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TURBO-FOLK MUSIC AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA For Ena and for Marijana, from Toowoomba to Banja Luka Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia Uroš Čvoro UNSW Australia First published 2014 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2014 Uroš Čvoro Uroš Čvoro has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Cvoro, Uros. Turbo-folk music and cultural representations of national identity in former Yugoslavia/by Uros Cvoro. pages cm. — (Ashgate Popular and folk music series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4724-2036-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Popular music—Political aspects— Former Yugoslav republics. 2. Turbo-folk music—Former Yugoslav republics—History and criticism. I. Title. ML3499.Y8C86 2014 781.6409497—dc23 2013047650 ISBN 9781472420367 (hbk) ISBN 9781315549583 (ebk) Contents List of Figures vii General Editor’s Preface ix Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction: The Three Stories of Turbo-folk 1 PART I TURBO-NATION: TURBO-FOLK AND REPRESENTATIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIa, 1970–2010 1 The People’s Eastern Kitsch: Self-management, Modernisation and ‘Newly Composed Folk Music’ in Yugoslavia 29 2 Remember the Nineties?: Turbo-folk as the Vanishing Mediator of Nationalism 55 3 Beyond Serbia: Turbo-folk across Cultural and National Boundaries 81 PART II TURBO-CULTURE: CULTURAL RESPONSES TO TURBO-FOLK 4 Turbo-art: Music and National Identity in the Work of Contemporary Artists from Former Yugoslavia 105 5 They Can Be Heroes: Popular Culture and Public Sculpture in Former Yugoslavia 129 6 Singin’ in the Film: Turbo-folk and Self-exoticisation in the Films of Srđan Dragojević 155 Conclusion 179 Bibliography 185 Index 195 This page has been left blank intentionally List of Figures 2.1 Ceca, Sydney 2010 (Dragana Marinković – One Love Photography) 59 4.1 Zoran Naskovski, Smrt u Dalasu, installation view. The American Effect Exhibition, Whitney Museum of Art, 2003 (photograph provided by the artist) 109 5.1 Rocky Balboa, Sculpture, 3 metres. Žitište, Northern Serbia, 2007 (photograph by the author) 132 This page has been left blank intentionally General Editor’s Preface The upheaval that occurred in musicology during the last two decades of the twentieth century has created a new urgency for the study of popular music alongside the development of new critical and theoretical models. A relativistic outlook has replaced the universal perspective of modernism (the international ambitions of the 12-note style); the grand narrative of the evolution and dissolution of tonality has been challenged, and emphasis has shifted to cultural context, reception and subject position. Together, these have conspired to eat away at the status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music. A need has arisen, also, to recognize and address the emergence of crossovers, mixed and new genres, to engage in debates concerning the vexed problem of what constitutes authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of free, individual expression. Popular musicology is now a vital and exciting area of scholarship, and the Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series presents some of the best research in the field. Authors are concerned with locating musical practices, values and meanings in cultural context, and may draw upon methodologies and theories developed in cultural studies, semiotics, poststructuralism, psychology and sociology. The series focuses on popular musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is designed to embrace the world’s popular musics from Acid Jazz to Zydeco, whether high tech or low tech, commercial or non-commercial, contemporary or traditional. Professor Derek B. Scott, Professor of Critical Musicology, University of Leeds, UK This page has been left blank intentionally Acknowledgements Research for this book was funded by a two-year Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC). A version of Chapter 2 appeared in Cultural Politics as ‘Remember the Nineties? Turbo-folk as the Vanishing Mediator of Nationalism’. It has been substantially expanded and revised. My ideas about cultural representations of national identity and nationalism have benefited from my ongoing intellectual engagement with valued colleagues and friends at the UNSW’s National Institute for Experimental Arts (NIEA), in particular Jill Bennett and David McNeill. I would like to thank Zoran Naskovski for his generosity and willingness to discuss his work. I owe gratitude to Tim Gregory and Chrysi Lionis for their friendship and humour, as well as their enthusiastic help with the preparation of this manuscript. The editorial team at Ashgate has been extremely professional. In particular I would like to thank Heidi Bishop for being so quick and efficient. This page has been left blank intentionally List of Abbreviations EPP Economic Propaganda Program ICTY International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia JUL Yugoslav United Left KFOR Kosovo Force (NATO) KLA Kosovo Liberation Army KPJ Yugoslav Communist Party LGBT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NCFM Newly Composed Folk Music NDH Independent State of Croatia (Nazi ally during WWII) NGO Non-Governmental Organization RASMC Rambo Amadeus World Mega Tzar SKJ Communist Association of Yugoslavia SKS Central Committee of the Serbian Communist Party SOTS Socialist Art SSJ Serbian Unity Party UN United Nations USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics This page has been left blank intentionally Introduction The Three Stories of Turbo-folk Turbofolk is tacky, high-octane techno with melodies based loosely on traditional Balkan folk music. Which would make it the same as popular music in pretty much any country in Europe if it wasn’t also paid for by the Serbian and Croatian mafias (sometimes the Montenegrin) and served as the soundtrack to some of the most heinous war crimes since the Holocaust.1 This description accompanies Part 2 of ‘The Vice Guide to the Balkans’ – an episode of the highly popular The Vice Guide to Travel documentary series. The episode is dedicated to the music scene in Belgrade and filled with fast cars, fake- tanned women with large breast implants, excessively loud music, and ‘men who look like murderers’. At one point in the episode, the narrating journalist is shown inside a turbo-folk nightclub, heavily intoxicated, and complaining about how much brandy he and his local companions have consumed: ‘All I did was drink brandy and listen to music that felt like I was being punched in the face!’. The report provides the historical context for turbo-folk, which peaked in popularity during the nineties. This was during the time of the civil wars in Bosnia and Croatia, and at the time of international sanctions against Serbia that caused hyperinflation and a steep decrease in living standards. The report mirrors the intrigue that surrounds turbo-folk’s populist celebration of hedonism and consumerism. It also captures the patriotic overtones of turbo-folk that provided an escape from grim reality, and aligned the music with the interests of Serb nationalists. However, within the engaging style and abundance of humorous and insightful situations, there is a striking absence in The Vice Guide’s account of turbo-folk. The Vice Guide’s report fails to mention that, despite its history, turbo-folk has survived the political fall, incarceration and death of Slobodan Milošević and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombing of Serbia. Further still, it has risen in popularity, crossing ethnic boundaries throughout Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. The Vice Guide’s decision to ignore the popularity of turbo-folk across the Balkans in the post-Milošević era is significant because it reinforces the view of turbo-folk as ‘a soundtrack for genocide’ financed by criminals and performed by hyper-sexualised femmes fatales. This view not only oversimplifies the relationship of turbo-folk to national identity in ex-Yugoslavia, but also presents it as a dangerous form of music whose threat extends beyond popular 1 The description and documentary are available at: ‘The Vice Guide to the Balkans – Part 2’, Vice (February 2012), accessed 20 October 2012, http://www.vice.com/the-vice- guide-to-travel/the-vice-to-the-balkans-part-2. 2 TURBO-FOLK MUSIC AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA culture to a range of political and historical issues, such as ethnic violence, crime and a recent bloody history. Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations