations as well as pluralistic manner. Few scholars have started unveiling takes into account the constant flux of social relations such realms of reflection within chalga. Apostolov, for and causalities between actors and contexts at local and example, employs ethnographic methods among youth global levels. to analyze their perceptions of and attitudes toward Finally, as Kapferer argues, events are creative and multicultural values inherent in chalga. He states that generative nexus of novel social possibilities. They can participants in the chalga scene, are part of the produc- provide a clue to the ways lived practice and experi- tion of “new multicultural experiences or realities, which ence as unfolding and opening up for “multiplicity of are informed by their own subjective constructions of sensory and cognitive processes which permits all kinds ethnicity and inter-ethnic culture. It is the constant give- of agency and effects” (Kapferer 2015). In this frame- and-take of different cultural messages, which facilitates work, analysis of events is also a site of multiple inter- the evolution of such subjective constructions” (Apos- pretations that have the potential to influence and trans- tolov 2008). It will be interesting to explore further, how form reality. If we take for example the numerous critical such new constructions interact with long established studies on chalga and turbofolk, they also reveal political racial ideas and social evolution-informed hierarchy in and economic intentions and structures that are situated society. This area could eventually slowly start problema- in particular historical junctures. Critical analysis reveals tizing existing ethnic stereotypes and nationalistic ideo- the structures of the social stratification inherited from logies in the Balkans. socialism, where intelligentsia has a privileged position. Kourtova, Ibroshcheva, and Jelača delve into tur- Post-socialist transformations shattered such arrange- bofolk and chalga experimentations with transsexual ments and new configurations of social, political and imagery to question dominant gender roles and disposi- economic reality questioned and undermined many such tions in society and the political actors that employ them privileges. In this sense, criticism of chalga from the to gain power (Ibroscheva 2014; Jelača 2015; Kourtova position of cultural elitism is not unbiased and neutral; 2013). Finally, a common plot in many chalga and it realizes political and economic agency of a social turofolk songs, the beautiful woman who is searching group that desperately fights to retrieve its previous po- for a successful husband in order to achieve rapid social sitions in society. Research of chalga and turbofolk in mobility, has been interpreted as an emancipatory model the context of power relations, then, needs to keep open that deploys new kinds of female agency and values the horizons of interpretation (Kapferer 2014) and focus ( Jelača 2015). As such studies indicate, chalga and tur- on its own political stances too. bofolk not only reflect or reproduce societal change, but are also part of it and have the potential to give shape and new direction to such processes. It is such potentials that attract politicians and intellectuals to try use the music and navigate its messages and seek audiences in order to gain power, or other kinds of capital.

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Vladislava Vladimirova is Associate Professor at the Institute of Russian and Eurasian Studies and the De- partment of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, Uppsala University. She has conducted research in post-so- cialist contexts on topics related to land-use, law and ethnicity, intangible heritage and festivals, gender and nature conservation.

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