UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA ODDELEK ZA ETNOLOGIJO IN KULTURNO ANTROPOLOGIJO and UNIVERSITAT AUTÒNOMA DE BARCELONA FACULTAT DE FILOSOFIA I LLETRES DEPARTAMENT D’ANTROPOLOGIA SOCIAL I CULTURAL

ŠPELA KASTELIC

“Never Mind The Mainstream” Impressions On Self-Sufficiency At The Crossroads Of Independent Music Production – Illustrations From Ljubljana And Barcelona

“Never Mind The Mainstream” Vtisi o samozadostnosti na razpotjih neodvisne glasbene produkcije – primeri iz Ljubljane in Barcelone

Master thesis

Mentor: Study Programme: CREOLE red. prof. dr. Rajko Muršič joint masters programme – Co-mentor: ‘Cultural Diversity and prof. dr. Montserrat Clua I Fainé Transnational Processes’

Ljubljana / Barcelona, 2015 GRATITUDE

I would like thank both of my mentors, especially prof. dr. Rajko Muršič, for the time they took, their precious advice and guidance, when it was most needed.

I am very grateful to have met the Creole gypsy girls and for going though this with them. And finally, I want to say thank you to my four families and to Simon, for holding my hand.

2 Abstract “Never Mind The Mainstream”: Impressions on Self-Sufficiency At The Crossroads of Independent Music Production – Illustrations From Ljubljana and Barcelona The past couple of years Slovenian independent music production was facing turbulent times, due to finance crisis, changes in the market and eternal questions on insisting and surviving in its trade. This does not mean that independent music production has not met similar obstacles before, however a group of independent music labels and individuals on one of the independent scenes has now used different tools and means that could guarantee long-term and more effective working environment. Thus Indie-Grad was born, a Slovenian online platform that offers independent producers a merger in one place, under same conditions and in the form of a community, which was so far offered only by a few days festival. The research that is encompassed in this master thesis, studies two perspectives: the first one is a view into independent music production on two separate locations (in Ljubljana and Barcelona) and an outline of their communities of independent producers and publishers; the second is a position on the issues and search for solutions though critical statements of research participants from Ljubljana independent scene and key theoretic and expert references.

Key terms: independent music production, music scene, Ljubljana, Barcelona

Povzetek “Never Mind The Mainstream”: Vtisi o samozadostnosti na razpotjih neodvisne glasbene produkcije – primeri iz Ljubljane in Barcelone Preteklih nekaj let je bilo težko obdobje za slovensko neodvisno glasbeno produkcijo, saj se je soočala s finančnimi krizami, spremembami na trgu ter z večnimi vprašanji vztrajanja in preživetja v poslu, ki ga opravljajo. To sicer ne pomeni, da se s podobnimi preprekami neodvisna glasbena produkcija ni srečevala že prej, pač pa je skupina neodvisnih založb in posameznikov na eni od neodvisnih scen tokrat uporabila drugačna orodja in način, ki jim lahko zagotovil dolgoročno in čim bolj učinkovito delovno okolje. Rodil se je Indie-Grad, slovenska spletna platforma, ki neodvisnim založbam omogoča združitev na enem mestu, ob enakih pogojih in v obliki skupnosti, ki jo je doslej nudil le nekajdnevni festival. Raziskava, ki jo zajema pričujoča magistrska naloga, izhaja iz dveh perspektiv: prva je vpogled v neodvisno glasbeno produkcijo na ločenih lokacijah (v Ljubljani in Barceloni) ter oris skupnosti neodvisnih producentov in založnikov; druga zajema problematike in iskanje možnih rešitev, preko kritičnih izpovedi posameznikov Ljubljanske neodvisne scene in ključnih teoretskih in strokovnih referenc.

Ključne besed: neodvisno glasbeno založništvo, glasbena scena, Ljubljana, Barcelona

3 TABLE OF CONTENT

GRATITUDE ...... 2 TABLE OF CONTENT ...... 4 PREFACE ...... 7 1. “IF I COULD TELL YOU”: WHERE DID IT ALL BEGAN ...... 11 1.1. “BRINGING UP BABY”: HOW IT ALL STARTED ...... 12 1.1.1 “Oh Shit!”: Preliminary Issues ...... 14 1.1.1.1. “Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales”: Problems with ZARŠ ...... 15 1.2. “HOLD ON”: HOW IT WORKS ...... 17 1.2.1. “Killing For Company”: The Team And Their Experiences ...... 18 1.2.1.1. “Undertaker”: Who Paid For The Job ...... 20 1.2.2. “Indie Cindy”: The Name And The Philosophy Behind It ...... 21 1.2.2.1. “Man Of Few Syllables”: A Short Note On The Name ...... 24 1.2.2.2 Why Indie? ...... 25 1.2.3. “The Dream’s Dream”: Pitching The Independent Music Labels And What Should Or Would Be Their Role ...... 27 2. “TERRIBLE CANYON OF STATIC”: WHERE DOES IT GO ON FROM HERE? ...... 30 2.1 “CHARTERED TRIPS”: FIELDWORK AND METHODOLOGY ...... 31 2.1.1 “Extraterrestrial Skies”: Barcelona ...... 31 2.1.2. “Made In My Hand”: Ljubljana Fieldwork And Methodology ...... 34 2.1.2.1. “I Hate Music”: Methods ...... 36 2.1.2.2. “Havoc All Ended”: Ljubljana field research ...... 39 2.1.3. “Charity, People!”: Festivals Cau d’Orella And Tresk ...... 41 2.1.3.1. Cau d’Orella festival 2012 ...... 41 2.1.3.2. Tresk#5 festival 2014 ...... 44 3. “BEAT MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL”: TERMINOLOGY SCHEMES AND TRICKERIES ...... 47 3.1. “FIFTY-FIFTY CLOWN”: PORTAL, PLATFORM, COLLECTIVE OR COMMUNITY ...... 48 3.1.1. “Digital Desire”: Indie-Grad In The Internet Music Platform Context ...... 49 3.1.1.1. Portal ...... 50 3.1.1.2. Platform ...... 50 3.1.2. “Tribe”: Collective And Community In The Independent Music Scenes ...... 51 3.1.2.1. Collective ...... 51 3.1.2.2. Community ...... 53 3.1.2.3. Communitas ...... 56 3.1.3. “Calling For Reason”: Formal And Informal Interpretations Of Indie-Grad ...... 58

4 3.2. “HEY SCENESTERS!”: THE DICHOTOMY IN CONTEXT OF SCENES, LOCALITY AND THE MUSIC LABELS ...... 59 3.2.1. “When In Rome”: What Is A Scene And Which One Is Better? ...... 61 3.2.1.1. “They Should Make A Statue”: Production Of A Music Scene In Spaces ...... 63 3.2.1.2. “It’s What You Want That Matters”: Concepts Of Cultural And Cultures in Scenes . 68 3.2.1.3 “The Back Door”: Why Scenes? ...... 70 3.2.1.3. “Another Girl, Another Planet”: That Is Why Scenes...... 72 4. “LOOK BACK AND LAUGH”: WHAT IS INDEPENDENT? (AND THE ALTERNATIVE) ...... 75 4.1. “PAINT A VULGAR PICTURE”: DIFFERENT CONCEPTS, SAME MEANING? 75 4.1.1. “Manic Incarnation”: The Alternative ...... 77 4.1.2. “Starcrossed Logistics”: The Independent Music Context ...... 79 4.2. “THIS UNREST”: INDEPENDENTS – A HISTORY ...... 81 4.2.1. “Hipster Than Hip”: Independents – British Example ...... 85 4.2.2. “They Suffocate At Night”: Independent Production, College Rock And The Alternative ...... 89 4.3. “SEE THAT ANIMAL”: ALTERNATIVE AND INDEPENDENT IN SLOVENIA 93 4.3.1. “May The Sun Shine Bright For You”: The Development Of Independents And Alternatives In Slovenia As We Know Them Today ...... 94 4.3.2. “Jesus Is My Tintenkiller”: Early Independents In Slovenia ...... 97 4.3.2.1. “Rave On”: Independent Distribution From 1980s Until Now ...... 101 4.4. “RELIGION DIDN’T DO A THING”: INDEPENDENT MUSIC LABELS FROM LJUBLJANA ...... 103 4.4.1. ZARŠ Label – The institution baby ...... 103 4.4.2. Moonlee Records – Hard core independent ...... 105 4.4.3. Kapa Records – The sidekick ...... 108 5. “QUEST”: THE NEW AGE OF THE INDEPENDENTS ...... 111 5.1. “NORMAL PEOPLE SCARE ME”: AUTHENTICATING INDEPENDENCY ..... 112 5.1.1. “A Bone To The Dog”: Further Determinations ...... 114 5.1.2. “Fists Of Love”: The Independent Doom Pattern? ...... 116 5.1.3. “Guilt Dispenser”: Public Finances, A Double-Edged Sword ...... 117 5.2. “MESSAGES RECEIVED”: QUESTIONS OF COMMUNAL EFFORT AND DIGITAL EMBODIMENT ...... 119 5.2.1. “Common Sense”: On Keeping It In The Group ...... 120 5.2.2. “Disconnection Notice”: Localized relations and undertakings ...... 122 5.2.3. “It’s Just That Simple”: The Failed Community ...... 124 5.3. “CASTLE ON THE HILL”: CONDITIONS OF SURVIVAL AND WHY WE NEED SOMETHING LIKE INDIE-GRAD ...... 125 5.3.1. “Quality Janitor”: Why The Need? ...... 126 5.3.2. “Teaching Technology”: Distribution Benefits ...... 127 5.3.2. “Waiting Room”: What Bands Can’t Do That Labels Are Able To Do ...... 128

5 CONCLUSION ...... 130 REFERENCES ...... 135 SUMMARY / POVZETEK ...... 153 APPENDIX I: IMAGE REFERENCES ...... 157 APPENDIX II: COMPILATION OF SONG TITLES ...... 161

6 PREFACE

The subject of the present master thesis, titled Never Mind The Mainstream: Impressions On Self-Sufficiency At The Crossroads Of Independent Music Production – Illustrations From Ljubljana And Barcelona,1 has been in the works for a very long time, consciously and unconsciously. Perhaps without even being aware of it, I have latently studied music scenes and their aspects, at least those I knew of since I started to actively participate in music events as a university student in Ljubljana, and later in a more professional manner, when I started working for various music and culture organizations. The broader particularities of music scenes, music cultures, and different actors that co-create them, have thus slowly shaped a story that in certain instances inspired my research topic.

The other and perhaps more important direction was my professional involvement in non-governmental institutions, which, at least to some extent, in Slovenia are considered independent. Due to one of my inclinations to continue professional work in such entities, I partook various student, part-time and full time employments, which besides being interesting and each having a vivid work environment, also exposed me to the many struggles the non-governmental and/or independents are dealing with today: organizational, financial, as well as institutional and sustenance.

The continuous, yet at times unstructured work on this research was a fluid stream of observation and participatory activities; at times very good, at other times fruitless and pointless; comprising of many prolific talks and mere pleasant conversations; a great deal of think-overs, brainstorming, head pondering and stress; and at last a fragrant of satisfaction that the work is done. Most of these reasons contribute to the fact that the stages of participant observation, which was my main approach to empirical study have been shaped into a true mind map. The research

1 I have borrowed the first part of the thesis title, Never Mind The Mainstream, from an alternative music CD compilation 'Never Mind the Mainstream: The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes', produced and released in 1991 by MTV (Music Television), which featured a number of alternative music songs that were referenced and mentioned in the MTV television show 120 Minutes. Not only I have found the title appealing, but the explanation as to why I have borrowed it will by the final pages of this thesis become self-explicable.

7 itself repeatedly demanded new re-questioning of its aim, the frequented distractions have since proved to be beneficiary, if not even crucial to see the broader picture and in the end to find its foundation once more.

For that reason, this research did not begin with the occurrence of the main subject of my observation – the Indie-Grad online portal – but actually a few years prior, when I was firstly choosing the topic of my master degree research. Since then I have been spontaneously observing the music scenes’ reaction to the indie music genre, or better to say indie music conglomerates, which made my initial attentiveness. Primarily I observed the indie translation into Ljubljana’s local music scene and during one semester this interest continued in the city of Barcelona, where part of my research that is present in this thesis, was made through autoethnography and participant observation.

Since my observations took place, certain indie music conglomerates seemed to affect musical styles of younger musicians and bands in Slovenia2 and the term indie music started to spark debates about the effects of the music industry on independent and alternative music production, and the meaning of a music genre, which seemed to be generated from this term. The latter was quite evident in various discussions in mainstream and alternative media, among music enthusiasts, as well as amid my music journalist colleagues at Radio Študent. This institution, where I have worked as a music journalist for the past five years and, which in many ways helped to shape my musical thinking, is also the place where the story of Indie-Grad began.

I will present some of the significant features of the radio work, because it represents one of the more important co-creators of music tastes in the scene and is continuously one of the basic actors in the local music culture. Describing these particularities serve to write as an account on how community and independent radio stations today tackle with the issues of incorporating new digital technologies, since music podcasts and online radio stations are rapidly overrunning the conventional radio media. A further point of this thesis aims to describe how certain actors shape the radio’s musical background and how they subsequently influence the local music scene. My aim was to show how they engage with the challenges that the public

2 Many have incorporated the sound and style of indie rock that emerged over the last decade or so.

8 institutions, corporations and consumerist culture bring upon their essences, such as being independent and alternative.

The Indie-Grad online portal or platform, as it is also refereed to, along with the business actions that independent music labels engage in, is part of the music industry, which in most alternative music culture aspects is considered a bad thing. There are opposing arguments, for and against it, they disagree on the issue whether music exists at the start or the final product of the music industry. However, since the 1950s there was a clear music business division between the major and independent music producers, both parties needed to fuse a certain amount of capital, technical and musical elements to put their music on the market (Frith 2006: 231-2). The question I try to answer is, if the independents were to abide by the same universal rule in order to sell their product in any shape or form, what economic, social or cultural aspects confirmed their independence?

The interest to shift the focus of my research from indie music to a independent music production and publishing platform, was also influenced by the insight on independent music production I have got during my four-month internship in an experimental art and culture association in Barcelona. The various aspects of Barcelonian independent music scenes I was part of have intensely collided with my observations of the Indie-Grad platform and the happenings around it. When certain points in my research connected, I have found many similarities and perspectives that were alike to both localities, even though that regarding the size of the scenes and amounts of production they had to offer, one was considerably larger than the other.

Still, independents from both localities faced certain contradictions regarding the exposure of their production. Hesmondhalgh, for instance, draws an example that some independents believe they should be heard and present in the mainstream to some extent, while others argue that their music is the force that is born from their resistance to co-optation and conformation to the industry and the public’s preferences (Hesmondhalgh 2006: 248).

Having, to some extent, understood what meant to be independent and the independents wish to retain credibility of their political and economic opinions, I needed a more detailed insight into the local independent music scene, from which the initiative for Indie-Grad grew. Autoethnography and partial participant observation in

9 Barcelona shaped the groundwork for a basis of my research, even though some research has been done, it was more spontaneous. Reflecting on it later showed that the gathering of initial data was done in an unstructured manner, although it did shape the focus of my topic.

The following chapters thus to some degree represent a large research scope on the subject of independent music labels; the history and philosophy behind the terms independent and alternative; theoretical approaches to terminological topics of music cultures, music scenes, social recognitions of close knit groups of individuals, such as communities and collectives, as well as a theoretical overview of certain terms that exist in digital technology; accounts and impressions on identities of individuals in music scenes and music cultures; and, finally, considerations, analysis and comparisons of my research topics.

My main goal was to record the naissance and existence of the first formal independent music label collective in Slovenia, only to find that being an independent represented much more than just maintaining autonomy of the music production and music release process. With that the scope of my research grew, it became more intense and demanding. Nevertheless, the results and conclusions bring certain contentment and satisfaction that such work has been done.

10 1. “IF I COULD TELL YOU”3: WHERE DID IT ALL BEGAN

“The alternative, underground and independent attitude should be seen in the name. This would make it easier for us to justify our opposition to the majors and the mainstream. It would show that we are the underground, the alternative and that we are independent.” (Research participant MR, interview in 2013)

During the course of reviewing my fieldwork and the complementary theoretical approaches, I was faced with the task of placing my research subject into the context of music cultures and music scenes. Independent music production, one of the principal aspects of my research, gained an opportunity to develop during the failing market and “cost-cutting” measures by the major record companies of the 1970s (Ross 2005: 480). Since then the independents have retained their political and economic position as the alternative aspect to the prevailing commercial and consumerist music market. Certain countercultures, subcultures, underground, alternative cultures, non-commercial music cultures and even communities, develop practices that identify subjects and individuals as participants in alternative cultures (Kruse 1993: 35). Consequently, independent music production practices are also situated in the alternative culture.

An interesting thing, when examining such cultural practices, is that they are an ever changing, organic existence. They live, transform, cease to exist, they are reinvented and even reborn, at least through my perception never became boring or obsolete. In terms of popular music cultures, they are the nebulae of new trends and current scenes. More so, they are alive and conceived as communities of their own biggest fans.

Similarly to the communal cultures, independent music labels form a collective conscious from those involved in their work. They are the producers, the

3 Certain titles of chapters and sections in this thesis carry a song title from alternative and indie music bands, and have been written as fore-titles in quotation marks. The music I have referenced through song titles have been either mentioned in some of the references I have used when writing (see References, page 174), either they are Slovenian bands or bands from ex-Yugoslavian area that are present in Slovenian music market and alternative music scenes, or they are music bands that have not been directly referenced, but they have to a large extend influenced my music taste. The large majority of the listed music artists however are part of the Radio Študent music repertoire in daily broadcasts.

11 musicians, the distributors and finally the audience. A music label in an independent sense is not only a music label, instead it is an environment which enables co-working and networking between individuals, music groups, publishers and also other music labels (Zagoričnik 2013). The independent music label and its collectives have changed the vertical and hierarchical structure of the major music corporations and opted for a more humane and communal approach to the music production business (Hesmondhalgh 1997: 256).

Therefore, if I would to describe Indie-Grad as nothing but an online collective of Slovenian independent music labels, I would clearly do an immense injustice. As one of my research participants described it, the idea of Indie-Grad constructs a new identity of Slovenian alternative music, independent and alternative musicians and independent music producers. It attempts to bring together the independent music scene actors and to empower the independent music markers, as well as build new audiences. Unfortunately, the irritated view of the alternative music scenes and music labels in Slovenia undermine the importance of independent producers, the media and in the end actors who struggle daily against the consumerist reality.

This chapter will bring forth a narrative explanation of my research basis. In it I will introduce my research aims, the origin of my research subject, the key individuals who formed it and also helped me understand its background and the theoretical foundation through which I was able to dig further in order to fully understand and present my observations.

1.1. “BRINGING UP BABY”: HOW IT ALL STARTED

The first idea of any kind of online platform or portal which would connect Slovenian independent music labels and producers emerged sometime in 2011. At that time Radio Študent, the owner of its own independent music label named ZARŠ,4 had come across certain issues with its management and running. An early stage of shining the light on ZARŠ, and also how the very idea for Indie-Grad was in a way born, was the inauguration of the annual music publishing festival Tresk, also

4 ZARŠ is an abbreviation for Radio Študent music label, in its original language (Slovenian) Založba Radia Študent.

12 interpreted as an account of music and publishing. The festival, which just finished its sixth edition, is a two-day event that usually takes place in the Kino Šiška, centre of urban culture in Ljubljana.

The first Tresk event occured in 2009, almost simultaneously with the official launch of the Radio Študent label. The event was aimed to host a daily fair for independent music labels from Slovenia, all in one place, followed by various debates and concerts by bands and musicians who are signed by the labels. This form of festival, as a juncture and a supportive platform for independent music labels, was a continuation of ZARŠ, which was also aimed to become a platform for releasing music records of upcoming or already established Slovenian musicians.

Throughout my research I could observe that there was a vital point to which I could connect the Radio Študent music label and the way Radio Študent perceived independent music publishing in Slovenia. Similar observations also unfolded throughout my research. They were either expressed openly or collected as personal opinions of my interviewees and by those who work for the radio. In time it was revealed that despite its attempts to act as a house music label, ZARŠ was never meant to be an ordinary one. Instead, while in operation, the executives hoped it would represent an environment that enables cooperation and networking between musicians, bands, the ZARŠ label as well as other labels. More so, the creation of the label was to become “a logical response to the ever decreasing state of music publishing in Slovenia” as the former music editor at Radio Študent Luka Zagoričnik expressed in one of his articles (Zagoričnik 2013).

As I pondered the information given by my interlocutors and the writings of different Slovenian authors, all of them stressed on the subject of the depressing state that Slovenian music production was facing, I was left to consider the many points of independents issues. How did it come to the point that the ZARŠ music label had come into difficulties if it was established by the medium, with the ability to directly promote and distribute its releases? Since most other Slovenian music labels are not as benevolent, how are they even able to survive and remain active? Because of this I was forced to look into the laborious tasks of independent music producers, when it comes to solving their production and distribution issues, as well as their struggle to keep going.

13 1.1.1 “Oh Shit!”: Preliminary Issues

It is interesting to observe that there is a high level of independent music activity in Slovenia. This small market also includes particular operations – festivals and projects – that are founded and marketed by Radio Študent. Referring to Will Straw, such actions suggest that the radio is directly involved in various ways of music production, distribution, promotion and music record sales (Straw 2005b: 54). Running an independent music label requires a lot of dedication and work which is sometimes underestimated.

Most of the people I spoke with regarding the Indie-Grad platform and independent music publishing in Slovenia, have accounted that the majority of issues with running and independent music label can be found in problems with production and distribution. One of them, a young woman in her early thirties, who for some time worked for Radio Študent full-time, said that even though the radio institution started producing and publishing their records for more than 10 years, the actual work was always stagnant and that there has never been any real energy or enthusiasm. The structure and leadership on behalf of those running the ZARŠ label has been according to her non-existent, bands were even avoiding signing or recording for it.

My key consultant 5 MR, the representative of one of the most notable independent music publishing businesses in Slovenia, Moonlee Records, has been involved in the Slovenian independent music scene6 for more than a decade. He has been a keen observer to the issues of many music labels, including the one he represents and currently is dealing with. In our lengthy interview, which, as it happens, possibly proved to be the most meaningful and informative one on the subject, MR expressed his own vision of the problems which the ZARŠ label had,

5 As a key consultant, MR was one of the first research participants I have interviewed. He has provided a big part of the insight on issues and particularities the independent music producers and publishers are facing today, introduced me to other consultants and research participants and has been most helpful with all matters of question and subsequent interests I had during my research and while writing this thesis. 6 In the miscellany of essays and records of the underground rock scene in North East Slovenia (Beranič, Hedl and Muzek 1994), Dušan Hedl argues the constitution of that 'movement' into a music scene: t had communal percpetions; sociable events; venues; independency from the outside actors (music industry, the media); bands; production – sound carriers; movement – the bands might have had moved between the venues and from concert to concert, but the audience followed them. (Hedl 1994: 23)

14 mostly because he knows its background and has collaborated with the label administrators in the past.

1.1.1.1. “Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales”: Problems with ZARŠ

To understand the decisions and needs behind the creation of an online independent music label collective and consequent difficulties it has encountered, a short overview of ZARŠ label management is needed. As a founder of ZARŠ, Radio Študent would normally appoint some of their more permanent employees to manage the label, but in the past years, the radio administration structure started to set off certain promotional missions, so many new people have been invited to keep the radio’s and the label’s projects running and alive. These people mostly sign one-year contracts and are paid from the national employment institution and European funds.

Since 2011, the management of Radio Študent has been recording a sales drop, and even more, one could hear about unsatisfactory relations on the part of the labels bands. Both of these problems affected thoughts that ZARŠ needs certain restructuring in its organization and the editor in chief should be relieved from its trustee duty. Despite the high number of new releases, there has apparently been a great decline of production in the last few years. The decision was made to gather a group of people with various music production expertise who work within Radio Študent, or are connected to it externally. The outside connections ranged from producers, music scene co-creators, distribution experts and Ljubljana based independent music label representatives, with the goal of the meeting to brainstorm about how they would be able to ‘save ZARŠ’7.

The drop in sales, slow promotion and shortage of media presence do not come with the blockage that prevents independents from being included in the market, but it is rather from the fact that smaller music labels are not skilled in promotion and sharing news about their releases. According to the consultant MR, the sole part of album promotion is making an effort and giving out the word that something is happening. Also, with Radio Študent owning ZARŠ, it is hard to talk about the lack of

7 I use the word ‘save’ as an evocation to the extremely publicized ‘Saving Radio Študent’ PR action that was held in Ljubljana (and to some extent also across Slovenia). This move called upon saving the Radio Študent radio station and institution when it came into financial fallout from its principal financer in 2013.

15 media space, instead it is the act of incompetence that disables the future of independent publishers.

The designated meeting, held in the autumn of 2012, resulted in certain findings, by which they were able to object that there are other independent labels besides ZARŠ, which are facing similar issues in production, marketing and distribution. The identified problems were the following: despite large quantities of music releases in the past, they have measured a level of stagnation in production, lack of distribution sources, insufficient enthusiasm among label workers and musicians and so on. One of my research participants who works at an independent label and was present at the meeting, explained to those attending, and later during our interview to me, how many smaller independent labels do not really act as record labels, but rather as music archives. One of the very common perceptions about small- scale, independent producers and musicians is that they tend to focus almost entirely on music rather than business, as opposed to the professionals who prioritize the industry instead of art (Strachan 2007: 252).

Those who attended the meeting could not find the right solution at first, because the ZARŠ label has its peculiarities like most independent labels do, so the situation had to be carefully identified. Radio Študent, which has existed since 1969, has in the past years grown into “a media house,” as one young music journalist from Maribor observed, with it came its own way of financing and operating. The radio’s initiation into starting a music label has been very much different from the self- sufficient methods of financing and operation which independent music labels have adhered to (Hesmondhalgh 1999 and 2006; Azerrad 2001, etc.).

The consultant MR explained the situation: the biggest problem occurred when the expectations of the bands did not meet the expectations of the label. Due to his own experiences, he said he can speak from the point of view of a band, which puts a great deal of effort into making an album and in the end it seems a little unfair to them that nothing ever happens to the record. When signing a contract with the label, the band naturally expected that something would happen with their record, because the final product comes after the signing and recording and not somewhere in the middle.

16 Along with these issues came the recognition that not only ZARŠ, but also many other Slovenian independent labels face exactly the same problems, and even more, that many of them nowadays act or work more like a music archive than a music label. On that thought the consultant MR and the others present acknowledged that something had to be done, not only to help and save ZARŠ, but also to help and empower independent music labels in Slovenia in general.

1.2. “HOLD ON”: HOW IT WORKS

Indie-Grad was at first created to help the Radio Študent music label – ZARŠ. Since the label itself was designed outside the frames of how music labels are usually built, the goal of the ‘saving’ meeting grew into building a creative infrastructure, which would serve all independent music producers in Slovenia. The Indie-Grad platform, as it is also called, does not exist to help only a few of the selected bands or individuals. It aims, as I have been told, to create a network in the form of a cross- Slovenian platform that would offer support to all of its members – independent Slovenian music labels and self-released projects.

The radio is almost directly linked to anything that happens in Slovenian independent music production and the alternative music scene and has been one of the leading promoters as well as media sources for it. Throughout almost five decades of its existence, the Radio Študent has been closely intertwined with independents and music alternatives in Slovenian music scenes and media space, which would also explain the cause of its publishing endeavours in the first place. However, running a creative and working music label is nothing like running a community radio.8 If taken for granted, issues like abandonment of ‘house’ bands, record sales drop and production stagnation can soon occur.

These concerns by no means apply only to ZARŠ, because those who run the label actually do apply some level of effort to their work. Neither is it some sort of

8 UNESCO and the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC) – a member of the latter is also Radio Študent – understand the definition of a community radio as a »medium that gives voice to the voiceless, that serves as the mouthpiece of the marginalized and is at the heart of communication and democratic processes within societies.« The radio is used as a means for the community members to voice their opinions and it is a place of good governance and reinforced democracy. It is foremost »one of the most promising tools for community development« (Ondobo in Fraser and Restrepo Estrada 2001: iii).

17 syndrome among Slovenian labels. As the consultant MR said, this kind of weak label management can be found anywhere in the world. The specific issue in Slovenian alternative music space and production, and the reason why these cases start to happen, is that it depends on public finances. As it will be seen in one of the following chapters, where I present individual cases, financing issues are the major reason to put the label’s credibility, independency, authenticity, from the perspective of musicians and producers, under question. During our talk, MR expressed that the demands to produce a record, not out of passion, but because it is a part of a project that is being financed, kills creativity and the sheer joy of band-producer collaboration. He declares that this type of work creates record printers, not music labels.

1.2.1. “Killing For Company”: The Team And Their Experiences

The initial ‘saving ZARŠ’ meeting ended by appointing only a few people in charge of Indie-Grad: two semi-regulars, also my consultants and research participants MR and ZV, and the rest who are fleeting uncharted representatives of the independent music publishing scene, Radio Študent journalists and members of the music editorial.

The consultant MR, who is now in his mid-thirties and lives and works mostly in Ljubljana, was invited to participate in the Indie-Grad formation and the ‘saving’ meeting, because of his lengthy experience of work in alternative music scenes in Slovenia and other former Yugoslav countries. He has had a long career as a musician in a post-punk Slovenian-Croatian band and is now considered somewhat a rogue in Slovenian independent music publishing. The way he explained his involvement in Indie-Grad is that he has seen a potential to merge his own work and the communal vision of Slovenian independent music publishers co-working under one roof. As I talked to some people who know MR and those who have worked with him before, expressed that he seems like a well of knowledge, full of information and inspirations, good ideas and enthusiasm.

The music label MR runs already has an online music shop, so the idea of merging labels and creating a unity of space seemed like a great idea to him, so he gladly accepted this invitation. His concept of an up and coming platform was that not

18 only would they be able to connect two of the most prominent independent labels; more so, there would be a ‘media house’ that would back up the project. However, he and perhaps many others, did not imagine how much time and effort are put into creating an online store and its online platform.

One of them is another important consultant ZV, who has been part of the Radio Študent family for a long time, and someone who definitely knows the shape and circumstances in which Radio Študent and Ljubljana’s alternative music scene have existed in for the past years. Her experiences also provided me with a different point of view. She has changed employment since we talked in December 2013, but even then she expressed some reserved feelings towards her work at Radio Študent and the radio‘s work now. Her story of participation is a little different; because she was pulled into the meeting from the Radio Študent marketing team, where among other things came the idea of the Tresk festival.

This consultant did almost no work for the ZARŠ label before Indie-Grad, but she did recall that there has been an idea for an online shop, after the third Tresk festival in 2012, which would sell independent music records from Slovenia. That year the marketing team at Radio Študent she was in charge of, pitched an idea to continue the Tresk mission throughout the year and create an online catalogue and information web page so that the audiences interested in independent production who visited Tresk would be able to get news about releases and even buy them. She describes the main point of this online shop as an Internet place that would work throughout the year and would improve the actual live sales that happen at the festival. Their idea stumbled upon negative attitude from the executives, for whom she believes do not have enough understanding of the world the music industry is in today and how big the role of Internet has in it.

Half a year later, by the end of 2012, the radio management decided to reuse their idea of creating an online shop, which would mainly work for the Radio Študent music label. It was then, when they approached the consultant ZV again and asked her to help them set it up. She recalls that, although it is not difficult to set up an online shop, in the case of Indie-Grad the work seemed like the labour of Sisyphus. Her bitter reply to my question about others that have been invited was that besides the consultant MR who in her opinion does a stellar job, the selection of independent

19 labels that create this network, and especially the people who work for Indie-Grad, is in her opinion unimaginative and unfavourably random.

The latter consultant stated that some of the Slovenian independent labels and music producers who were approached in the beginning, seemed to have a positive attitude toward co-production of Indie-Grad and a will form a mutual collaboration in creating an online independent music production platform. Both research participants, MR and ZV, acknowledged the radio as the proprietor and creator of the platform and decided to not find a person whose entire job would be to take care of the platform. At the time of my interviews with them in 2013, the large part of contributions and developing of Indie-Grad remained with MR and ZV.9

There are, however, smaller roles that are filled by the Radio Študent marketing managers of the web page,10 one person who was recently employed for marketing ZARŠ and independent music producers and labels, whose role is to contribute as much as possible of their work. The latter are also the most important because they are the holders of information, news and music that they produce, it is their responsibility to make their work visible to the public.

1.2.1.1. “Undertaker”: Who Paid For The Job

It is important to reveal that when starting an on-line platform, Radio Študent did not exactly have enough funds to start the project – at least to build the infrastructure on the Internet. Instead they decided to meet with the SAZAS11 Society – the Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for Copyright Protection in Slovenia, which guards and protect Slovenian music copyright. Because Indie-Grad would promote and sell Slovenian music productions, by law12 SAZAS would have to

9 Since 2013, the platform’s activities have slowly ceased, so the development and managing work both research participants were doing for it, became inessential. By the end of 2014, the work position of consultant ZV with the platform has decreased to a minimum. 10 On occasion. 11 Radio Študent and SAZAS have been in each other’s teeth since SAZAS has been created. The radio has complained many times and it has been pointing out that the guarding artists copyright by SAZAS is more or less completely unjustified or even exploitive, and especially unfair to non-commercial performers and independent music event organizers. 12 The Slovenian Act on Copyright and Related Rights (ZASP) proclaims that all the rights to use ones authorship should be collective, as such can be enforced (by the authors) only through a collective organization. Since the right to copyrights in the music market is relatively the same to all involved, there is only one such ‘collective organization’, which is given authority to enforce the proclamation of music copyrights, and in Slovenia there is only one such organization that also holds the monopoly position – SAZAS. Any such organization needs to obtain a permit for its work from The Slovenian

20 be included. Still, the executives at Radio Študent felt that such platform would be extremely important for the Slovenian music market and SAZAS, so the latter should invest into it. Since Indie-Grad was to be an official Internet platform for promotion and online sale of Slovenian independent music, SAZAS had to be included in the creation. SAZAS rejected the possibility of any financial transfers or aids, but Radio Študent representatives negotiated into securing the Indie-Grad developers with a web development agency, which will build their platform online. The existing page was built by a web development agency that was hired by SAZAS, yet they did not exactly have any word at the creative process.

One of the preliminaries of Indie-Grad was to have an established shop- catalogue of Slovenian independent music releases; it was to sell both physical and digital editions of Slovenian independents. This turned out to be harder to achieve, since the percentage of profits from a particular album would naturally go to the music label, as well as by law to SAZAS. Every music download, whether it is purchased or downloaded free of charge, is by Slovenian law (ZASP) treated as a purchase of copyright material and the mentioned law states that a percentage of every purchase, e.g., music downloads, should be given to SAZAS. Furthermore, even legally free of charge music downloads are considered as priced goods. In the case of the provider of music, the provider of the free downloads is bound to pay SAZAS some sort of commission, for distribution of copyright music material. The idea of such extortions complicated the task Indie-Grad online shop was supposed to have, so in the end the idea was (to a great loss) abandoned.

1.2.2. “Indie Cindy”: The Name And The Philosophy Behind It

During my first, and at that a very lengthily interview with the consultant MR for a while, our conversation touched a particular matter that caught my attention immediately after I first heard about the platform: the name ‘Indie-Grad’. I wanted to

Intellectual Property Office, SAZAS has been given (and still holds) that permit for the field of music, since 1998. Its main and probably most important task is (enforced by law) to collect compensations from the ‘users’ of musical works (e.g. TV and radio stations, public places, pubs, etc.) and to distribute these compensations among the authors, whose works have been ‘used’. Oddities with distribution of the funds, gained from the compensations, still occur and have been lately especially subjected to public scrutiny. Many musicians and bands, for instance, have been complaining that they never received any compensation, or that SAZAS started to act against the law, according to which it was given such liberties (Chitakar 2014).

21 learn if there was a connection between the Indie-Grad platform and the indie music genre, where ‘indie’ stands for an abbreviation of independent. In short, what was the reason for picking this particular name?

He explained how, behind the name there was a big question of applying a filter – an excluding/including mechanism for artists and music recording labels that should or should not be included. During the formation of Indie-Grad the brainstorming team also tried to find a line between the profiles of the labels: should they act as an all-label platform or exclude those that would be equal to majors13 and who already have a strong enough presence in the Slovenian music market.

From the first formation of the platform most of those present at the meeting stood behind the deliberation that Indie-Grad will not accept just any label, especially not the majors. However, the consultant MR mentioned that the platform still misses a strict rule, which would control the record sales. He himself still questions whether they should allow sales of a whole discography by approved artists, even though this means risking a relationship with major labels and distributors with which some artists might have collaborated in the past and by that the majors will later also require sales of some other records, which would normally fail under the Indie-Grad rule of appropriation.

The consultant MR himself questioned if they should cut out the artists that work with major labels just because they are part of them, but which otherwise meet the appropriation rule of Radio Študent and Indie-Grad team. Or should they only

13 As of now Slovenia counts three major music record houses that hold a majority share of producing and releasing popular and commercial Slovenian music: Nika Records, Menart Records and Dallas Records. The three also act as local distributors for international music corporations: Sony Music Entertainment (Menart), Warner Music (Nika) and EMI Records (Dallas). ZKP RTV SLO is a publishing and record label, established by the national radio and television station, RTV Slovenija. Although it releases various kinds of music genres, a large share of its production lies in ‘oberkraut’ music. Although there are no major corporations that would ‘steal’ the majority share of music production in Slovenia, Nika, Menart, Dallas and ZKP RTV SLO act as dominators in music distribution. Even though Slovenian labels act as distirubuters of their releases (with associate establishments), there are also specialized music distribution companies (e.g. Sedvex) that partner with larger labels. There are also other larger and smaller independent music labels that produce and publish for different mainstream and more particular audiences (but are not considered as alternative). Some have settled towards producing one genre-type music (Kebataola, Zlati Zvoki, Intek, Astrum), while others opt towards releasing music from artists of various types: Celinka and Pivec, successful independent labels that produce quality popular music, with genres spanning from soft rock and singer-songwriter, to jazz and ethno-folk; or Hartman, an established publisher and distributor of classical music, children’s music, ethno and ‘oberkraut’ music; etc.

22 allow record sales of those artists that have met the appropriate standards, even though major labels have produced some of their records, but the artists have since moved to independents. At this point, his own deliberation on the matter, shows a form of confirmation I have received and which likely explains how major companies commonly do not include or are not interested in bands and musicians with a smaller public profile. The Slovenian independents response therefore comes in a form of Indie-Grad, a platform that was created exactly for the low-profile bands, musicians and labels, rejecting the major labels, whichever they might be in Slovenia14.

There are some public showcases of the Slovenian annual music production, where the entities of smaller profiles do not get much notice – not as performers and not as self-promoters – which shows that mainstream has its own way of dealing with public image, distribution and finances. On the other hand, the independent sector has started to correct this error with a display of independent music production at the previously mentioned Tresk festival. The consultant MR and his fellow independent music publishers followed the same stance as the majors and decided not to let them in this now strictly independent circle.

He explains that the only way they managed to do this, and according to them in a way they did, was by creating and building their own media and promotional space. At this point disagreement started to sound like minor grudge, but he repeated their way of following the major’s attitude: the major music record houses and mainstream media will not give out a part of their market space for independent labels and musicians. Indie-Grad and what it does in the end will however be cordial towards the mainstream and majors. Even though the Indie-Grad on-line store sells records of those artists who have also published records under major labels, the independent platform decided to sell only music records from independents and those artists that have been given the green light from the independents’ umbrella media, Radio Študent. The strict stipulations that the consultant MR mentioned in the

14 As it will be noted in the following chapters, Slovenian major music labels are not actually the major music corporations, such as Sony, Universal, Warner music group, etc., which control the international music market. These multinationals have been actually though to overlook the Slovenian music market, although they have appointed some of the larger Slovenian music labels as their local distributors (an example of that is Dallas Records, which is the Slovenian distributor for EMI and subsequently Mute Records music labels). These 'larger' music labels, have been perceived as the 'majors' by several research participants, although they are far from the size and business principles of the previously mentioned international major music corporations. They do however keep the majority share in the production of popular Slovenian music.

23 beginning of this topic, now respect the following demands: Indie-Grad will publish, distribute and promote only that music, which comes with the clearing from the Radio Študent selective music editorial.

With that in mind, I was given the explanation why the alternative and independent attitude should also be seen in the name and how it would make it easier for them to justify their opposition to the major and mainstream, also to make it known that they are the underground, alternative and independent. It might also make it easier to justify why Slovenian independents have created their own music market grounds.

1.2.2.1. “Man Of Few Syllables”: A Short Note On The Name

Soon after the idea for creating the ZARŠ-saving platform, they realized they needed to select the name. While constructing it, they mostly wanted to include Radio Študent credo into it, since the radio was the pivotal initiator. Even so the general application of the term alternative was instantly rejected because the adjective is far too wide. Then they thought about the problem of selling independent records, which does not happen only in Ljubljana, but of course all around Slovenia and beyond its borders, for instance in Croatia.15 One of the reasons was that the consultant MR thought about the potential the platform could have on the sales for his label, which already operates in the Balkan areas, and perhaps to open that space to other independents from Slovenia.

Reflecting on the latter strategy, the access to other ex-Yugoslavian countries and a general Indie-Grad group desire to market the platform beyond the Slovenian borders, this resulted in the decision that it is better if the name did not have a strictly Slovenian ring to it. They opted for a foreign, ex-Yugoslavian-English version. And a rather nostalgic one too: the second part of the name, which is the word grad translates to city in most Balkan languages.16

At the beginning, many used Indie-Grad only as a working name. Some research participants stated that the name bears no creativity, melody and that it has

15 This was what also started conversations inside Indie-Grad, about stretching the platform network to Croatian, Serbian and Macedonian markets, or basically anywhere where that has connections with Slovenian independents that already exist. 16 In Slovenian language, the word grad means a large fort-like building – a castle.

24 too many connotations. Also the name should be shorter, such as the Tresk festival.17 Besides that, the name itself raised minor issues among those who work in different editorials at Radio Študent, but since it has not been changed, people started to use it and it was adopted as the official name of the platform. Although the optimism with which the name for the platform has been chosen, insinuated on hopes to breach Slovenian borders and create a larger and more international online community of music independents, the name has not been chosen completely synonymously. One of the research participants accounted that some would like to see it changed or at least wishes the team would have more time for thoughtful preparation and decision- making.

1.2.2.2 Why Indie?

A major issue with the name was the use of the genre term indie, mainly because in the past decade indie ceased to be the abbreviated distinguisher of independent attitude toward popularized consumer institutions, but a music genre conglomerate upon which such institutions use and abuse for profit. During my interview with the consultant AK, he shared with me his view of the indie genre that in way brought together certain opinions: a label can be seen as independent or indie regardless to the genre, but the production of the indie genre is more complicated, because it grew out of its independent rock beginnings and is now comfortable in the safe guard of the majors and independent labels.

On the other hand, consultant MR explained that the use of the term indie is sort of obvious. Indie-Grad platform is happening in the time when questions such as ‘What is indie?’ are still common in the music scenes. Obviously, the elusive genre has not yet left musical debates and until a new fad comes a long, it might be here for a while.

Indie music, especially the indie rock genre, has already become an undeniable part of the Slovenian alternative music scene, even among sworn rock music lovers. In mid-2010 for example, the indie music craze started reaching Ljubljana in bigger and bigger waves. Certain rock music clubs and urban music venues were no longer able to contradict the demands of their visitors to increase the

17 One of the earliest ideas for the name was Po-tresk, a sort of Tresk after Tresk, which would round up its meaning, that the platform is alive and working all year round, not only two days per year.

25 quantity of indie music, so they started establishing a series of music DJ’s or concert events dedicated to indie music. Many organizers of such events however remained doubtful of how indie remained to be described as the alternative, when globally it has become immensely popular.

In a way, those involved with Indie-Grad used the term provocatively, because they already had a very good taste of what indie was at its beginning. The consultant MR recounted that like the rest of the music industry, they also tried to figure out the new indie music of the 2000s, and of course today. By saying that, he touched the ominous area of opinions, which scream out that this indie music is a bad tasting rip- off of the 1990s indie, which he and many others involved in grew up with. Which is why somehow using the word indie should also be intended as a provocation to the muddle of good and bad music that came out of the 2000s indie rock and pop scene. The catch is, this platform will promote and sell many genres including indie music, although at a quality rate. The combination of the two words in one title Indie-Grad was only a working name they used, because not all from the team fully agreed with it. In the end it somehow stuck with the project to their approval or disapproval.

Concerning the disapproval, the main questions and hesitations were about using the term indie in the name, mainly because many people at Radio Študent thought that the choice was poor. Their attitude in particular would be to run as fast as possibly away from any type of trends, especially in music scenes and music genres. The creative group behind Indie-Grad, however, had an opinion about indie as a slightly positive trend, which can be found both in mainstream and alternatives, which is why it should not be disregarded or even be afraid of. Instead this trend, or whatever it is should be embraced. The offer that exists on the Indie-Grad platform is quite rich in genres and as consultant MR explained, indie would actually present the perfect appropriation or even act as a mirror of the state that the music industry is in today. This fast paced music fad has even now produced some very good quality sounds that are being appraised in the Radio Študent music editorial. To reject it completely from the platform would mean that they would have missed out from the whole generation, which grew up with indie music.

26 This consultant was of the opinion that by including the word indie in the name, would give Indie-Grad an opportunity to be used internationally, something that Tresk festival aimed to succeed in as a digital structure.

1.2.3. “The Dream’s Dream”: Pitching The Independent Music Labels And What Should Or Would Be Their Role

By the end of the year 2012, the team of Indie-Grad and Radio Študent management accepted the code of conduct – a list of rules. Within these rules, or better yet guidelines, they designed a frame of what Indie-Grad is, how it works and what it aims to be. The idea was firstly introduced to some of the members of the Slovenian independent music scene, in order for both teams to see who would be supportive of the idea to create the platform, which would be interested and what would be the opinions from those whom the platform was created for. The feedback was very positive. After some time, gathering data and talking with various individuals the news of Indie-Grad was publicly announced in February 2013.

The first official announcement was given out at the festival Tresk#4 press conference, where again they faced very positive feedback from municipal and government officials, the press, music critics and the general public. This gave them confidence that they should move forward with the project and make it official by creating a program with which they could apply for public funds with. The Indie-Grad online store opened in May 2013, offering the widest possible range of music from independent labels. Of course, not all independent music labels joined Indie-Grad, even though there seems to be a desire for that. For the ones that are included, only a part of them are actually active with updates and publishing.

The consultant ZV declared that in order to make this platform truly operational, and if they were to create a live co-operational body of Slovenian independent music labels, there should be research made of who actually creates independent music production in Slovenia. Radio Študent and others who run Indie- Grad already have some ideas about how many things are going on in independent publishing, only that they were bubbling under the surface, have not been discovered yet or are deliberately private entities.

27 Many independent music labels perhaps do not see it, but as the consultant ZV explained, Indie-Grad was designed just for them, so that during the year the labels could use it for promotion and as a selling base, which is instead given only on their own accord and with Tresk festival once per year. ZARŠ, as the founding music label on this new platform, so to speak, should be acting as the most dynamic and progressive one, making everybody else know that the Indie-Grad mission has a rightful cause and they should use it as much as possible. If Indie-Grad pays off for ZARŠ, then the other labels would also find benefits in this platform.

Perhaps they were mistaken and thought that Indie-Grad is a fanzine or an online magazine, where a fan or someone else creates all the work. It was never meant to be a fan web page of alternative and independent music and its production, instead rather a newsfeed published by the music labels themselves. The consultant MR thought it should be obvious that the platform is formed as a community in which every member contributes to in order to provide and make out their share of the profit. They are given passwords and usernames in order to publish and promote as much of their work as they can.

At the same time the platform gives equal opportunity to more prominent independent labels and smaller labels or self-publishers to create the environment where their work can be equally visible. This should also give the smaller establishments an educational opportunity to learn from others, share their ideas and apply them to their own work. The tool is the same for everybody included; the only thing is to use it. It goes for the still evolving labels and self-producers: the Indie- Grad platform can give them a chance to learn how promotion and music sales work. This type of self-control over what and how much is published can be also viewed from the public and media. The public especially can have a better view over what sells and what is happening.

When an independent music label joins Indie-Grad now, they sign a very basic working contract, which states the sales and publishing rules. The list of rules established at the end of 2012 was more or less for internal use in order to create a respectful dialogue between the label and the founder of Indie-Grad – Radio Študent. The rules define the path of Indie-Grad as a project, with a code of conduct and ways of behaviour established by Radio Študent.

28 Indie-Grad welcomes large or small independent labels, as well as self-published bands and individual musicians. Although there is as a particular directive inside Indie-Grad, due to which not everybody gets their own access to the web page and its contents. The self-publishing bands and musicians are especially deprived of such commodity, but they welcome them to send news that passes the established code of conduct any time they like and they will certainly get published. At the same time, prior to signing the contract they can sell their music via the online shop. The consultant MR accounted that the self-promoters might express even more interest with participating in Indie-Grad and its online shop, because they would for one be part of an established music label collective and for the other part they would have a solid place to sell their music.

29 2. “TERRIBLE CANYON OF STATIC”: WHERE DOES IT GO ON FROM HERE?

There are some who share the opinion that the economic crisis and the ever- growing media and industry gap between independents and majors, has spared the independent executives. The independents are actually growing even more confident because of it and “hold an edge over their multinational major competitors”,18 because they are able to market music with speed, focus and flexibility (Duffy 2002). Thom Duffy from Billboard explains the concept of an independent labels advantage in tough financial times during the economic downturn in the beginning of the 2000s. Perhaps today, and in the case of Indie-Grad, it is possible to replicate his words, at least the independents agility and adaptability to respond to the market changes and audiences demands.

My research tries to do something similar. But rather than unfolding the economic and financial background of Slovenian independent music producers, my intention is to elucidate the relations, bonds, histories and interdependences of some players who co-create the independent music scene. I am especially interested to discover how the independents’ relationships and their actions present themselves in the future. In such a small spectrum of music publishing that we can find in Slovenia, the independent music community19 definitely is a vibrant and uncanny group of people.

With that in mind, the following chapter offers a concise description of methodological approaches, the actors, locations, organizations and music scenes that played the main part in my research. The presented approaches of research will hopefully unveil my work scope and offer a background explanation to my

18 To my knowledge, competition between the major and smaller or independent music labels is probably true perhaps in the United States and other countries with larger and more established music markets, but according to Slovenian respondents, it is not so true in Slovenia. 19 The term community has been problematized in the field of anthropology (Amit and Rapport 2002) and I devote more attention to this issue in the thrid chapter of the thesis; however, seeing that many and various researches done in the field of music scenes include interpretations of communities, I also considered the possibility of interpreting the group of people and independent music entities that are included in Indie-Grad platform, as a community.

30 relationship with the people, organizations, locations and events, which I will describe in further chapters.

2.1 “CHARTERED TRIPS”: FIELDWORK AND METHODOLOGY

After I deliberated that Indie-Grad and the independent music scene in Ljubljana were to be the main subjects of my research, all participant observations and other research approaches have been done with much more composition, structure and a greater deal of after-thought. The initial interest in indie music scene in Ljubljana somehow failed to translate, so I needed to take a break from it. The break coincided with me leaving to Barcelona, which meant I changed the scene completely and ended up doing spontaneous autoethnography 20 along the way. The latter materialised after I had taken another break while already back in Ljubljana, which prompted the focus of my research to become more conclusive.

The spontaneous participant observations and unstructured interviews from Barcelona and those that have happened in Ljubljana have been revised, put into methodological context and deduced into the material from which I gained important information and those that only provided a general view of the happenings. Some of the techniques I extrapolated afterwards were “maintaining naiveté”, especially during the music events and the mentioned festivals as well as the general “hanging out”, which was efficient only less obviously done (Bernard 2006: 366-8).

2.1.1 “Extraterrestrial Skies”: Barcelona

As mentioned, the preceding ‘ethnography’ to my research was done in Catalonia, the autonomous region and community in Spain. I came to Barcelona to

20 Autoethnography is, according to Bryant K. Alexander, the process of internalized ethnographic practice, in which the one that performs the ethnography (e.g. the researcher) uses lived experiences and personal history accounts as the overview of the cultural site (Alexander 2005: 422). François Lionnet states that performing autoethnography is a form of cultural performance and evokes a process of “passing on” of collaborating cultural forms, where the researcher is dynamically involved in the creation of the culture itself (Lionnet in Alexander 2005: 423). One of the five exemplars of the autoethnography is personal narrative, which the participant-researcher recounts a refelction of the social organization and cultural values of the social group, one is part of (Langellier in Alexander 2005: 423).

31 finish my last semester of the international CREOLE master program in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. To secure my stay there I also took part in an Erasmus+ internship program at the Gràcia Territori Sonor (GTS) music and art association. I thought that by working at the music society alongside my studies and fieldwork preparations for my thesis, it would be beneficial to gain some experience and perhaps later use it as a comparison to the music scene I already shortly researched in Ljubljana. I did not, however, know that working at GTS would provide such a valuable insight.

I was able to find out that one of the more important features in working for such non-government organizations and independent institutions meant to face constant financial instabilities – something that has been observed among Slovenian non-governments and independents ever since. Another important observation was the innovative actions these entities use in order to stay active and continue their primary practices. This means that at times they venture into projects that might secure their finances, but the nature of such undertakings is in fact far away from their institution. The GTS for example applied to the European internship program fund Erasmus+ that draws funds from the European Union 2014 – 2020 project plan in education, training, youth and sport. Since they have been selected into the program, they are able to offer European students to partake in a four-months internship program, for which the students get a scholarship and the institution a certain compensation for their accommodation. Thus my internship with them was one of the many mitigating circumstances.

If I were to do a time outline of my preliminary fieldwork in Barcelona, I could estimate that it was done in roughly five months. The first month and a half was used for getting to know the scene of the Gràcia Territory Sonor (GTS) and getting to know certain Barcelonan localities – especially barrios of Vila de Gràcia, El Raval and El Born – where I worked and participated in various alternative music events. The rest were the months of spontaneous questioning and participant observation, mainly in the previously listed barrios.21 I have of course visited places all over Barcelona, but these were the localities that were in my experience most active for independent music scenes and alternative music cultures.

21 A part or a quarter of town/city in Spanish-speaking countries or communities.

32 The city of Barcelona recognizes three official languages, of which Spanish/Castilian22 and Catalonian are mostly spoken throughout the region. Some parts in the interior of Catalonia though prefer to remain strictly Catalonian speaking. When I started living in Barcelona, I had no knowledge of Catalan language, but I slowly learned to speak some basic sentences,23 though I could understand most of it when reading or spoken to me slowly, because I already had proficient enough knowledge of Castilian language. Even though Catalan was mainly spoken among members of the music scene I was involved in, I was able to converse in Castilian with certain individuals who were later denoted as interlocutors from the Barcelona independent music scene.

Because it was lacking in methodological structure, the fieldwork seemed much more enjoyable and easier to do in Barcelona. The semester spent there was never the less thought as my time living abroad, which for most students represents a more frivolous way of spending their free time, as they would have at home. However, reflecting upon it I might be romanticizing my time there and I re-envision it in a more personal manner than I ought to. During that period I also did not take almost any qualitative data, at least none that could be used as such. I was however able to establish enough rapport to gain particular and opinionated information about the independent music scene I was observing, owing to the GTS employees who were eager to introduce me to it.

Due to the unprompted nature of my observation, I did not keep track with all the names of the people I spoke to, but building upon memory later, I was able to deduce that the majority of interlocutors were independent music producers I met at Cau d’Orella festival, and a small number of those who worked for/with the GTS association, or those I met at GTS events that we organized. Collecting such

22 From here on I will refer to Spanish as Castilian, because such a description of the language has been most common among to the Spanish and Catalan citizens I have spoken to so far. Some of them sometimes used the description Spanish, although it was mostly referenced as the language of the country as a whole. Strictly linguistically speaking, most of my Spanish and Catalonian friends and acquaintances remarked that we conversed in Castilian. 23 Another one of the Gràcia Territori Sonor financial schemes was an agreement with Barcelona Municipality to receive a yearly grant, if they would send their international interns on an intensive 2- month Catalan language course. The course was free of charge for the participants, but it was obligatory to attend and the success (whether the participant passed the course or failed) was later reported in favour/disfavour of the association that sent him/her. This example is one of the many financial schemes that non-governmental and independent organizations decided to partake, in order to secure their existence in the future.

33 information was new to me though, because I was doing it from sheer interest and not because I needed to collect information, my questionings and conversations were less obvious.

The interlocutors, especially the ones I met at the Cau d’Orella festival, were communicative enough and did not seem to be bothered about giving their share of their own opinion on the issues non-governmental and independents are dealing with to remain operational.

At the end of my stay in Barcelona, during which my spontaneous fieldwork or autoethnography was also coming to an end, I was more or less gaining information on music cultures because I was at that time still tied to working for Radio Študent as a music journalist.24 However, that work was also helpful because it kept my attention on the alternative music scene sharp and alive, which later proved beneficial when I had to review the time in Barcelona from memory.

2.1.2. “Made In My Hand”: Ljubljana Fieldwork And Methodology

If doing fieldwork in Barcelona was meant to be completely observational with occasional participation that was only later concluded as such, the fieldwork role in Ljubljana was done from the point of view of the insider’s and outsider’s participant observation with a hint of complete participation. As an insider I was observing and recording the life within and around Radio Študent, because I was a Radio Študent employee, even though my work had nothing to do with my research interest – the online portal Radio Študent designed to gather Slovenian independent music producers.

After I came from Barcelona and started gathering my life back to track, I needed to take a break and think about what account on indie music my thesis should take. When I was offered an administration job at Radio Študent, there was almost no deliberation about accepting it and it seemed almost obvious to go back where I started and find a different angle.

24 During my stay in Barcelona, I was not actively contributing to the Radio Študnt music broadcast, but my editor instead asked me to keep an eye on the scene and bring back some music recordings, if I could.

34 This employment though offered much more than a desk job. I was part of a collective, a family of some sort, and gathering information though observation and discussions was made easier. While I helped with the organization of certain Radio Študent events – such as Birthday concert events, Tresk festival, etc. – Indie-Grad was already shaping its role on the scene. Though the progress of shaping the independents digital platform, my role was to be a participant part of the events that announced it, although I tried to remain objective and separate myself from being included in the construction of the platform. That was not in fact difficult, because Indie-Grad was shaped by a very tight and small circle of people. Later, when my work in Radio Študent administration ended I was free to perform my observations as an outsider, which felt much more promising from the point of view that I was able to conduct interviews and actively observe the platform and the people involved, without compromising my integrity as a researcher.

First observations as an insider and participant were carried out between January and June 2013 when I was employed by Radio Študent. Regardless of the fact that as part of the administration and fundraising office I would have known about the majority of Radio Študent programs and projects, the object of my research, the Indie- Grad platform, was at that time still shaping up, and was hidden from the majority of Radio Študent employees. I only got to know about it through one of the casual conversations with a group of employees from various sectors. When news was made public my office still had no dealings with it, which is why I was able to start observing it partially from the outside.

In June 2013, when my work at the radio was terminated, I was firmly determined that Indie-Grad was to be my main research focus, which is why I was finally able to create certain structured research methods for further fieldwork. During the summer time, particularly in the months of July and early August, the alternative music scene in Ljubljana often hibernates, its activities are transferred to various summer festivals in Slovenia and abroad. Still, the Radio Študent broadcast remains active 24/7, so a cut-down number of administrators, journalists and editors continue to run certain projects that are funded by government and municipal programs and must report of its proceedings by early September. Despite the lack of actual live music activities and limited production work, administrators of Indie-Grad were dutifully filling up its web platform with new and old content.

35 In autumn of 2013 I had set up a list of individuals and institutions that would act as informative bodies to my fieldwork, though I determined to continue observation activities. The research in Ljubljana’s independent music scene had its positive and negative sides and my research proved harder to do than I thought it would. Even though my employment at Radio Študent ended, I remained to be part of it as a music journalist. I had thought that in several months after its springtime initiation, Indie-Grad would have become a household name at Radio Študent, particularly among members of the music editorial. When asked about the online platform or the independents collective, fellow journalists and redactors seldom expressed any real enthusiasm or knowledge about it, which is why I needed to trace the steps back to its origin.

2.1.2.1. “I Hate Music”: Methods

One of the main difficulties in researching the independent music scene in Ljubljana was probably in part caused by my own flaw because this time I again romanticized about fieldwork. I was too hasty with expectations of what my observations would show, what the outcomes of interviews would be and how the life of the platform and independent collective would unfold. However, I did not expect certain aggravations: low variability in opinions of individuals I talked to; the actors within the scene all knew each other all too well and share certain beliefs and judgements, which at times incorporates itself as a community; despite certain statements none of the musicians and producers have actual competition in their work, not between themselves nor from the popular and commercial musical circulation. There were aspects I was expecting and there was the picture of reality that needed to be incorporated into the fieldwork.

After this shock, I downsized my list of possible research participants from the independent music scene the platform was shaping and recognized those individuals I thought would be most beneficial for gaining information. I established that this list would include individuals from Radio Študent, those involved with the radio that have production and music publishing experiences, as well as of course those that are directly connected to Indie-Grad. The answers and opinions of the actors from Ljubljana’s independent music scene I informally interviewed during participant observations, would construct the broader aspect of opinions on the research matters.

36 That is why later in the thesis I do not refer to them individually with names and particular descriptions.

When creating my network of research participants,25 I found it easier to rely on the “snowball method” (Bernard 2006: 192), since many times people at Radio Študent would refer me to one person to answer my question, after that person referred me to someone else and so on. I decided to start by interviewing those that were closest to Indie-Grad and continue outwards to the independent scene co- creators. I did that by careful observation and asking for suggestions from certain people, I trusted they would appoint me to the right person. The first person to interview I concluded, was MR and many interlocutors from Radio Študent also advised me to do the same. At the end of my semi-structured interview with him the conversation turned casual and while we were throwing around names and talked about music scenes in Ljubljana, I asked him to name a couple of people that would provide other angles to the story. He suggested ZV, who in turn at the end of our interview suggested I should talk to AK and AZ.

During my interview, which took about six unplanned hours, MR indeed proved to be a fountain of knowledge, information and opinions, I was told he was, so in this research I refer to him as one of the key consultants26 on the matter. Later I met him at various events and we talked some more, but even then at the end of the interview he revealed that he has in some form spilled his soul, and had nothing more to tell. His advice though was, that I should keep alert, because the situation will most certainly change. By then, my acquaintance and research relationship with him led me to other unstructured conversations with important research participants.

25 The representation of the research participants in this thesis could be encapsulated with the description of informants, therefore those interlocutors that “tell you what they think you need to know about their culture” (Bernard 2006: 196). Only, using the term ‘informant’ might be, as Olaf H. Smedal expressed it, “unfortunate” (Smedal 1994), in some way unkind to those who provide anthropological research with information and insight to the subject of his/hers research interest, and is today generally avoided, but rather substituted with other expressions: interlocutors, consultants, recounters, research participants, etc. (Muršič 2011a: 84). When mentioning the people I talked to or interviewed for the purposes of my research, I refer to them as consultants or key consultants, whether they have provided insightful information, advice or guidance; interlocutors, if I refer to them as correspondents or recounters during interviews; or as research participants, whether I refer to them generally, as subjects of close collaboration in my research. 26 If not even the key consultant, though critical opinions and information I have gathered from the rest research participants have proved to be equally insightful.

37 The latter have also proved to be very informative and helpful with their perceptions, thoughts and viewpoints on various issues independent music and even cultural producers face in Slovenia, and the workings of Indie-Grad. As with the consultant MR, I have also met the other research participants at semi-structured interviews, unstructured meetings and at various events. It was not hard getting information from them, since they were willing to share it and pleased that I was interested in the matter of researching independent Slovenian music production, but on the other hand, they seemed somewhat troubled with the topic and at times expressed their disagreement with certain institutions or people quite resentfully.

At the end of two such interviews, one with ZV and another with AK, I saw no point into digging further, because their feedback showed there was nothing more to discuss, but they welcomed the idea of sharing other contacts with me. I have however informally talked to the mentioned research participants after the interviews, at Tresk festival and at various music venues, although they seemed reproachful toward being interviewed again. Their attitude at first left me disheartened, because I felt that after initial successful interview with the consultant MR, the other research participants seemed more and more ill-tempered. The consultant AZ was nevertheless very enthusiastic to talk and share information, either through e-mails or at two semi- structured interviews we had at the Radio Študent premises.

I have prepared for all of the mentioned interviews in advance, mostly by assembling together a list of questions that I have changed and formulated according to the previous interviews. Because I could to some extent predict the type of conversation the future research participants would be most comfortable with, I chose to blueprint semi-structured interviews, so I could stay in the line of the information I was trying to get, although sometimes the interviews turned unstructured as the interlocutors either willingly encouraged me to converse with them, instead of interviewing, or wanted an opinionated discussion on various issues. This was most helpful because I was able to get the majority of the blatant opinions, even though the answers were waspish and the research participants started to distance themselves from the topic of my research. To my best efforts, I tried to keep them less involved and annoyed with the topics they recognized as problematic and to be more ready for a subjective and more consistent debate.

38 “Unstructured interviewing,” as Russell Bernard describes it (Bernard 2006: 213), was successful with my key consultants, because of, at times, the delicate nature of conversations in which they entrusted me with a fair amount of personal insight and confidentialities that I was not feeling comfortable of sharing in this thesis, mostly because they contain testy comments on the people they still work with.

I chose a fairly small number of interlocutors who work in different locations, yet being active in more or less the same scene. Most interviews started and continued in a friendly and comfortable pace and the interlocutors never expressed doubts that they were pushed into the situation merely to provide information. Since I did recordings of our conversations, I pointed out that I would probably quote and use a lot of their answers and that, if they wished, they could be renamed or referred to with initials. Because all of them seemed to be oblivious to these suggestions, I later decided to use their initials in order to distinguish their expressions from one another. Also I notified them that if they wish, they could always express certain opinions, criticisms or details about themselves or their work by alerting me that they should not be quoted on that, but they expressed it merely for my own understandings. These measures were also never used.

It was also interesting to note that upon starting the interview most of them expected me to present the hypothesis to my research. They also wanted to know if any other interlocutor has appointed them and who that person was, even though they later admitted that the previous interlocutor informed them about my wish to interview them and they also presumed to hear some criticism on the researched matter. After they had been assured that part of my research is based on their accounts and observations on the matter they ceased to be cautious, formed their opinions much more critically than I expected, they became relaxed and talkative. I must admit that, despite some backlash, I enjoyed these interviews very much because I felt less pressured to extract information, but instead gained confidence to ask bolder questions – within the permitted limits, of course.

2.1.2.2. “Havoc All Ended”: Ljubljana field research

This research demanded me to immerse myself in fully understanding the organizational, institutional and economic situations in which independent music producers, as well as independent culture workers, live today. When I was observing

39 the scene in Barcelona, I did not have such knowledge, but fieldwork in Ljubljana definitely demanded more comprehension in order to successfully conclude my research. I definitely could not have grasped this during fieldwork, for which my employment in Radio Študent beforehand proved to be more than beneficial.

Even gaining rapport with Slovenian research participants demanded a certain amount of lingo and recognizing the suppressed meaning of their answers, in order to clarify certain misunderstandings. Despite the fact that I was perceived as an outsider who is researching a closely-knit music scene, the research participants showed a great amount of trust and open-mindedness to the research subject since they have rarely had the opportunity to talk about issues with such detail and confidence.

Ensuing the interviews, which were concluded in the early spring of 2014, I continued to do participant observation at the Tresk#5 independent music festival in Kino Šiška. I went there to actively observe the scene and hang out, although I also helped to run the Radio Študent music releases stand with certain newer RŠ people. I was able to get some fresher points of view from them, as well as informally conversing with certain independent producers form music labels that operate outside of Ljubljana. One of the interesting things I have noticed, for instance, was that many representatives of independent music labels present at the festivals fair were also music journalists from Radio Študent. The inner networking and conclusive nature of this scene became more and more apparent.

At the time of the festival, I was much more relaxed and assured about my knowledge of the scene and the backgrounds of certain entities that were in majority its running wheels. I still remained cautious about my role as a researcher, but the informal conversations with music producers were pleasant and enjoyable, even though when I later scribbled down field notes, they were filled with information that I managed to extract.

Despite reviewed insights on the independent music scene in Ljubljana, the independent music producers and scene actors I was in contact with and certain theories on independent music culture I was aware of, I was only able extract limited similarities with the subject of my research. The scope of my research on independent music label collectives and their aims to sustain active and alive in the local music scenes as well as music industry, provides a careful insight into activities and

40 strategies that offer a certain amount of support to the independents. I have based this research in a small locality and music scene that is perhaps to some (national) extent even seen as large. However, certain particularities that still hold its existence offer a very interesting understanding of independent music culture and independents across the board.

2.1.3. “Charity, People!”: Festivals Cau d’Orella And Tresk

Independent music production reach by an individual operation can have an integral structure, but can be hardly all encompassing in the music scene on the whole. Because production keeps improving and evolving, different methods like festivals, are created in order accentuate the importance of independents and tend to their needs, when it comes to finding new audiences and generate networks. Such, usually multi-day events, can be of a local nature but they often convey the idea of trans-locality (Bennet and Peterson 2004: 9-10). Here I overview two such events, created by independent music ‘communities’, one from Barcelona and another from Ljubljana.

2.1.3.1. Cau d’Orella festival 2012

Cau d’Orella27 is a non-profit music and cultural organization, which was founded in Barcelona in 2010. Its mission of work is to promote Catalan music artists and independent labels from Catalonia, though they also collaborate extensively with other similar organizations. Jornades Cau d’Orella was until 2015, an annual expo of local Catalan electronic music and promotional fair by local independent music labels of various music genres. Like Radio Študent, Cau d’Orella is also established as a non-profit organization that helps to establish collaborations between related electronic music artists and organize music events for their promotion. Generally put, Cau d’Orella helps to develop the local independent music activities. The Jornades Cau d’Orella festival or ‘The days of Cau d’Orella’, is not a conventional music festival, but three days filled with accompanied music programs from around Catalonia, yet mostly from Barcelona, debates and evening concerts in various well known electronic music clubs, such as Nitsa and Moog. Each year since 2011, the

27 The Cau d'Orella 2012 promotional logo, see: Picture 5, Appendix I, page 159.

41 festival was held at the Convent Sant Augustí, a former monastery, which the Barcelona municipality turned into the ‘Old town’ district community centre that hosts various exhibitions, cultural and social activities.

Gràcia Territori Sonor association, where I worked as a production and organization intern for four months in 2012, has been part of Cau d’Orella activities since its beginning and has naturally been invited to take part of their annual festival in 2012. As an intern, one of my duties was to help prepare the GTS music label stand and carry out some of the promotion in Spanish and English, but the association executives also invited me to take part in all of the festivals activities, including the ones that took part in the mentioned clubs.

The convent, where the festival (Caudorella 2012: Jornadas de música electronica) was held on the 29th, 30th and 31st of March 2012 is a renovated gothic stone building, completely modernised and appropriated for modern day use. The festival was held in several different halls connected with narrow corridors. The music record fare was situated in one of the biggest and brightest passing by halls,28 where music labels displayed their productions in an enclosed circle, so visitors were able to make a nice tour of the offers, before heading on to one of the featuring music performances or debates, or the outdoor terrace.

I toured the labels tables the moment our booth was operational on Thursday, March 29th, though besides the GTS label and its sister label Màgia Roja, I did not recognize any other artists or music labels. The labels owners were, however, very friendly and even willing to offer some music releases for free. One music label even offered savoury and sweet sacks on their table, they immediately attracted a larger crowd of people who perused their catalogue and were held up there longer than they would probably be. In general that hall existed as an on the way passage from experimental and ambient music performances, half way from the bar to the terrace. The GTS and Màgia Roja team were at first eager to present their catalogue and stay behind the booth table in order to chat with newcomers. But after some time since the daytime performances, debates and the fare took place for the whole afternoon, they soon left the promotional job to us the interns and instead decided to mingle with the visitors and meet their friends.

28 Cau d’Orella 2012 music fair hall, see: Picture 6, Appendix I, 159.

42 Despite some reluctance, especially because it was not exactly my preferred type of music, I decided to visit the electronic music party at Moog club with a friend – mainly because I had a free pass and wanted to see what the scene would be like. The next day, even though it was Friday, which meant another workday, the GTS executives stated that we would not need to come to the fair to work, because they will take away the stand. I found that odd, but did not question too much. Apparently the reason was that the release sales at the festivals were not so bright, so they would not need to do any music catalogue promotion or have a booth table, but they will attend the music festival individually to meet certain people they already know and perhaps make some plans for future collaborations.

Later, after I had reflected upon the Cau d’Orella festival and what it had to offer, I compared it a lot to the Slovenian festival Tresk, which I briefly visited a year before. One of the things that especially attracted me at both festivals, were the featured debates of the new ways music production started to reinvent itself and a special emphasis on the independent music label production – something I have never observed before. However, unlike Tresk, Cau d’Orella is a music festival that has been designed locally, it invites local music producers and musicians and as well it focuses its attention to the local recognition of independent music production. The locality directed by the festival is Catalonian in locality, even though by the look of the list of performers and music labels included in the fare, the large majority came from Barcelona. Despite the focus to the local, the official language of Cau d’Orella was not just Catalan and many visitors or music label representatives I talked to, spoke Castilian (or even English) not only with me, but also among themselves. I found that mildly surprising, since I knew certain locally conscious Catalonians almost never use any other language than Catalan. Even the locally directed GTS association used it as an expression of a firm relation to their Gràcia barrio locality.29

On a different matter, Cau d’Orella in 2012 was already the fourth edition of the festival, only considering much larger and popularized local music festivals, like

29 My co-workers from GTS would, however, as I explained before, mix Catalan and Castilian, from time to time. One of such interesting occurrences was, when I accompanied one of the heads from GTS, Sebastià Jovani, to the nearby local community radio station Ràdio Gràcia, where he broadcasted a weekly radio show Música i Quimica. The guest in that show was a Castilian speaking writer, translator and music theorist from Pamplona, Mr. Ramon Andres and since I was invited to join in the broadcasted interview, we would speak both Castilian and Catalan, or rather Sebastià would casually shift from one language to the other.

43 Sónar and Primavera Sound festivals or Montjuïc de Nit event, it did not seem to have such a large outreach on the locale. Like at Tresk in Ljubljana, most of the people involved or invited to the festival have already been acquainted to one another and despite great organization, interesting program scope and interesting music events, most of the activities seemed to be repetitive throughout the year among the same independent music scene actors.

Regardless that my visit to Cau d’Orella music festival was an only one-time event and as such the research was done inconclusively, I was pleased to discover its outskirts and at least begin my first steps in research observation.

2.1.3.2. Tresk#5 festival 2014

The Tresk30 Festival, of which I wrote quite a lot in the previous pages, was an idea that was initiated by the Radio Študent management and marketing teams. Now an annual event in its sixth year of running, Tresk was designed by Radio Študent to bring together independent music labels and self-publishing musicians from Slovenia and its neighbouring countries. Since its beginning in 2010, the festival intended to connect Slovenian independent music producers, present the current circumstances of alternative music, find various new options for independent music production, problematize it and, finally, to present the national independent and alternative music scenes to the Slovenian public.

The customary two-day or weekend-long festival is commonly held partially in Kino Šiška and one of the clubs or concert venues in Ljubljana. It features a large independent music production/phonogram fare, where the independents can sell their music and merchandise, two nights of live performances by various music artists and different debates with topics on independent music production, marketing, financing, indie aesthetics and music authenticity, etc. The music production fare and initial events are normally held in the Kino Šiška, while the second day concerts and certain debates have been held from music halls, galleries to smaller clubs.

Kino Šiška is a quite large event location, similar to the size of the Covent Sant Augistì, only less divided and in two levels. The Tresk events are mostly held in the upstairs large lobby – the music fair and certain smaller performances, in the big

30 The Tresk#5 festival promotional flyer, see: Picture 7, Appendix I, page 160.

44 concert hall and sometimes also in the smaller concert halls. In 2013, the Radio Študent’s finances were scarce, and because they could not afford to arrange a two- day event, they instead organized just a one-day festival that was in its entirety held in Kino Šiška. The whole program of Tresk#4 was then repositioned around every imaginable place in Kino Šiška: the music halls, lobbies and stairs, even in the toilets.

That was also the first time the Indie-Grad platform was officially introduced to the broader public. One of the leading online news portals, which reported on the event, re-named it to “indiegrad” (Kopina 2014) and referred to it not only as a platform or an online portal, but also as a phonogram and promotional music fare – a small town of independent music releases, with physical and digital existence.

A year later, in 2014, when I was more actively pursuing my research of the Indie-Grad and independent Slovenian music production, my former co- workers from Radio Študent encouraged me to also actively participate at the whole two-day Tresk#5 festival, take a look around and get to know the scene. Thus I was volunteering at the Radio Študent music catalogue table, promoting and selling the ZARŠ label products, just as I did at Cau d’Orella festival. The Indie-Grad promotional stand was positioned next to the ZARŠ table31 and offered self-published releases and partial catalogues from the labels that were not physically present at the festival.

Just like the year before, the music fare was held in the upper lobby, as well with some minor music events, while the majority of music performances and other activities happened in the large concert hall. During my breaks, I was able to go round the tables, talk to some producers and observe how people mingle and chat like old friends, perhaps even more casually than the people I have seen at Cau d’Orella. It did not seem that everyone knew exactly everyone else, but the feeling of the place appeared to be more homely and situated in space. However, despite the apparent purpose of the festival and the fact that the independent music labels’ production was in the forefront of the event, the festival seemed to unconsciously fail to remember its purpose. Instead Tresk gave the impression to be more of an independent music performance festival first and independent music production promoter second. Most

31 The Tresk#5 festival music fair, ZARŠ and Indie-Grad promotional stand, see: Picture 8, Appendix I, page 160.

45 visitors who passed the Radio Študent stand also seemed to be oblivious to the meaning of the Indie-Grad table – even though they did browse its catalogue.

I cannot recall if we were able to sell many copies of the ZARŠ releases, but similarly to Cau d’Orella, I sat behind the table with mostly younger collaborators and interns of Radio Študent, who were not exactly knowledgeable of the music and artist they were supposed to be promoting, or even the event and concert performers in general. I thought it to be odd, but again like me, they were there to observe and take in the scene they have helped co-create by volunteering at the fare. Another important feature I gathered was the apparent decrease in debates and public round tables. Tresk#6, however, added public talks with independent producers and label representatives, which seems to be more welcoming and an active approach to dissemination of the importance that independents still have in the Slovenian music industry.

According to the respondent AK, whose label Kapa was actively part of all the festivals, Tresk is only a mild improvement to the otherwise poor acknowledgement of independent music in our space. It is a good concept, but it cannot move mountains with one intense weekend per year, if the broader audience and media only remember that such things exists, but it is not part of their everyday music consumption. The respondent AK’s opinion is that the labels and musicians are the ones who get the most value from it, like some sort of recognition for their work.

46 3. “BEAT MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL”: TERMINOLOGY SCHEMES AND TRICKERIES

“On the one hand, the small-scale social groups which have traditionally provided the locus of anthropological fieldwork are being incorporated into ever expanding systems of political, economic and cultural connections. These processes of incorporation have thrown question marks around the viability, structures, the very ontology of these social groups.” (Amit and Rapport 2002: 4)

When I stated researching the Slovenian independents platform Indie-Grad, it had not existed for a very long time and also had not yet been firmly defined. Later, its administrators stumbled upon many obstacles, criticisms and even experienced periods of stagnation. However, the meaning of its formation presents a significant and valuable insight of the situation that Slovenian music experiences in the digital present and the position of independent labels in Slovenian music market.

But before I further unfold the account on my research, the formulations of individual terms that hold together its concept require a more detailed and insightful attention. If I had let them be used freely without hesitations or meaningful considerations, I would have not done rightful justice to the stories and testimonies of many who were part of my research and to those who will read my work. The way my research participants used different terms, and sometimes even tangled themselves in their use, is how they express their relation to the concept of music they know and which in the end can be seen through everyday terminology (Muršič 2000: 331). My responsibility as a researcher and interpreter of their effort is to express their words and stories in a rightful context.

47 3.1. “FIFTY-FIFTY CLOWN”: PORTAL, PLATFORM, COLLECTIVE OR COMMUNITY

The first formal and public self-description of Indie-Grad was available on a two-sided flyer32, which was given out as a promotion of the independent publishing and music festival Tresk#4 in the early spring of 2013. One side of the flyer promoted the fourth annual Tresk festival, the other side provided the first ever statement and interpretation of what Indie-Grad aimed to be. It stated the following:

“Here comes an online place, which will join all that has been previously separated, all that has been split, all quality independent music productions and with it all evolving music scenes. This means everything that sounds good in one place and for everybody who would care to purchase the sonorous goods. This is only the beginning.”33

Bellow this statement is listed the Internet address to the Indie-Grad web page, as well as the signatures of Radio Študent and Moonlee Records, which together play major roles in the beginning of the Indie-Grad evolution, also its present and of course the future. These two players are also essentially different from one another. Radio Študent holds a claim to be “one of Europe’s oldest and strongest independent and non-commercial urban radio stations” (Radio Študent - Info 2014), but it also voices its meaning in the local music and music scene community as well as the promotional broadcast activities it does for Slovenian independent publishers. Moonlee Records on the other hand is an entirely independent music label based in Slovenia and Croatia, which developed one of the most active and promoted independent production businesses in the Slovenian and the ex-Yugoslavian area.

The music scenes of Ljubljana, in which I would certainly include the alternative and independent music scene that has been honed by Radio Študent and its

32 See: Picture 1, Appendix I, page 157. 33 The description quote from the Indie-Grad flyer has been translated to English for the purpose of this thesis. The following is the original texts in Slovenian: »Prihaja spletno mesto, ki bo združilo vse, kar je bilo poprej razkropljeno, vse, kar je bilo razklano,vso kvalitetno neodvisno glasbeno produkcijoin tako vso razvijajočo se glasbeno sceno. Torej vse, kar dobro zveni na enem kupu, in za vse, ki jim prija dobro zveneče morda tudi nakupiti. In to je šele začetek.«

48 production collaborators, has faced a great change with the entry of the Internet. Holly Kruse talks about the online dissemination of indie music, because the connections between musicians, audiences and publishers are made easier not only “across localities and regions”, but also internationally and globally (Kruse 2010: 625), In her words, and what is also true for Indie-Grad, “the Internet has become a key player in the production, promotion, dissemination, and consumption of independent music” (Kruse 2010: 625).

The formal and informal presentation of Indie-Grad was missing a sufficient definition. Expressions and titles of the platform mixed and matched along the way: an institutionalized community; a digital collective; a platform, etc. Were the terms correlated or did they have a totally separate meaning in its context? Up until now, other than its name, I mostly referred to it as a platform, because it was also the term most of my interlocutors mentioned. Digging deeper into the matter has brought up other interpretations. The research participants talked about a junction of independent music labels; a collective of independent music producers; and no matter what, following the interviews and participant observation, I somehow got a perception of a community in Indie-Grad, even though it has materialized in a quite different way than I conceptualized it at the beginning. It is worth to mention that a same sort of perception came through me when I attended a local independent music production festival in Barcelona, approximately a year before Indie-Grad was founded.

3.1.1. “Digital Desire”: Indie-Grad In The Internet Music Platform Context

While preliminary plans for Indie-Grad were shaping its digital body and social presence on the music scene, the design called for an adoption of two roles: an Internet music tool and an Internet music scene. The online page description portrays Indie-Grad as an “online portal”, with a mission to be “a communal online platform or supportive environment for independent Slovenian labels” (Indie-Grad 2013).

The interlocutors talked about junctures and crossroads, when speaking about independent music labels and the terms platform and portal were used, when the first were put in the context of the digitalization and the Internet. I offer to short descriptions.

49 3.1.1.1. Portal

Dictionaries define a portal quite straightforwardly and technically: it is an Internet place that provides access and links to new Internet sites,34 although some music portals also offer different services directed to musicians and the audience, which also gives them a role of music “archives” (Barendregt and van Zanten 2002: 99). In a social sense, Badrengt and van Zanten state that internet sites that aim at music appreciators and music providers, encourage them to engage in a variety of on- line community, often orientating toward national users in the language of the country where these communities also shape in reality (Barendregt and van Zanten 2002: 99).

Considering the example of Indonesian online music scenes, which Bart Barendregt and Wim van Zanter described in their essay about popular music in Indonesia in the years past 1998, I will argue that Indie-Grad adopts the same music scene position. Not just technically, as an Internet tool, but also as a nation-wide music community portal. A narrow examination would see it as a web page and portal that provides an apparatus to archive independent Slovenian publications: to document and organize music publications according to artists and labels; to provide links and connections with the labels own web pages; to bridge the audience with independent and alternative music media space, by offering reviews from its covering media, etc. Many local and national music scenes create portals like these, not only to document and organize the work which they promote, but also to proliferate the information which is sometimes, on purpose or not overlooked by the mainstream media (Kahn and Kellner 2003: 306).

3.1.1.2. Platform

On the grounds of Indie-Grad as a portal comes the role of Indie-Grad as the platform, meaning it connects the interests of independent Slovenian publishers and producers, giving them an opportunity to voice and represent their work and at the same time it initiates active audience, media and production relations.35 The cultural and creative practices among members of various cultural scenes have skyrocketed in the last few years, with the use of different digital tools and technological devices.

34 Portal 2014: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/portal. 35 My interpretation of the platform comes from the official dictionary definition, which states: “/…/an opportunity to voice one’s views or initiate action” (Platform 2014).

50 Some online platforms especially compliment the “facilitation of local networks” and helping certain focus groups, create a more positive outcome by “cultural and creative empowerment” (Bennett 2011: 30). One of the aims is to give it a focus of an online national “solidarity network”, a term used by Richard Kahn and Douglas Kellner (Kahn and Kellner 2003: 306). It archives and at the same time promotes their independent productions, and also focuses on creating a co-working and conjoined environment of Slovenian music.

3.1.2. “Tribe”: Collective And Community In The Independent Music Scenes

The comprehension of Indie-Grad, other than the fact that it has its own digital existence, was a sense of an association of some sort. Even though its entity remained deeply rooted into a web juncture structure, this perception however remained as a concept, given from reflections of research participants and other interlocutors. This conception nevertheless bears an origin in my autoethnography from Barcelona.

While there, I participated at two music festivals, one international and one regionally36 oriented, and the latter revealed certain points od interest, which I have later sensed at Tresk frestival. The visitors and presenters at the Cau d’Orella festival mingled and chatted like they were old friends, like a large family of independent producers. The similarities of the two festivals became more intertwined. Certain people might have talked about it as an event where they labels sell their products and try to gain some promotional spot-lights, but at the same time the visitors appeared to rather meet their friends and spend a couple of days in pleasant company. When talking about the platform, during interviews and at the Slovenian event, research participants informally referred to it as more than just a digital formation.

3.1.2.1. Collective

One of the primary concerns of the platform is creating its own music market niche in an opposition to the mainstream music oriented major companies. By that it in a way creates a specific scene in which the members are able to show “collective expressions”, as described by Bennett and Peterson (Bennett and Peterson 2004: 2),

36 Catalan.

51 their participation to a certain ‘independent’ or ‘alternative’ identity and more over declare their distinction from the already existing national music industry. In a more ideological sense a collective can also be perceived as an organized and socialised management of production and administration, with a “conscious self-managerial activity”, as was Cornelius Castoriadis’ idea of socialism (Edgar and Sedgwick 2002: 34). In the imagination of the individual producers and collectives that are part of an independent music scene, exists a yearning for a self-sustaining environment. Although the results of music recordings and production may not always be regarded as products, they are part of what Peterson and Bennett refer to as a “scene-supporting industry”, which according to them is the result of some sort of music scene at its core and which is in the “domain” of music collectives (Bennett and Peterson 2004: 4-5).

Collectives between independent music labels and producers are not entirely uncommon, and especially work well in larger markets such as Europe in which digital music sales grow rapidly (Ghafele and Gibert 2011: 28). A quick Google search can bring us to a number of them. They are referred to as an Independent Record Collective37, Independent Distribution Cooperative, Bubblewrap Collective, Consolidated Independent, etc., or even the independent musicians platform communities such as the Artist Recording Collective. The usual driving force, or better to say, goal behind them is to enable better and more open distribution channels, also to create a supporting environment for musicians who are part of these labels. The “ability to access” the music markets in any shape or form, is a major issue for many independent and do-it-yourself labels and it also poses as the major distinction between them and the major labels (Dunn 2012: 228).

The main appreciation about any collective within a music scene is that it unites different musical entities in working relationships. Negus showed an example of rap music collectives with different affiliations and label identities that connect musicians and individual performers (Negus 1999: 94), similarly as Radio Študent integrated various independent music labels and self-published bands and musicians into an online collective. A well planned ahead idea, as it shows.

37 One of such collectives is appropriately named the Independent Record Collective, which is actually a joint independent producers' venture into an entrepreneurial mission as a 'boutique distributor' (Christman 2011).

52 I would not go as far as to compare the circumstances of labels described by Negus and Indie-Grad, but the means in which the collaborative work of individuals in the rap music scene confused major music companies, because it defied the normal sense of music careers, have given me an opportunity to grasp some sense in the association with the Indie-Grad planners. The objective was to create an easier way to access the Slovenian music market during the financial crisis of the last six or so years. In reality, the independent music and music market have faced numerous economic recessions; most notably the one in the UK during the 1980s (e.g., Bennett, Frith, Grossberg, Shepherd and Turner 1993; Hesmondhalgh 1997; Negus 1999; Muggleton 2000; Shuker 2001).

Do-it-yourself and independent production actors commonly approach the music market with a defiant attitude, drawing it from the collective stance that its members maintain and nourish. In her article ‘Subcultural Identity In Alternative Music Culture’, among other things Holly Kruse deconstructed the meaning of identification and differentiation of the members of certain (subcultural) music groups and their social practices towards other music listeners and music scenes, in which she includes Frith’s concept of the “sense of community” in rock ideology (Kruse 1993: 37).

3.1.2.2. Community

“A forerunner of scene as a means of explaining the significance of music in everyday contexts was ‘community’.” (Bennett 2004: 224)

The term community38 applies to the context of music in the way of how individuals in most localities use locally produced music as a means through which they are able to situate themselves in their area and its music scene (Bennett 2004: 224). Bennett’s metaphor of a community is described through an example of how a shared connection with something like a locally created music style can produce such collective social forms. Members of that locality then further declare their “sense of

38 Marcus Banks (1996) mentioned how Anthony Cohen reintegrated the term “community” in his book Self Consciousness: An Alternative Anthropology of Identity (1994), due to which new considerations about the question of identities appeared. Cohen stated that communities are self- conscious social formations, which are divided and differentiated from within, only that they muster an inner complexity of groups and relatively simple forms in order to function in interactions with the outer world (in Muršič 1997: 228).

53 togetherness through a peculiar juxtaposition of music, identity and place” (Bennett 2004: 24).

Even though the basis of anthropological research is examining communities and their features, Vered Amit and Nigel Rapport (2002) argued that the use of term is be more troubled, whether by the ‘anthropologists’ who study them, or ‘practicioners’ who are part of them (Rapport in Amit and Rapport 2002: 6). Amit recapitulated Gerd Baumans argument, that the term community is in public rhetoric “often opportunistically stretched to accommodate a wide variety of categories” (Bauman in Amit and Rapport 2002: 13), which is why expressing something as a ‘community’ should require sceptical investigation, instead of utilizing “ready-made social units” for proving ones analysis39 (Amit in Amit and Rapport 2002: 13).

Despite that, there have been many notions on the creation of communities, especially within creative practices, such as music. This, according to Shelemey, is an action that well known and established in most cultures and societies. The practices might be arduous, professional or only show enthusiastic interest in fine arts, music making, filming, etc. Shelemey interpreted community as a “keyword”, which is in the centre of musicology researches (Shelemey 2011: 349), although her extraction of this keywords meaning actually comes from contemporary American cultural studies. The talk of communities can have many approaches. Burgett and Hendler for instance speak of communities in a positive approach, because communities give individuals “a sense of belonging, understanding, cooperation and equality” (Burgett and Hendler 2007: 57). Ethnomusicologists of the last few decades have argued on how music and its powers are the main reasons “for realizing social identities and cultural subjectivism”; some rather primal ways in which it is possible to articulate communal and sustaining identity (Turino 2008: 2).

Discussions about the use of term community in music, in which music processes and social bonding would have a collective outcome, have become marginalized by the ever-increasing necessity of its argumentation. The new ways in which collective in music has been conceptualized can now be found in music

39 Amit latter accounts that much of the analysis of communities today, despite the large amount of scholarly input on the matter, still handle with a key dilemma, which is incorporation of smaller groups into larger (even global) systems. According to her, the attention that is put on such incorporation requires socio-analytical account on locality and identity (Amit in Amit and Rapport 2002: 42).

54 theories of subcultures, music scenes, etc. (Shelemay 2011: 357). Radio Študent, for instance, is showing its practice of a positive outcome, by constantly reaching inside the local and national music processes, engaging the actors in ‘on air’ participation and ultimately by exposing their work, e. g. music, at various events that the radio itself organizes or finances, such as Tresk and Klubski maraton40. Even Indie-Grad has got its own series of concert events called Indie-Grad Zgoščenka in which they presented new and upcoming Slovenian bands and musicians.

The local music scene community is also a lot about the romantic notion of its essence. Many times, and I presume this is also the case of one of my research participants romanticising of Indie-Grad, is that some individuals sense a lack of shared local experience, so the “way of life” as Bennett calls it (Bennett 2004: 224) becomes the basis of their community. In the essay about the study of folk music idolisation and the myth of rock, Frith mentions how rock music developed a fantasy about the community as the body that is created by the music and manifests the musical experience (Frith 2007: 38-39).

These localities can be perceived as regional, municipal or part of a town which is why it is interesting to observe how Indie-Grad chose its locality not only within Ljubljana, but it stretched across the country, binding together different localities and in a way also centralizes them. If I were to paraphrase Lefebvre’s

40 Klubski maraton or the Club marathon, is an annual music competition organized by Radio Študent, which aims to bring forth new and interesting music sounds by up-coming bands from Slovenia (and even Croatia). The first competition was organized in 2001 from the ashes of another similar event called Novi Rock (New Rock), although Radio Študent already coordinated similar activities since 1998. The Club marathon’s primary goal is to discover and promote unheard Slovenian alternative production. Every year in spring Radio Študent announces an audition for the competition, to which the bands and musicians send their demo recordings. A five-member jury (including four music journalists and Radio Študent music editor), gathers the received recordings, and upon evaluation (the criteria is often subjective) chooses six most promising recordings, i.e. bands and musicians. The chosen six are paired in three music acts, which proceed on a six-week concert tour in clubs and youth centres around Slovenia; accompanied by promotional CD compilation of music from the bands featured in the competition, on-air coverage, interviews, etc. This tour, e.g. marathon, is the second part of the competition, during which the audience members vote for the best out of two music acts of the evening. The band with most votes is announced the winner of the competition at the final music event, which occurs at the end of the tour in Metelkova, sometime in October. The final event features all the bands included in the tour and the winning band gets the chance to record an album under ZARŠ label, as well as free promotion and distribution form the part of Radio Študent. Many of the winning bands have since become prominent music acts in Slovenian alternative music scene. (Klubski marathon 2015) Since the Club marathon started, ZARŠ label has not been fully established – from 2001 to 2008, Radio Študent unofficially released Club marathon compilations under its own label, even though the latter was not officially established until 2008. The

55 locality, I could initiate an apprehension that for example, the alternative music scene in Slovenia exists as a simulated product, which besides nurturing its own traditions41 and ideals, is also an instrument of production. This scene and its instrument especially, introduce social and more over economic structures, which are able to act as footholds in establishing the music scenes place in a “particular locality” (Lefebvre 1991: 151).

Locality in the context of music scenes can be directly connected with local music practices, among which certain local scenes and their members clearly state their difference form other communities (Kruse 1993: 38). Jody Berland in a similar topic discusses Lefebvre’s “right to the town” and the “right to be different” (Berland 2004: 202), in the context of urban radio stations and its communities. Lefebvre argues the two are “fundamental rights” (Lefebvre in Frith 2004: 202) that are being endangered by economical and also municipal/political management of urban space (Berland 2004: 202). Berland used this context to show how a radio station and its management are able to promote local business, which would according to her be regarded as its leading accomplishment in the radio community (Berland 2004: 202). In the sense of locality, radio stations represent unions of different music and music scene actors, mapping them in a “symbolic and social environment” (Berland 2004: 205). The research of Indie-Grad has resulted in a similar explanation, according to which the social and symbolic environment in a radio stations locality,42 results in a music scene community, which by its own standards is different from any other independent music scene.

Indie-Grad is a community of independent music producers, which actually grew out from another already existing music community. Only the independent music producers were firstly brought together into a community by a business endeavour and secondly from the aim of equality, common interest, support and belonging.

3.1.2.3. Communitas

Music is one of the ritual practice mediums which makes it distinctively social (Muršič 1997: 227), which is why we must face the term communitas. According to

41 Which despite alternative ideals do occur. 42 In my example, Radio Študent.

56 Victor Turner (1969), communitas43 is defined as a “sentiment of humanity”, an “emotional sense of community and unity that is produced from shared experience” (Turner in Fonarow 2006: 102). The shared experiences are born through various complex and everyday processes of socialization and enculturation. The liminal experience that occurs right before the individuals transit to the stage at the end of the ritual when they are given a new status, is what Muršič described from Turner, a temporary feeling of equality in the marginality of communitas. Music is often described as the glue through which individuals in communitas feel connected, by socializing or by participating in certain processes (Muršič 1997: 227).

Turner’s communitas cannot be narrowly applied to the shared experiences of the Indie-Grad members, as to suggest that the latter had to undergo a gruelling and demanding experience in order to create a community. I used it more to explain how certain measures, as how the collective demand for certain rights in the music market, pointing out the lack of media attention and downright second-rate economic situation they are dealing with, would certainly be enough reasons for it. Wendy Fonarow, for instance, placed the concept of communitas in different fandom zones of indie music listeners, with which she tried to show different feelings of attachment to a certain community44 that may happen according to their spatial position at the concert venue. In her instance, this community was “produced in part from the participant structure that breaks down the boundaries ordinarily in place between non-intimates” (Fonarow 2006: 103). Her point, though, did prove interesting for my research, because Indie- Grad as a community only truly made sense to me during the two-day festival Tresk, although the source for my initial observation was another community, the music producers and associations at Cau d’Orella in Barcelona. Both festivals were created for the participants, they are able to express certain interest and are designed in spaces where the participants are able to bond and create a higher realisation of the events cause.

43 Turner indicated that he would rather opt for the Latin word communitas instead of community, in order to distinguish the modality of social relationship from an »area of common living« (Turner 1969: 96). 44 In this case, Fonarow's examples of communities were built as only temporary, one-time communitas during an indie music concert.

57 3.1.3. “Calling For Reason”: Formal And Informal Interpretations Of Indie-Grad

In order for it to be institutionalized or formally recognized, Indie-Grad would require a strong initiative from all independent actors that are embraced in the proposed communal group. The initiative gestures to start such a community that has already occurred, but the transition to formal recognition would among other things also require more formal relationships between the members of the community, the assignment of roles and adoption of certain plans and actions and finally a public image and public performances. Such engagements could certainly be adopted if they wished them to be, they would have to incorporate a conscious decision to also institutionalize the cultural capital property (Bourdieu 1986). The reasoning behind what means to be independent and autonomous can also reflect in defiance toward institutionalization, even though the aim of the action would be worthwhile and beneficial to those invited to take part in Indie-Grad community.

Understanding Indie-Grad as an Internet or digital collective is however distinctly plausible since many actors in different music scenes nowadays turn to assemble in informal bodies, through which their communal thought on certain issues or actions can be invoked. Their concepts of the collective in music (Shelemay 2011) and search for musical experience (Bennett 2004; Frith 2007) is today, more than ever, simplified to searching for new ways of expression and connection with other music scene actors that are not physically present in their locality. The implementation of Internet use in our everyday life has, among other life aspects, also changed how music is integrated in cultural scenes. As will be explained in the following pages, Will Straw uses the example of such integration to explain the consumption and production of music through cultural scenes (Straw 2005). The conception of the Internet collective that primarily tries to meet the demands of new life courses and music market is as such not only viable but also practical.

My understanding of the two interpretations is divided in two points of view. On one account an institutionalized community of independent music producers would seem tangible, if such institutionalization brings out only positive outcomes in the organization, future actions and subsequent successful outstretches to the music market. Of course, there is an undoubted debate about the autonomy and independent ethos of the actors included. Keeping in mind that formal organization of the

58 community is however more probable to extract sources that would give a start to its online body extension, though the latter would be less communal in its essence. In such way the two interpretations are correlative.

On the other hand, comprehensions of the institutional community as a formal body, and the digital collective as an informal frame are oppositional, and thus give the two interpretations of Indie-Grad’s contrasting existences.

3.2. “HEY SCENESTERS!”: THE DICHOTOMY IN CONTEXT OF SCENES, LOCALITY AND THE MUSIC LABELS

It would be very inconvenient to structure a discourse about a community of music labels set in a certain geographical space, without accounting that this community is developing certain correlative practices, which are in the end involved in the locality of this geographical space, forming a basis for a music scene (Shanks in Straw 1991: 373). Perceiving Indie-Grad as a community structure, with its connection to the Ljubljana music locality and alternative music scene, can be somewhat drawn from Shank’s notion of a music scene, developed by Straw in ‘Systems Of Articulation, Logics Of Change: Communities And Scenes In Popular Music’ (Straw 1991). More so because many of my research participants, one of them especially mentioned how important it is that those involved in independent music production (and all its aspects) should firstly absorb all the aspects of a music scene.

By ‘those involved’, they meant the people who run and work for music labels, producers, distributors, PR agents and consequentially even bands. Many people whom I spoke with were the ones who play a marketing role as well as an executive role in the music label, and they talked about an unwritten requirement of the following understandings: what the scene requires; what the band wants to get from the scene; how concert organization in the bands target scene works; who are members of the audience; what does the audience want, etc. The consultant MR, for instance, spoke about these rules from the point of view of someone who is an independent music producer as well as a band member. As he said, he understands both aspects, especially the first uncertain steps a new independent band has taken when they face the public eye.

59 Another research participant who works as a publicist and producer at one of the better-known independent music labels in Ljubljana and Slovenia, explained how they work as publishers and guardians of their bands, and are required to implement constant research of their maternal music scene in Ljubljana. Because they formed a music label based in Ljubljana and their bands also mostly come from that city, the latter are almost constantly present at the clubs and music venues of the city’s alternative music scene. Their presence and constant action in that locality actually helps to design their target music scene and as he expressed it, at the same time they are contributing to it.

These examples indicate to Shanks’ suggestion of a music scene sometimes being no more than a useful term when we talk about relationships between various musical practices in a certain locality (Shanks in Straw 1991: 373), which is similar to the previously mentioned explanation of positioning individuals in music scenes by Andy Bennett (2004). It is not always as simple as that. Even though the answers of my research participants would imply on Shanks’ concept, they would actually argue when faced with it. Most of them, the majority being connected to Radio Študent and different music scenes around Slovenia would firmly state that there definitely is, on Straws account, a distinction between a musical community and a musical scene (Straw 1991: 373). Even more, that there were various music communities and associations that outlined music scenes, as well as one or more music scenes designed by these communities.

Music communities, according to Will Straw (1991), are not utterly weaved with musical scenes, but they rather present an “older notion” to what musical scenes are now. He considers music communities as relatively stable, population groups, which are by cultural theory concepts connected to notions of space and nations (Straw 1991: 368 and 373). Music scenes on the other hand are the “cultural spaces” where the practices mentioned by Barry Shank coexist and interact with each other. Music scenes, along with many other scenes, map out what Geoff Stahl calls the urban “tropos”, from which we can interpret a great amount of details about the city, the people, histories and culture (Stahl 2009: 254). The interpretation of the musical urban “tropos” could present a way through which we would be able to discern the sense of purpose articulated by the musical community. Straw suggests that this is expressed by “contemporary musical practices” and the “musical heritage” (Straw

60 1991: 373), though there is a question of the amount through which the musical practices will tie themselves to the processes of historical change in the musical scene. Larger international musical culture, in my argument the widespread independent musical culture, presents the basis for the musical practices and forms its position in any local music scene (Straw 1991: 373).

3.2.1. “When In Rome”: What Is A Scene And Which One Is Better?

“When punks use the term ‘scene’ they mean the active creation of infrastructure to support punk bands and other forms of creative activity. This means finding places to play, building a supportive audience, developing strategies for living cheaply, shared punk houses, and such like.”

(O’Connor 2002: 226)

Many research participants have expressed a disagreement about the unsatisfactory and often second-rated representations independent music production has in Slovenia. There was, as I have been told, biasness toward the major labels in the media and also in various music scenes where independents are greatly represented. The consultant ZV however recounted, that creating a safeguard platform for the independents was not to pick a battle with the majors. Slovenian music space is to her completely unique and the application of the general sociological knowledge of culture and music would hardly applicable.

More issues, however, occur when faced with the question of centralization. One such particular example was centralization and domination of one particular music scene over others within the same country. Equality of production within different music scenes might be the same, but Wendy Fonarow argues that there is usually one scene that dominates over others. Her focus on the British indie music scene showed that she acknowledged the existence of other, possibly equally prominent indie music scenes from the United States or other countries, but argued that the British indie music scene remains “the cradle” (Fonarow 2006: 13). Similarly, Muršič describes the term “dominant culture”45 as the presiding lifestyle that comes

45 In his essay '»Unmasking The Mask«', along with the term »dominant culture«, Muršič as well mentions another choice for defining the dominant pattern of individuals' lives, which was defined by Antonio Gramsci as cultural “hegemony”. Even though Gramsci described cultural hegemony as

61 before and above others and can be found on international, national, regional or local levels (Muršič 1997: 228).

In some effect, Hesmondhalgh states, it might seem practical to set the scene in a centralized locality, but on the other hand he points out that many music scenes and genres were able to thrive if they were decentralized (Hesmondhalgh 2006: 236). Radio Študent’s institutionalized projects, such as Indie-Grad, have been set in the centre of the independent music scene (Ljubljana), because it was the easiest thing to do and the Slovenian capital has the highest concentration of all music events.

Doubtful of the equality in production of music scenes, research participants commented on Ljubljana as the presenter of centralization in alternative music scene, even though they acknowledged that the structure of Slovenian music market generated the inevitable centralization. Centralization can however be denied and ignored, as has been showed by many positive musical and cultural scene actions from other larger cities and regions across Slovenia. (Muršič 2000; Beranič, Hedl, Muzek 1994) The industry of music production and the market are in fact so small that if fails to provide any real competition, which can help to explain why certain active individuals need to find a collective sense in a certain space by performing communal social practices, such as consumption and production of music (Cohen 1995: 436). The consultant ZV went on to express doubts on whether Slovenian music industry can actually be called industry, given that it applied a Western ideology of contending between the major labels and independents, as well as the idea of an alternative music scene, because it was the only logic it felt comfortable with.

In reality, as research participants MR and AK accounted, the independent music actors recognize much less peril from the ‘Slovenian majors’ than the instabilities from national and municipal institutions, which actually secure independent producers with financial stability and their. Shuker accounts that many similar music entities have become somewhat institutionalized as part of local and

capitalist institutional domination in culturally diverse societies, Muršič used hegemony to describe it as a constituent part of the national culture (Muršič 1997: 228). I find the term “hegemony” hard to use in my research, because it is difficult to connect it to the context of dominant scenes and dominant cultures that sometimes appear within the marginal and subcultural musical practices. In the case of the independent music labels practices, Gramsci’s term “hegemony” would be better used when presenting the financial issues and indifferences in running an independent music labels in Slovenia. My findings on these issues will become clearer in further chapters of this thesis.

62 urban scenes. The actor’s fixation on the communal can be therefore evident in the rejection and distinctiveness from the trans-local capital, global management and transnational relations of production that are mimicked on a local scale (Shuker 2010: 201).

On the matter of the local music production, Shuker sees local spaces, performances and musical experiences as tied together by social networks, publications and trade groups, regional and national institutions such as the local independent media and radio stations. The local production and its consumers, in the case of the music audiences, are ideologically linked through internationalized media releases and the internet, which explains the expanding “internationalization of the local” – the concept in which major companies place local music cultures and sounds onto larger structures, through which they are able to give reach to a larger market and audiences (Shuker 2010: 201).

3.2.1.1. “They Should Make A Statue”: Production Of A Music Scene In Spaces

In relation to DIY46 ethics and punk music, Alan O’Connor (2002) spoke of music scenes as spaces that need work to be created. Scenes, according to him, are spaces where bands and musicians design their own creative environment, however, they also require a certain “infrastructure” where the music created can be sold, recorded, published and distributed. For punks, their music scene is ideally a “non- profit-making community space” (O’Connor 2002: 233) Regarding this, the designed “non-profit-making” space is an expression of a community, comparably to Sara Cohen’s (1995) example of musical practices and interactions among immigrant Jews. In her article ‘Sounding Out the City’, Cohen describes how musical practices of the Jewish community in Liverpool defined a particular geographical and material space they inhabited. They created the community space with meaning and a sense of identity and place, making it distinguishable from other places in the city (Cohen 1995: 438).

46 DIY or do-it-yourself is a concept or a method of self-sufficient construction/modification/production of chores/things/art and craft, etc. In the context of music, the DIY approach in music production is to exclude the experts and prevalent practices and instead choose the use of the do-it-yourself practice, where the artist/producer accomplishes the work alone, or with the help of similarly minded collaborators. I will describe more about this concept within the music- making context in Chapter 3.

63 Music often plays a great role in combining social practices and music consumption. Incorporating these actions in the production of a certain space can result in a community’s sense of collective in the place they created (Cohen 1995: 434 and 436). Sara Cohen’s reference on Martin Stokes’ notion of how music provides the means through which a space can be transformed (Stokes in Cohen 1995: 438), also nods to the importance of music and how a place is evoked through it (Cohen 1995: 438). Antoine Hennion, for instance, accounted the type of a close bond the music can register itself in a large number of various social mediations and how it is able to leave a mark on social bodies, collectives, movements, etc. The mentioned social mediation is heavy-weighted and collective, it passes through bodies, objects, through time divisions and communal moments (Hennion 2000: 10). Will Straw examined Hennion’s account from his essay CyberMed. Like Sara Cohen, he referred to the connection between consumption and collective interaction (Straw 2005a: 413).

The majority of cultural scenes in the city are, according to Straw (2005a), associated with music and can be perceived as “units of the city culture”, the basic formation of the city where individuals conduct “exchange, interaction and instruction” (Straw 2005a: 412-413). Straw’s explanation on particularities of music’s integration in cultural scenes is so efficient, it gives an insight on the successful production and consumption of music in music scenes and how these actions are fairly easy to apply in the “urban sociability” (Straw 2005a: 214). Similarly as O’Connor mentioned how punk scenes needed certain amount of work investment in order to be created (O’Connor 2002: 233), Straw describes that their space also requires resources and production activities, which reciprocally produce urban culture scenes (Straw 2005a: 412-413).

Despite Straw’s view of scenes shifting from places and not being completely “engaged in their own movement as a collective phenomenon,” (Straw 2005a: 214) the opinions still stand that musical practices create a particular locality. Appadurai explained this locality as a figure and as a ground, or in more representative terms, as material and as the conceptual (Appadurai in Cohen 1995: 438). Spaces and places are not created only once, but continuously re-created and renewed. Condensing and over-exposing a music scene as one research participant from an independent label commented, can result in clogging up the music scene in one city and can bring popularization to places that have been long kept out of the mainstream hands. In his

64 paper ‘Music Making and the City’, Geoff Stahl presented the independent music making scene in Montreal and how certain modes of cultural productions were connected to the urban social space, also how independents show their urbanity with firmly structured infrastructures and “soft social organization” (Stahl 2007: 147).

This particular locality in which the sense of belonging transfers through collaborative acts, is what Bourdieu noted as “spaces of possibility” (Bourdieu in Stahl 2007: 147) and from on where Stahl proceeds by calling independent music makers adaptable to the city’s caprices. The music makers possess knowledge and experience, which are used to shape a scene’s structure. However, the “possibilities” through which the sense of belonging is absorbed, is jointly translated as requirements of material and symbolic resources. Stahl continues further by naming music making in the urban music scene an instructive tool through which individuals can be thought to act “urban” in accordance to the music scene they are part of. This determines how the city is understood and experienced, as well as it establishing a “sociomusical experience” and individuals urban imagination (Stahl 2007: 147). Once more drawing from Bourdieu, Stahl names socio-musical experiences and urban imaginaries as habitus, which is estimated by the measure it is allowed to exist in a particular city’s space.

In a similar way, Arjun Appadurai perceives localities, or in his words landscapes – the imaginary consciousness of people and groups. They are “navigated by agents who both experience and constitute larger formations” (Appadurai 1990: 296), though the individual is not their primary focus. The communities’ imagination as in his study replaced by the term ‘imagined worlds’, in which many people live and exist – “the historically situated imaginations of persons and groups spread around the globe” (Appadurai 1990: 296-7). Appadurai states that in today’s world exist many persons who live in such “imagined” worlds, which do not assemble imagined communities, however, they are able to contest and sometimes even subvert the ‘imagined worlds’ of the official mind and of the entrepreneurial mentality that surrounds them (Appadurai 1990: 297). The imagined landscapes of modern societies are building units of imaginary worlds (Muršič 2000: 244) and represent places where cultural homogenization and cultural heterogenization occur (Appadurai 1990: 295).

65 The cultural activities in modern society create material cultural goods, which are able to convey cultural and even economic capital and ever so strongly bind together “culture” in its narrowest term and in a great variety of production segments (Muršič 2000: 243). The latter also include non-material aspects, such as Appadurai’s notion of imagination being given a new social role, or Baudrillard’s view of a symbolism in producer and consumer’s roles changing in relation to a certain subject, especially the turning point where the consumer, succumbed by production fetishism, is turned into a sign (Appadurai 1990: 307). The production fetishism is an indication of international capitalism, shown to the local production as liberation to the people who live in that locality, as it conceals the global power of this capital (Muršič 2000: 243). The real power lies in “global advertising”, a key technology in the abundance of creative and cultural goods, delicately convincing consumers that they hold a power of acting in it and not merely choosing (Appadurai 1990: 307).

Appadurai’s perception of the “global cultural economy”, in which the structures of “global advertising” thrive, has to be understood “as a complex, overlapping, disjunctive order” that can no longer to be understood in the (at that time) existing model of the centre-periphery relationship, or even in the previously mentioned neo-Marxist consumer-producer model (Appadurai 1990: 296). The complexity of these associations inside the “global cultural economy” can be explained in Appadurai’s coining of “scapes” or disjunctions between economy, culture and politics (Muršič 2000: 244). The five premises, ethnoscapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, mediascapes and ideoscapes represent dimensions of global cultural flow (Appadurai 1990: 269). Appadurai created the five landscapes as representatives of imaginary worlds, constructions that share an emphasis of the historical, linguistic and political background of the actors that ‘imagine’ them. He names a few: “nation-states, multinationals, the diaspora communities, sub-national groupings and movements,” etc. (Appaduradi 1990: 296).

In his examination of a rurally situated youth and rock club, Muršič examples ethnoscape as the possible landscape, which would fit as the placing for the community of the club’s visitors (Muršič 2000: 245). The research subjects of this thesis, Indie-Grad and the independent music labels, could brush the surface of more than just one. They certainly appeal the ethnoscape’s idea of a locale of moving groups and people that constitute the world, politics and fluid local space. This

66 landscape defines imaginations of moving groups, because of the constant shifts in international capital needs. On the other hand, the online collective of independent publishers, embodied in the Indie-Grad online platform, appeals to the technoscape’s fluidity in technology and the increasing mechanical and informational demand in Internet presence, due to which national landscapes have already lost their meaning. Because the two -scapes share the perception of individuals that move in them respectively, despite disjuncture’s they are constrained to finanscapes and represent parameters for movements of others (Appadurai 1990: 298). Finanscapes are, among other financial aspects, due to their referral, which flows in “commodity speculations” (Appaduari 1990: 298), without a doubt one of the landscapes that bridge to my research subject. More so since the global music market holds a firm link to the global cultural economy and its capitalistic tentacles.

The “landscapes of images” (Appadurai 1990: 298), mediascapes and ideoscapes, are the last and probably the most meaningful landscapes that share focus with my research. Mediascapes are somehow a clear indicator of a landscape in which Indie-Grad and Radio Študent both act in and contribute to. If Radio Študent, as the provider of information and interests reaches only a smaller domain of those Slovenians who tune in their FM receivers, Indie-Grad’s informational web page47 and the independent music audience oriented content, has a global reach.

However, the second landscape concerning images, the ideoscape, attends to political thought, state ideologies and counter-ideologies of movements. Though the latter might be the most appropriate to share and attribute to the independent music making ethics, they are by Appadurai “explicitly oriented to capture state power or a piece of it” (Appadurai 1990: 299). Micro versions of ideoscapes within a larger image of an ideoscape as a national movement, could be well interpreted as an observation of one research participant who mentioned that there are independent music micro-scenes outside larger Slovenian cities, which have incorporated some bigger tactics and ideologies and created their own fluid music scene, possibly by sharing band members and organizing joint concerts. These scenes also number a rather low count of audiences, in of interlocutors’ mind no larger than 50. Muršič and

47 As well as the Radio Študent web page, through which radio listeners are able to listen to its radio program anywhere in the world, as long as their Internet connection holds.

67 his fellow researchers overviewed part of that scene in the publication On Solid Ground (Muršič 2012).

3.2.1.2. “It’s What You Want That Matters”: Concepts Of Cultural And Cultures in Scenes

Micro-scenes are able to co-create music scenes in larger cities, or at least have an effect on them. As there are many scenes outside larger city scenes, there are music scenes within a particular city; some of them distinctively different from one another and others with possibly shared similarities. Likewise, there is not only one culture, but instead exist cultures; not only different cultures in different localities, but also different cultures within the same locations (Muršič 2000: 246). The cultural and political hegemony of dominant class is not only divided in what Muršič calls “upper” and “lower” culture (Muršič 2000: 246), but amid described cultures also exist divisions in class definitions of values. Criticisms of trivial and high culture remain, even more criticism of modern society and culture is welcome, only that the places of conflict have shifted.

Social non-objects such as imagination, like social objects of cultural goods, transfer cultural capital and economic capital while ever so strongly bind together the production segments with “culture” in its narrowest term (Muršič 2000: 243). If, according to Muršič, culture can be present in both cultural and economic capital, Bourdieu on the other hand exhibits a model of culture in noneconomic capital, in which certain type of knowledge bestows a status on its possessors and allows an entry into certain groups, which would exclude those without the knowledge. This can be best seen in groups that value cultural knowledge. Their dominant aesthetic provides the best rate of conversation of cultural capital into social and symbolic capital48 (Bourdieu in Urquía 2004: 103 and 110).

48 In his 1986 essay ‘The Forms of Capital’, Bourdieu defined three types of cultural capital: embodied, as the form of enduring dispositions of body and mind; objectified, which is the state of cultural goods, representing traces of realization of theories and critiques of theories; and institutionalized, a “form of objectification” bestowing a sort of property on cultural capital, which is at the same time guaranteed (Bourdieu 1986: 243). As he argues, the cultural capital can be acquired quite unconsciously. The time that is needed to acquire it provides a link between cultural and economic capital, though Bourdieu states that many different types of capital can be derived from the economic capital (Bourdieu 1986: 245).

68 The acquisition of cultural capital is predisposed by the capacities of the individual, which can gain a status of a prestigious property that is linked to the standard of its acquisition. Bourdieu argues that cultural capital is susceptible to “function as symbolic capital” (Bourdieu 1986), meaning it is recognized both as capital and competence. He further develops perception imposed by the symbolic capital, that it is “nothing more than economic and cultural capital”, and that the relations of symbolic power living in it have a tendency to “reproduce” and “reinforce the power relation”, which in fact constitutes “the structure of the social space” (Bourdieu 1990: 135). The symbolic power could also be understood by what Muršič designates as prevalent social frictions, which are visible through conflicts between those who understand how the state capital and interventions of large global systems design their fate, as well as those who see how the subsystems that are buried in the homestead fiercely fight for their eternal purity and existence (Muršič 2000: 247).

Muršič illustrates how modern culture can be internally complicated, while externally it may appear as a structure of secluded national levels; technology, economy, transport, press and media, as well as “consumer culture” (Muršič 2000: 247). He gives an account to Francis Fukuyama’s idea on how the societies in modernization process have yielded to centralization, where the founding forms of social organizations were exchanged with functionally based “economically rational” ones (Fukuyama in Muršič 2000: 247). Fukuyama developed this concept on the basis that more and more technology helps us to accumulate not only wealth, but helps us build the “satisfaction of an ever-expending set of human desires”, as this process promises “homogenization of all human societies”, without any regard to cultural inheritances or even historical origins of individuals (Fukuyama 1992: xiv).

Despite its best intentions, the field of anthropology has been having difficulty in grasping the concept of culture, not only as the unifying expression of totality, but also according to Elizabeth Traube, as the scene of contradiction and competition (Traube in Muršič 2000: 247). She explained the field of culture is as the “zone of contestation”, where the struggle for hegemony among cultural rivals unfold. (Traube 1996: 127). Traube accounts that the “aesthetic productions of marginal groups” forms a resistance toward cultural assimilation, unlike other currents which “attributed oppositional meaning to the reception of the mainstream popular culture. (Traube 1996: 142).

69 3.2.1.3 “The Back Door”: Why Scenes?

Gramsci’s definition of hegemony, examples the favourable place of dominating impositions in the world (in Hebdige 2002: 16), though according to Hebdige, the dominance cannot be simply taken over, it should be won. The imposition of this hegemonic ideology creates a space that succumbs all aspects of the society, even the subordinate groups. Stuart Hall notes that these groups are not controlled; nonetheless they are part of the ideological space, though they might not perceive it as such (Hall in Hebdige 2000: 16). Hebdige defined the significance of style symbols in subcultures, by which they challenge the established hegemony (Hebdige 2002: 17).

One of the established definitions of subcultures comes from Serena Nanda and Richard L. Warms’ textbook Cultural Anthropology, where their glossary defines subcultures as systems of “perception, values, beliefs and customs that are significantly different” (Nanda and Warms 2007: 486) from those of a dominant culture, although Muršič expands from this definition with an argument that despite subcultures might be unlike dominant cultures, they could still have something in common with them (Muršič 2000: 248). Muršič states that we can view subcultures49 as well as “antagonistic” scenes, which internally act as a diversity instrument for individual class and generational segments of a particular society (Muršič 2000: 248), although his monograph not only critically analyses, but also rejects the term.

In relation to that, Bennett and Peterson (2004), prefer to use the term scene instead of subculture, because they disagree with Gelder and Thornton’s predisposition (1997) that subculture would be in any way aberrant from presumably just one commonly shared culture50. Their argument is ever so more valid, since their view of subcultural behaviour and its participants actions are liable to be governed by a set of subcultural standards, of which scenes as such do not possess (Bennett and Peterson 2004: 3). Their thoughts on the subcultural set of standards can be associated with Bourdieu’s idea of the “field”, or better to say fields that exist in a society. Each field has its own set of rules, by which we are able to map the preferences of people

49 The idea of 'subcultures', according to Gupta and Ferguson, »attempts to perserve the idea of distinct 'cultures' while acknowliging the relation of different cultures to a dominant culture within the same geographical and territorial space.« (Gupta and Ferguson 1992: 7) 50 Nonetheless, according to Clarke (1990) and Bennett (1999), many cases of popular culture theory show that the term subculture is more likely to be the choice of expression, instead of the term scenes.

70 included in these fields, we can observe their actions and mostly their social practices. This can be particularly useful if we wish to know more about the preferences of those who otherwise live within a society with a dominant cultural idea but their own preferences and those they share with others, may present the dominants alternative.

Bourdieu portrayed fields as hierarchal, meaning that the field actors may move up or down, from “working class to the petite bourgeoisie” (Bourdieu 2010: 250). Similarly, the dominant culture is perceived to be higher on the hierarchical level due to its “principle of domination” and recognition as such from the part of the collective belief, naming those fractions that are bellow it, the dominated fractions (Bourdieu 2010: 251). Every system of cultures has its own universal pattern, or what Muršič (2000) calls a “cultural roof”, the parent culture that is commune and possible to attribute to a certain determinable group of inhabitants – the population in a certain place. The “communal culture” is not as widespread as it would possibly be “national”, because it exists mainly within a certain group and it has no time limitations (Muršič 2000: 250). The recognition of communal cultures is shaped by its integral part – the subculture, which is arguably only a smaller culture existing within a greater culture, only to be generally dichotomized into a distinction between “lower” and “higher” cultures (Muršič 2000: 246). It is no wonder then why most class theories look at cultural migrations as moving between building floors, recreating social inequalities.

The principles that consist in Bourdieu’s field underline tastes of those that are part of the field, they give them social logic, organize and articulate them, finally giving this group of individuals a meaning or place they occupy in a social space. However, Bourdieu notes that these groups are always relative to other social groups, be it that they are dominated or dominant (Bourdieu 2010: xix). The unities of preferences particular to a field, which can later expand into a set of rules, are primarily embodied inside an individual that chooses to be part of this particular field. Bennett and Peterson used Bourdieu’s idea of the “field” in order to support their assumptions about the music scenes, where the particular scene actors are involved in

71 an interaction between rules that are specific to the field, their habitus and capital, which all round up in a concern of the ‘appearance’.51

3.2.1.3. “Another Girl, Another Planet”: That Is Why Scenes.

“Scene designates particular clusters of social and cultural activity without specifying the nature of the boundaries which circumscribe them.” (Straw 2005a: 412)

Will Straw distinguished a scene by its location, the genre of production that is produced on that location, and the activities its participants partake in (Straw 2005a: 412). Such scenes that can be either broadly described as music or as cultural scenes, can “map out” their territories in the city in a completely new manner, but the activities that happen there may not exactly be the ones we imagine in those places (Straw 2005a: 412) The nature of cultural scenes is similar to a mediator: they absorb the energy of their locality and spread it outwards in different directions, only that it might later repeat itself in certain formal manners, like “social or entrepreneurial activity” (Straw 2005a: 412).

In Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice, Ken Gelder (2007) names certain key terms that are relevant to the social aspects of subcultures, although some of the most important terms Gelder lists are community, network and scene (Gelder 2007: 4). He bases this on the reference to John Irwins book Scenes (1977),52 which recalls a shift of opinion from thoughts of subcultures as deviant social performances, to their representation as a contemporary subfield in sociology (Gelder 2007: 44). The subcultural attributes of closely-knit and “emotionally sustaining” relationships are to be, according to Irwin, actually found in scenes, because they are

51 The correlation of social, economic, cultural and symbolic capital, along with the field’s prevalent belief or doxa, often results in field agents not having a complete overview of the fields’ aspects. However, they might have some practical sense of how they should operate in the field, what is their position and how are they able to create one. This sense is in Bourideu’s terminology named habitus and it is directly connected to the prevalent field belief or doxa. Bourdieu’s conception of field preferences and shared social tastes, rounded in his idea of the habitus showed that at the same time, it can represent a system of models for the production of practices and a system of models for the perception and appreciation of practices. He explains how the habitus produces practices and representations, which are available for classification, implying not only a “sense of one’s place” but also a “sense of the other’s place” (Bourdieu 1990: 131). 52 In Scenes (1977), John Irwin observed that the individuals' choice to be part of a subculture is no more a matter of delinquency or conflict, than it is »a matter of choice and 'lifestyle'.« What was particular about subcultures that began to exclude them from thought of deviancy, is that their existence included membership, a form of stability and determinism, commitment from their members, and so on (in Gelder 2007: 44).

72 the ones to show a perspective of symbolism within interactions between people in the city. The inhabitants of cities ‘make’ scenes, they perform and express themselves in them by doing something together in a certain place (Irwin in Gelder 2007: 45). He believes that despite certain spatial aspects of scenes, their sociality should be both “imagined and created” (Irwin in Gelder 2007: 45), meaning that creating scenes does not need to be local at all.

Like John Irwin, Brent Luvaas also chose to use the word scene instead of subculture to describe networks of involved participants, especially when talking about indie music and independent music production in Indonesian cities. Luvaas, who followed the example of Maureen Mahon (2004), acknowledges that the term subculture would somehow be more appropriate, since it is the more institutionally used one, but the term scene is a better one that could capture fluidity, “flexibility and impermanence of youth cultural formations,” and describe “a social field characterized by interconnections between multiple, differently situated social actors with varying degrees of participation” (Luvaas 2009: 273).

An example of a music scene fluidity is displayed though evolutionary practices of Hodgkinson’s study of post-rock music scenes, through which he applied a though that any scene could be “created through a discourse” (Hodgkinson 2004: 221-222). Given that, the play of discourse can determine identities of individuals in multi-layered, global-local environments (Muršič 1997: 227 and 231). This study shows not only how scene-based work can live to its full potential by transitioning from local, to translocal, to virtual, but also how the commonality in shared discourse among those who live and contribute to this particular music scene, can be used as one of the basis for its construction.

The language of music that is used in newly-established music scenes, is one of the basic foundations that constructs “a musical community” (Hodgkinson 2004: 222) only to make it fluid, the scene would, however, require certain mediators. Hodgkinson referred to Sarah Thornton’s idea of media scenes that act as discourse streams: the media, music press etc. simultaneously construct and document music subcultures, and act as an integral part in the music scene/subculture’s life (Thornton

73 in Hodgkinson 2004: 222). The rapid growth, popularity and fluidity53 in post-rock music are in Hodgkinson’s case exampled through online fanzines, 54 which internalized the common language and spread it out among the international audience (Hodgkinson 2004: 224).

James Hodgkinson’s and Sarah Thornton’s concepts are the guidelines of my research of independent music production scenes in Ljubljana and Barcelona, its actors, the production of music and finally the media streams that help to construct independent music production discourse in those two localities. The identifications of individuals connected to music scenes are now more than ever inconsistent and variable, which means that scenes themselves are not static, but situational (Frank in Muršič 2000: 254). If we were to understand the actions and actors that take steps in and out of music happenings in the locality, we must first look into the scenes (Keesing in Muršič 2000: 254).

Indie-Grad has been envisioned by Radio Študent, a media institution that not only aimed to construct a new music collective/community, but which also daily documents, constructs and interprets various aspects of national independent music scenes, alternative music cultures and by that also different subcultures which exist with them side by side. Even though I have naturally leaned on many others and perhaps even had contrasting approaches, Hogkinson’s and Thornton’s conception of the mediators that construct music scenes, remained an important component in the following chapters.

53 Even though this scene was somewhat localized, it had no particular location – it was virtual. Though, it may have helped to put in the many other existing localized post-rock music scenes, which in Hodgkinson’s view existed in many actual localities across the world. 54 A fanzine is a print or digital (online) magazine, usually produced by amateurs, for fans of a particular performer, group, etc. The word fanzine is a blend of words fan and magazine (Fanzine 2015). A zine is another term commonly associated with fanzines as an abbreviation from the word magazine (Zine 2015). Zines and fanzines are frequently within the discourse of popular music, although the use of these terms is also commonly accepted in popular cultures in general.

74 4. “LOOK BACK AND LAUGH”: WHAT IS INDEPENDENT? (AND THE ALTERNATIVE)

Researching and observing music scenes for this thesis, has had some fringe benefits, like visiting music concerts and festival 55 , where most of my autoethnography took place. During these events the focus of my research started to actualize, but they also enabled me to raise points of inquiry, which were later debated with research participants. These experiences also influenced my reflections on what constitutes indie music genre; observations of the type of audiences and distinctions between the alternative and the popular, especially alternative in the context of indie56; and more than once, what today constitutes indie and independent music production in the music market?

4.1. “PAINT A VULGAR PICTURE”: DIFFERENT CONCEPTS, SAME MEANING?

Various questions occurred: “Is the music I am listening to right now considered as alternative or mainstream indie?”; “What type of a label looks after this performer? Is it DIY, large independent, or perhaps an indie boutique branch of a major corporation?” Many of the foreign and more widely known indie music bands, I have seen perform, are as of now still signed to independent music labels, although the labels’ distribution is operated by a major corporation or the label itself has grew to the business enterprise of a major. This raised my interest into what constitutes the independence of a music producer, and what types of independents are there?

55 Indie music events at Kino Šiška in Ljubljana, Sala Apolo music hall in Barcelona, Primavera Sound international music festival in Barcelona, etc. 56 One of the conglomerates of the indie genre umbrella, which I overview later, is indie rock, which has more or less already been deliberated as a music genre. It was originally coined in the UK, as a description of a post-punk movement in the alternative rock, which was also heavily connected to some of Britain's high profile independent music labels, such as Rough Trade, One Little Indian, 4AD and Mute. Along with the evolution of independent and indie music culture and scenes throughout 1980s to 2000s, the development of the genre was in detail explained by David Hesmondhalgh in his essay Indie: a popular music genre (Hesmondhalgh 1999).

75 In 2012 Kevin Dunn wrote an article57 on do-it-yourself punk labels and progressive cultural production, in which he made a distinction between major commercial-independent and DIY music labels. The types of music production are, according to him, crucial for understanding the music market of these sorts of production; the audience they aim to reach; the local/global representation of the music produced; and how do we refer to them in the popular music culture context.

In his research (2012), the type of music produced is usually recognized as alternative music, though the genre would be called punk, or any other of its sub- genre variables. One of the research participants mentioned that in Slovenia one can find many small independent labels that produce what the mainstream media would refer to as alternative music, but there are also many small independent music labels that produce quality popular music. Whether or not the latter is mainstream music production or not, would be up to them and the music market doors through which they enter or have already entered.

Making a distinction between the alternative and mainstream as well as the independent and commercial to an extent is a daunting task, but my aim is more or less to show the faint lines that lie between these expressions and how easily their meaning can alter. For instance, many smaller Slovenian music labels that produce non-mainstream music would call itself independent, yet the term itself in their context could even be quite stretchable. Another research participant, who also runs an independent label, considers the elasticity of the term independent to be true in whichever field.

Equally far too wide of an adjective is the term alternative. The 1980s in particular, the expression had faced a series of dichotomies within the popular music studies and beyond – many scholars, musicians, music critics and even members of audiences concerned themselves with contrasts between mass music production versus local or community music production; commercial versus creative; major record companies versus independents; mainstream versus the alternative (Shuker 2001: 8).

57 Kevin Dunn: ‘International Execs Declare Their 'Indie Advantage' During Tough Times’ – Billboard online magazine (see the list of references).

76 4.1.1. “Manic Incarnation”: The Alternative

According to Shuker, alternative in music is mostly associated to certain local scenes, which are in the proximity of college, creative and/or high-tech areas. Manchester, England and Seattle, USA are examples of cities that hosted “localized alternative music” scenes (Shuker 2010: 198). Smaller towns around them and neighbourhoods within these cities start to share music scenes, establish networks of “alternative record labels” music venues and “active local” music press, which supports local music production and to that relation also the audience (Shuker 2010: 198). Shuker mentions that similar patterns in lives of the alternative music scene can be seen worldwide (Shuker 2010: 200). The list of the authors who attended to account on the alternative in music, or even the dichotomy between mainstream and alternative in popular music is very long.

For instance: alternative as the opposition to mass music-making of pop music by the folk movement in the 1950s cultural repression in the United States (Frith 1981: 30-31); differences in the sound of alternative and indie music genres – the harsh sounding punk, grunge and nu-metal of the alternative, versus lighter and pop- harmony sounds of indie music bands (Fonarow 2006: 40); alternative music as the temporary inhabitant of abandoned/squatted/empty urban spaces, which play as the perfect backdrop for “bohemian and DIY music cultures” in Liverpool, England during the 1970s (Cohen: 2012: 590); Holly Kruses’s view that alternative is an oppositional musical consumption and “an industry-imposed definition” (Kruse 1993: 35); a loose version of something as popularized as Woodstock festival, with a subtle hint of the money making business machine in the background (DeRogatis 2003: 141).

Jim DeRogratis58 especially questions the meaning of the alternative, by expressing that the immense success of grunge band Nirvana’s album release Nevermind in 1991, has passed over to the mainstream. In his collection of articles called Milk It!, where he ponders on the meaning of the alternative in 1990s US popular music culture, DeRogatis points out that only a decade before his writing the

58 Jim DeRogatis is an American music critic, who wrote for many music magazines such as Spin and Guitar World. He is a co-host of a rock music oriented radio talk show Sound Opinions. Milk It! is a collection of articles and short pieces he wrote on mainstream and alternative rock music culture in the 1990s.

77 terms ‘indie music’ and ‘college rock’ would suggest irreproachable and exclusive music known and offered to only selected music listeners. As such they were the considered as the alternative (DeRogatis 2003: 356).

In the course of my research, I was also interested in various determinations, meanings and representations of the alternative in Ljubljana music scenes and Ljubljana locality. The Forum for the articulation of the spaces of differences has ascertained one such denotation at a session on November 24, 1994. It accepted the alternative or rather the alternative scene as a differentiated scene, which acted as a realistic domain of culture-art practices and theory. In the 1980s they also tried to define different shapes and forms of art production as well as cultural actions. More so, this scene tried to integrate these forms into a social-political context. With the so- called ‘spaces of differences’ shaped in the 1980s, came the beginning of defining the spaces of alternative or subcultural scenes in Slovenia. In the 1990s, they were renamed as independent or non-institutionalized culture/production (Gržinić 1994: 9).

Seeing that the broader meaning of the alternative describes an alternative action as a specific political stance, with which it negates institutionalism in certain aspects (Pezelj 2013: 49), would be one of the first steps in understanding the choices behind autonomous and independent currents in art and culture. One of the most public examples of mainly political but also art and alternative cultural expressions in Ljubljana would be the formation of the Metelkova59 district. However, it is argued

59 The Metelkova district in Ljubljana gradually grew from an initiative at the end of the 1980s. The initiative has been officially formalized within the Network for Metelkova in 1990 when the project for Metelkova as a cultural, social and philanthropic space has been formally presented. The initiative was supported by an assembly of more than 200 groups active in various activities, such as music, art, independent media, social culture and human rights. The district is situated in the barracks of Yugoslav People's Army (Jelesiljević 2013: 52) that had been emptied in the autumn of 1991 and later practically stagnant between 1991 and 1993. The study of spatial needs and the program of activities, along with plans for transformation of former army spaces, was presented to the Government of Republic of Slovenia and to the Executive council of the government Assembly in spring 1992, but because the local authorities decided against the government decision that a third of the existing infrastructure would be granted to the Network and proceeded to tare down the buildings in September 1993, many Network members decided to squat in all of the seven buildings, which were promised to them. Since then it had been a spontaneous squat, as a reaction to the City Councils attempt to demolish the district and evict the “squatters”. However, the plans and focus put into transforming Metelkova have rejected the incorrect labelling of the district as a squat (100 Years Of Metelkova 2005). The project of Metelkova grew as a local initiative, yet it also symbolized the transition process, a “unifying motif for civil society groups” and the continuation of the already established “spaces of difference” (Bibič 1994: 27-28). The second period of autonomy initiative in Metelkova marks the time period from 1993 until the early 2000s, during which private associations and institutions formalized in the now ‘occupied’ space and struggled for their existence in these infrastructures (Bibič 2003: 109).

78 that the space in which Metelkova or any other autonomous alternative scene are situated, can also represent spaces where the alternative and the independent culture trip one another over.

4.1.2. “Starcrossed Logistics”: The Independent Music Context

“The Theory of Independence was discovered in the act of putting out your own records, doing very well, being friends with your artists and not ripping them off. And by 1981, we were all doing it. We were saying, ‘Fuck the majors, you’re all wankers.’ Suddenly, we were all intoxicated with it.”

(Geoff Travis in Harris 2003: 8)

The meaning of independency is very broad, although in the field of media, art and culture, independents60 are commonly associated with the defiant attitude towards the positioned power and capital-fuelled corporations. The independent producers of music and/or media content assumingly negate the accepted procedures of organization and work, which are common ground in corporative, governmental or any other similar production that is commercial in its nature. On the other hand, their production (for the sake of production and surviving) practices raise a crucial question: How can the independent production techniques, or culture itself, be independent from its material conditions of production (Harbord 2006: 269)?

The story of the late 1970s punk groups has become a customary example of the perilous music standardization process, which is usually carried out by big music corporations that seek a new selling niche. The 1970s have characterized the rise and fall of the rock music genre: the rebellious stage of up coming new culture in its early stages; the standardization process in the mid-decade period, with stadium-filled

The so-called “urban guerrilla” that to this day remains in the space, despite somewhat troubling infrastructure conditions, but the period from the mid-2000s, according to Neven Korda Andrič, mark the time where the autonomous context is slowly loosing itself in commercialization of the authentic cultural practices (Korda Andrič 2013: 117). 60 Although film art has been evidently excluded from my research, I have found a good example of independency in the independent cinema sector, which at large still remains within the independent art and culture discourse. The independent (or nowadays indie) movie production has consistently been described as the one expressing individualism and contrast to prevailing production mechanisms within the motion picture industry, but on the other hand they also show certain paradoxes of »a tradition that perceives itself to be separate.« Cinematic independents draw filmmaking techniques from »formal experimentation and avant-gardes practice«, writes Janet Harbord, yet production wise it is somewhat unclear whether their independence stands because of their defiance towards government/state funding or from commercial sponsorship (Harbord 2006: 269).

79 events and mainstream media coverage; and the actual decline of classic rock in the late 1970s, when corporations already started to search for a new showcase music act, e.g., punk. Within the following years punk and classic ‘stadium’61 rock have already become standardized and ‘co-opted’ into new divisions of the record companies music departments (Frith 1981: 154-5), yet the underground never failed to continue producing.

Definitions of independence in the music industry have been looked at from various angles and different authors tend to express different opinions on the economic, social or even geographic reasons to the motifs of independent music producers. One such point is the fetishism of independent music production and the various circumstances according to which the alternative or indie music is produced (Hibbett 2005: 61 and Grossberg 1992: 39). In the past 20 years fetishizing independent music production has, however, also become manipulated by the international capital.

Another important aspect is the authenticity discourse of the independent music production, the music and music scenes, which is important in separating the independents from the discussion of popular or mainstream music and also self- credits its authority by its reflection to earlier authentic practices – the 1980s and 1990s independents (Moore 2002, 2010 and 2013).

A further particularity is autonomy or self-sufficiency, especially in preservation tactics, business strategies and the means of existence. According to Simon Frith though, self-sufficiency in the music industry has not been evident before the 1950s. Back then the music industry in the United States marked a clear music business division between the major music producers and a large number of smaller independent music labels, or what he calls an “oligopolistic” control of the music industry (Frith 2006: 232).

The new musical cultures, production and consumption of music can be exemplified in the pop music genre, which again, according to Frith, marks a certain alienation of the essence of music from the listeners and turning it into a commodity:

61 Stadium rock is a depiction of a classic rock live music venue, or better a concert of a classic rock group, held in a giant stadium with several thousand viewers. These largely populated venues were mostly common in the mid-1970s United States, known by meticulous stage production, choreography, 20-minute guitar solos, extreme budgets, high prices of tickets, etc.

80 development of large-scale recording and music production industry; the decline of amateur music making; the rise of different and new kinds of music consumption and its use or disuse. Major music labels, or by then already called companies or global corporations, started very aggressive selling tactics, recording strategies which ultimately resulted in fetishizing and also exploiting the artists. The demands of production were never met and the majority of it has been then, and is still now, in the hands of a small group of these large companies (Frith 2006: 231-6).

My research in part discuses the actual meaning of being independent nowadays, as well as the “unrealizable aesthetic purity” (Bohlman 1988: 49) in the production practice and the legitimate honesty with which those involved follow the independent experience (Grossberg 1992: 206).

4.2. “THIS UNREST”: INDEPENDENTS – A HISTORY

As Harbord (2006) suggested, that independent producers seemingly work on the negation of the accepted and entrepreneurial forms of music production, it is worthwhile noting what the latter actually is and who represents it.

In contemporary theoretical work, the music that comprises the mainstream62 music current and aspects of popular music is in majority produced by major music corporations (Hesmondhalgh 1999 & 2006; Fonarrow 2006; Bennett and Peterson 2004; Kruse 2003; Shuker 2001, 2010 etc.), which is as well often criticized by more demanding music audience for shaping certain music acts according to production and market needs, as well as lacking “substance or artistic creativity” (Hibbett 2005: 62).

Music artist branding and the so-called “star system” (Hesmondhalgh 2006: 247) is a particularity of the majors and a means with which they are able to produce and sell quite a large series of profitable albums. These tactics not only secure them

62 Jason Toynbee illustrates the negative connotations and dismissiveness towards using the word mainstream, not only in music but at large, by pointing out that the word itself often recalls to something that is standardized and popularized, which would in a way imply that it lacks substance and authenticity. The listeners, or better to say the consumers of mainstream, are undiscriminating and as shallow as junk food is comparing to a gourmet meal. The latter observation is often put forward by those who 'value' the importance of real music and the act of doing so (or pointing fingers) is their way of showing a contrast between their music tastes and the general, or be it mainstream majority (Toynbee 2002: 149).

81 with the majority of music listeners around the globe, also called the mainstream but also help to hold the tightly sealed gates of the music distribution channels. The biggest issue many music industry critics have with major and mainstream music market sales and cycles are the ways of popular music production. The critics have outwardly spoken of negative relationships between the concentration and the diversity in the recording industry. Originality in music is exploited and popularized by the industry, or as Roy Shuker puts it, it “adheres to them as the standard form” (Shuker 2010: 20).

The even more baffling thing is that the supposed high-levelled concentration of music in the market should have been followed by a high level of diversity, though the reality proves to be something completely different. The process of filtering music production before recordings and individual songs reach mainstream music charts is called gate keeping (Shuker 2010: 20), though Michael Christianen later pointed out that it would be more important to measure the number of decision-makers within a firm. According to him this would explain “the variable of diversity and innovation that is generated by a major record company” (Christianen 1995: 91). Christianen’s study, like many others, questioned the study of the music market concentration and diversity, established in the 1975 article ‘Cycles of symbol production’ by Richard A. Peterson and David B. Berger.63

The most reproachful argument against the majors is their advantageous abuse of innovative music, which majors constantly exploit in order to reinvigorate the mainstream music market and prevent unsatisfied demands among consumers (Shuker 2010: 20). They keep separate divisions for different genre categories, which are not only marketed to different audiences, but also separately with unequal production and promotion budgets, honing to the further synthesis of pop, the economic category that defines mainstream culture (Garofalo 1993: 235).

63 Music theorists from 1980s have been disputing Peterson and Berger's article in the foundation that it misinterpreted the need for diversity and innovation among the consumers of the music industry. Their first hypothesis that »the degree of diversity in musical forms is inversely related to the degree of market concentration« (Peterson and Berger 1975: 156), according to which music market thrived due to the homogeneity of its products, has seen a repetition of their analysis in the 1980s, though by which the study has been as rejected. In 2005 Peter Ross published an article called ‘Cycles in Symbolic Production Researches: Foundations, Applications, and Future Directions’, in which, like Christianen, he questioned the methods used to measure market concentrations and especially exclaimed that there is a greater need to examine the control that majors have on the creative processes (Ross 2005: 483).

82 Facing the reality that only a few large companies control the music market and that they as well hold and control the barriers of getting into the market, the independents sought that the only means of getting into business is to not only produce, but also to market and distribute music releases. The philosophy of market autonomy and independent music business operations in fact goes way back. In the United States, a small number of independent music labels owned by black Americans date back to the 1920s, yet because they were soon forced out, not a single one lived past that age (Garofalo 1994: 236). The 1940s saw a rise in independent rhythm and blues recording companies and radio programmes, and although they were black-oriented, they were mostly white-owned. Some of them, though of different genre orientation – Atlantic, Modern, Chess, Imperial, Sun, later followed by Stax, Motown – gained great success and a “substantial foothold in the industry.” (Garofalo 1994: 236)

Despite the independent appeal, several of the mentioned labels were nothing more than a small-scale versions of the majors (Gosling 2004: 171) and have often turned out to be more exploitative to the musicians than the major corporations were (Gosling 2004: 171; Hesmondahlgh 1999: 35). In the 1960s Great Britain, another specie of independent company arrived – Island, Charisma, Virgin, Chrystalis – which were not exactly independent by “ideological considerations”, but rather independent in financial nature (Frith 1981: 98). These labels knew how to respond to the new market (e.g. emergence of new, youth audience), they developed new promotional and distributional forms, used mail-order sellers and promoted rock culture in the radio media. Frith writes that they related directly to the audience and every town and province had a promoter of this hip movement (Frith 1981: 98-99).

The 1960s and 1970s smaller record companies/independent music labels viewed to be more popular to big corporations, because they were less bureaucratic, more in touch with the changes in music styles and sounds of popular music (Hesmondalgh 1999; Azerrad 2001). But by the late 1970s many of the key independents

The 1960s and early 1970s in the United States mark the span of small record companies/independent music labels (Hesmondalgh 1999; Azerrad 2001): artists preferred them to big corporations because they were less bureaucratic, more in touch

83 with the changes in music styles and sounds of popular music. Even more interestingly, most of the key independents were swallowed by the major corporations by the late 1970s or ceased to exist and became one-offs64 (Azerrad 2001: 5). The punk movement in the late 1970s had politically tackled the manipulative nature of the music industry and changed the nature of the independents ideas (Hesmondalgh 1999: 35).

The punk movement in United Kingdom in the late 1970s was to be the biggest influence in the creation of the independent music labels of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, especially by expanding ideas of autonomy, the do-it-yourself approach, rejection of the prevalent cultural currents and indie65 as a music genre (Hibbett 2012; Fonarow 2006, etc.)

The word independent has had and still does have several definitions. The definition for this research has often met the definition of indie in Michael Azerrad’s research on indie music underground between the early 1980s and early 1990s: whether a music label choses to distribute their records through giant corporate music channels, which entitles them an entry to more selling points and stores than other smaller independent distributors. The distinction in choices of the distribution channels creates great differences in advantages and disadvantages of the access to media coverage and also differences in attracting artists and audiences (Azerrad 2001: 5).

Roy Shuker, for instance, briefly explains the difference in major and independent music labels, as major being the ones who dominate the music industry and market and independents as marginalized producers of music, which in majority still have to rely on major labels for distribution and extensive marketing (Shuker 2010: 21-2). Despite the fact that most independent music labels favourably differ from majors by being more flexible, innovative and are usually the main sources of emerging new music genres66 (Shuker 2010: 21-2), Azerrad’s explanation of the

64 Azerrad referred to Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe's one-off independent label called Mer Records, which produced one single 'Hey Joe'/'Piss Factory' in 1974 (Azerrad 2001: 5). 65 As it will be shown further on in this chapter, the word indie was firstly used as an abbreviation or a diminutive of the word independent, and according to contemporary music followers, much more (Fonarow 2006; Hesmondhalgh 2007; Harris 2003; Hibbett 2012; Azerrad 2001 etc.) 66 The majority of new sounds in popular music have emerged from independent labels. Shuker names genre – music label connections such as 'British punk' – Stiff Records, 'grunge' – Sub Pop Records, 'rap' – Def Jam Recordings, 'Britpop' – Creation Records (Shuker 2010: 22).

84 “grass-root level” (Azerrad 2001: 5) development of independent music labels67 focuses on their triumphant emergence as independent music distributors. The networks of users and the disadvantages they had to face when they entered into the belly of the music industry, is best exemplified by the story of Rough Trade records in the United Kingdom.

4.2.1. “Hipster Than Hip”: Independents – British Example

In the 1980s, Rough Trade records were the leader in the British independent music labels community, despite almost a decade long hiatus it had experienced during the 1990’s,68 it has maintained a strong position as one of the most successful independent music labels on a global scale until this day. The history of Rough Trade goes back to mid-1970s when it existed as reggae music and a US releases import record shop. The label’s initiator Geoff Travis was partially inspired by the New Left69 ideas, which he gained during his college years. National distribution of music was motivated among similarly minded shops under the element of doing justice to the musician’s nation-wide (Harris 2003: 6).

The distribution channel of the music shop network was known as The Cartel.70 During one of his interviews with John Harris, Geoff Travis later explained that doing this type of distribution was a political decision. A somewhat active way to say they are taking production out of the majors and capitalistic hands, holding all the power and at the same time provide musicians and producers to have freedom of choice in connecting to or disconnecting themselves from the channel whenever they

67 Michael Azerrad also refers to British independent music labels as »pioneering English indie punk labels« (Azerrad 2001: 5-6). 68 Rough Trade Records was founded in 1976 and maintained until 1991, when the distribution wing of the company had started to overtrade and the founder, Geoff Travis had to file for bankruptcy. In 2000, Rough Trade re-emerged with owning shares split in three pieces: one owned by Geoff Travis, one by Jeannette Lee from Public Image LTD and the minority share owned by Sanctuary Records. In 2002 German major company BMG bought out Sanctuary Record’s share in Zomba Music Group, meaning that a part of Rough Trade fell under the major’s wing. In 2007 however, Sanctuary Records sold their share of Rough Trade to Beggars Group, and after almost two decades the label was once again independent (Harris 2003; Rough Trade Records 2015). 69 The New Left was a political movement during the 1960s and 1970s (mostly in continental Europe, UK and US), in a way coined by Herbert Marcuse that brought forward questions of equality, social justice and social class. 70 The Cartel was an association, which spanned over several UK regions, with distributors based in local specialist shops. One of its side products was The Catalogue, a list of records The Cartel distributed, although it later deformed into a debate and informational print forum about the independent sector (Hesmondhalgh 1998: 259).

85 wanted, establishing the equality in the distribution of their work and eliminating the begging for being included in the industry (Harris 2003: 6).

Unlike the practices that go on today among independent and/or major music labels, Rough Trade was very strict with their disdain towards the decadence in the music industry in the UK during the late 1970s, by refusing to send free copies of their records to journalists and radio stations (Harris 2003: 7). The complete absence of any links to corporate music industry, institutional, media or distribution-wise, the political stance of Rough Trade has brushed heavily on their house artists who actively posed out this position. Anti-establishment positions since punk’s anti- establishment movement have antagonized, whether Rough Trade used any of the existing means of communication or it accepted that they were beyond reform, so it instead chose to build a non-corporate alternative (Harris 2003: 5).

The United Kingdom’s music industry of the late 1970s experienced an explosion of independent music activity and by the first half of the 1980s, a reported 90 new labels were established, though Frith argues that most of them were always somehow present in the UK music industry, only that they were commonly associated with minority music genres (Frith 1981: 155-6). The issue new producers had was that there were so many great musical acts deserving attention or at least having their own record, but they along with their producers got excluded from the recording and distribution business, especially local music productions (Azerrad 2001; Harris 2003; Frith 1981), although many local music acts at that time were working under the idea that issuing an independent single would be a convenient way for gaining awareness from a major label (Harris 2003: 5).

Many music labels at the time were founded by musicians themselves, because they were unable to find someone to publish their work, or were unsatisfied with the conditions and contract terms (Azerrad 2001). They would self-recorded and self-produce their own albums, starting the so-called DIY (do-it-yourself) ethics and approach to the lifestyle, though, as Frith points out, many times they would borrow some money from local businesses (Frith 1981: 156). Since production and recording costs got lower and lower, the only problem that remained was to distribute their records on a national level, which is where distribution networks such as The Cartel would come in more than handy. Rough Trade record and its contemporary Factory

86 Records have seen an entrepreneurial opportunity to help these bands and bring out their music for mutual profit, only their manner of label-band cooperation was made under the ‘rule’ that they will not own their bands, like the majors do.

A well-known quote from Tony Wilson, the founder of Factory Records, goes: “We were being profoundly political by not owning our groups. The company owns nothing, the musicians own their music and everything they do, and all the artists have freedom to fuck off.” (Harris 2003: 8)

Rough Trade’s aversion to media, and Factory Records complete resistance to do any PR for their bands,71 might have given an illusion that the independents music reached the public ear by itself. In reality, music weeklies such as NME, Melody Maker, Sound and others, heralded the aesthetical and political message of the independent music movement during the 1980s in Britain. The writing in these magazines were extremely exhaustive, hair-splitting and contextualized and their picky attention puts focus on the independents, which were getting free attention from the music press they actually condoned. The press, journalists, readers, listeners, musicians and finally independent producers circumnavigated in an actual subcultural movement. The new subculture, according to Harris, relished on the inspiration by the initial independent’s philosophy and soon clear music market polarization found its wings: anti-Thatcherism and commoditised music alike, versus the New Left idealism and independents’ sound (Harris 2003: 8).

Simon Frith (1981) explains that the unambitious intentions of independents created an alternative in the business and music sense, which was able to sustain by itself and continue co-creating the network of recording, trade, events, venues, listeners and productions (Frith 1981: 157).

Mainstream music charts, which at that time fell under categorization of popular music charts, got a rival list of top selling records thanks to Record Business magazine, which introduced exclusive independent music label’s charts. Polarization and a complete cutting away from mainstream was now complete, states Harris and even more the independent’s subculture got a new nick name: indie72 (Harris 2003:

71 The choice to do so was powered by the idea that music and their bands should not be treated as a commodity (Harris 2003: 8). 72 By the courtesy of 1980s UK music press.

87 9). In 1986, the music weekly magazine New Music Express (NME) issued a cassette compilation of obscure and unknown, even indie bands, called C 86,73 which later become a sort of synonym for UK indie rock.

The legacy that this compilation left, was not the way it was recorded but rather what kind of ground it created for new currents and music to spin out of it, or as Simon Raynolds puts it: “It involved a resurgence of the do-it-yourself ideal – young people shoving aside inhibiting notions of professionalism and gleefully making their own culture, with seemingly every fanzine editor in a band or starting their own label” (Raynolds 2006). This was a rather fresh approach and a helping hand to those who were excluded from the mainstream oriented media production places, which relished over technical finish and almost by rule excluded the unskilled and the under confident (Hesmondhalgh 1997: 256).

Concurrently with NME’s C86 compilation, American television channel MTV (Music Television at the time) in 1986 launched a show 120 Minutes,74 which was dedicated to alternative music genres and alternative music cultures. The show was also licensed to the MTV Two channel, a British issue of the original MTV from America, which broadcasted the UK edition of 120 Minutes and was viewed in certain parts of Europe.

73 The mail-order compilation cassette C86 was released by the NME in 1986 and featured new and unknown bands from British independent music labels. The name of the compilation quickly evolved into a shorthand for a »guitar-based musical genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures«, even though other the compilation also included some other musical styles. The hailed English DJ and radio presenter John Peel coined a description 'shambling bands', which celebrates »the self-conscious amateurism of the music« (Raynolds 2006). According to Simon Raynolds, this was a pejorative description of asexual, childish musicians who nodded to the child-like imaginary and personified a rather extreme mix of youthfulness and sexualisation in their appearance, fashion and even band names: The Pastels, Talulah Gosh, 14 Iced Bears, Velvets, Byrds, Buzzcocks, Swell Maps and others. Raynolds explains how, rather than debauchery, they created a new bohemia out of purity. 74 120 Minutes was an alternative music genre television show, broadcasted by MTV, between 1986 and 2000, presenting the prominent names of predominantly American and British alternative and indie music. In 1991, MTV released a supporting double CD compilation of many songs that were featured on the 120 Minutes program, titled 'Never Mind the Mainstream: The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes'. Since it was a predominantly a rock influenced music program and the regular MTV music program featured more and more of pop, r'n'r and hip hop music, the show was transferred to the MTV 2 channel, only for it to be cancelled in 2003. It, however, returned in 2011 titled as 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield, Pinfield being known as its most notable host. The program still airs weekly and besides its almost classic alternative and indie rock repertoire, it also shows a greater courtesy to underground and alternative hip hop, electronica, ‘turntablism’ and ‘dubstep’ (120 Minutes 2014).

88 4.2.2. “They Suffocate At Night”: Independent Production, College Rock And The Alternative

“As usual, music was the first art form to register discontent. Underground rock protested not just with its sound but in the way it was recorded, marketed and distributed. And since the music business is one of the most familiar manifestations of cultural power that American youth recognizes, in a larger sense rebelling against the major labels was a metaphor for rebelling against the system in general.” /…/ “Corporate rock was about living large; indie was about living realistically and being proud of it.” (Azerrad 2001: 9 and 10)

Musicians and soon-to-be independent producers in the United States have found support and infatuation with the English indie punk label pioneers. However, they feared the fate of early British punk and the way major corporations exploited them: the major’s greed abused the idea of punk and finally sold it out as yet another music fad. The realization that pressing records, manufacturing and producing music is not as big of a deal as it seemed, the US independent pioneers literally opened the doors and minds of many who could not afford to produce music before, so a great number of small and independent record labels started evolving all over the country in the late 1970s.

While explaining the correlation between American and British independents, Azerrad uses Mike O’Flaherty’s description of the ideological and political background and influences that motivated the early US independents. Seeing the influence the New Left had on British pioneers such as Rough Trade, O’Flaherty believed that the political radicalism against Thatcherism, which that movement personified, had a profound effect on the UK post-punk. The independents in the United States internalized the radicalism and as O’Flaherty states, resonated the implication of that radicalism during the Reagan years in the US. To this Michael Azerrad adds that the American response to the British post-punk independent music movement was US independent punk rock and other derivatives of the genre (Azerrad 2001: 6).

Mike O’Flaherty expanded his opinion on the independents music culture, by stating that American independent punk rock in the 1980s held an upheaval against corporate music industry and strived towards destruction of its values and aesthetics.

89 In the 1990s, this movement was called ‘the alternative’, but instead of continuing its message, it played a vital role in rescuing major corporations from “economic collapse” (O’Flaherty 1999).

The main principle or American punk rock was therefore the punk aesthetic and the DIY approach to life and music production – a somewhat organic form of starting up something creative, without hesitation that one does not ‘possess’ the right abilities to do it (Azerrad 2001: 6). In the mid-1970s, when the United States music underground was already familiar with local music makers, punk principles and experimental rock styles, the main issue for new non-mainstream bands was to find ways to make a music record, even by the musicians themselves. Frith points out that the American independent labels did not exactly have the same effect on the industry as the UK labels did (Frith 1981: 157).

While a form of punk ideology in the UK lived on and transformed in a new shape as post-punk, “the most prestigious branch of alternative music in Britain” (Hesmondhalgh 1999: 38), new and different music currents emerged, such as New Romantic movement,75 forming a completely new attitude toward the alternative and also created new very strong music scenes. Indie was a novelty description of new cultural politics of the alternative British rock and pop genres. United States during the same time also saw a change in rock, though a little differently and with more corporate attitude.

The American major corporations found a more successful way of commercializing the punk essence, by completely excluding its ideology and sticking to complete commercialization when deals with musicians were made. The rest of the alternative styles were marginalized to localities, smaller areas and for specific audiences (Frith 1981: 157-8). The independents who recovered from this initial shock relished in the embrace of self-sufficiency and a modest way of life, so much in fact that these ethics started to count as references to quality of production, with no regard to actual sales number or measurable size of coverage (Azerrad 2001: 6-7). The so wanted autonomy the independents relished for managed to retain their control

75 An alternative form of rock and punk, spawned on the edge of the post-punk scene era, that celebrated many goth rock and post-punk groups such as Siouxie and the Banshees, The Cure, Cocteau Twins, etc.

90 over the creative process, which in turn guaranteed the authenticity of their work and production (Newman 2009: 19).

Preceding countercultures and independent production forerunners, such as the rebellious the sixties youth movement in the United States, as well as UK and US independent labels that predate the 1960s and early 1970s, have played a very important role in the creation of 1980s and 1990s independent labels and the underground punk movement. During one of his interviews with Azerrad, the Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore mentions that, though the Sixties push the forefront of youth liberation and critical thinking, which also opened the doors to new cultural movements, the 1980s underground was using its spirit with a lot more nihilism (Azerrad 2001: 7).

More than the movement, the actual music and production practices of the Sixties proved to be the actual force model upon which the American independents drew similarities: the creative amount of control over the musicians work and also a key in their credibility (Azerrad 2001: 7 and Hibbett: 2005: 57-8). The rock underground of the 1980s in United States however holds an important list of DIY76 disciples (e.g. bands), who not only created music labels under such ethics – SST, Dischord Records, Sub Pop, Touch & Go, etc. – but inspired subcultural music scenes, like straight edge, riot grrrl, and so on.

Hibbett states that the experimental wave of the late 1960s and the punk era moulded a music vain, later known as college rock77 – music too unconventional to be played in daytime and too challenging for the broader audience, which made it only fit for “low-powered college radio stations” (Hibbett 2005: 57-8). While the UK independent labels were able to lean on generous mentions in music press and BBC music coverage, especially by DJ and radio presenter John Peel, the United States

76 Or even »Do the Right Thing«, as the band Fugazi (successors of the straight edge and DIY advert band Minor Threat) chose to engage itself in the business of making music (Azerrad 2001: 377). 77 Michael Azerrad chronicles a 1985 joint tour of groups R.E.M. and The Minutemen, which are to this day listed among representatives of early US indie current. In December that year R.E.M. invited Minutemen to join them on the last stretch of their tour and the final show, according to the representatives of both bands, proved to be more significant for the development of the independent and alternative scene, than anyone anticipated. Both bands were heavily influenced by New York indie punk band Television and the last song they played at the concert was their cover of ‘See No Evil’, which according to Minutemen bass player and vocalist Mike Watt, indicated “a passing of the torch”: the passage from the alternative, hard-core pioneers movement to indie movement, or what Watt depicted as college rock – “a less desperate strain of music for a whole new group of kids” (Azerrad 2001: 88-90).

91 radio transmission of music genres, which were not exactly popular, was more limited,78 (Frith 1981: 157). By the mid and late 1980s, however, the regard that small American radio stations had for alternative music completely changed. Alternative and college radio stations along with fanzines became the principal heralds of this new culture throughout the US nation (Bannister 2006: 78). So the industrialized United States music press in the 1980s, such as Billboard magazine and The Gavin Report created a supposed alternative indie music charts, which were later replicated in trendy mainstream magazines and newspapers. The print media also coincided with first mentions of college rock.

By that, the alternative music scene in the second half of the 1980s started to miss the proper identification of indie as an abstract field at the edge of mainstream and whether music has been made in the DIY, authorship-friendly principle. When Pitchfork Media 79 got established, the college/alternative/indie rock became a discourse, an organized space and a way of speaking about music, which determined over and over again, what belongs in it and what does not; which innovative rock genre is permitted under the indie umbrella and which one is not.

Terminological and discursive use of indie, in the 1980s and 1990s US and the UK was represented as an ideology, a do-it-yourself grounded ethics. The music genre successor of that movement and the derivative of post-punk course, indie-rock, was successful because it was broad and an international meta-genre (Shuker 2010: 220). Even though the early independents sought out demographic strength and to at least try and reach a cultural overflow, they never wished to become sell-outs (Azerrad 2001: 7). When, and if, an (ideologically) indie band actually made a leap to a major label, its connections to the independent community and the underground scene were completely lost, because the independency the US small labels described,

78 Despite the decline in the US radio broadcast music coverage in the later decades, American radio stations in 1950s and 1960s acted as filters and promoters for the most popular music, with the Top 40 chart formats included in the music radio shows. This is something that the British broadcasters had yet to cover in later times (Toynbee 1993: 290). 79Pitchfork Media or shortly Pitchfork, is an Internet based music publication and fanzine that publishes daily commentary, news, interviews and reviews. Its establishment dates back to the 1995 when Ryan Schrieber, influenced by local fanzines and college radio station decided the Internet needs a regular updated resource on independent music. The focus of Pitchfork has primarily been on independent music and indie rock, however the range of genres extends to others, such as pop, rap, jazz, folk, experimental, electronic and others (Pitchfork Media 2014).

92 was freedom of creativity, aesthetics, quality and loyal synergy between musicians and their labels (Azerrad 2001: 8; Hibbett 2005: 58).

4.3. “SEE THAT ANIMAL”: ALTERNATIVE AND I NDEPENDENT IN SLOVENIA

The milestones of the British and American independent music movement and production have paved an account I take on independent music publishing and independent music labels in Slovenia, which originate in about the same time, though in different political and economic settlement. If the 1970s and 1980s mark the heroic period in the constitution of the independents in Slovenia, the 1990s represented the period in which prevails the logic of capitalism and economizing the already established network of independent production, as well as the introduction of independent production centres into the corpus of the “national” Slovenian culture.

The cordial stumbles between the alternative and the independent, described on Metelkova district by Miha Zadnikar (2002), revealed an unfamiliar picture of the amiable relationship between the alternative and the independent I have recognized so far (Cohen 2012; Kruse 1993; Bannister 2006; Bennet and Peterson 2004; Straw 1991; Shuker 2010; etc.), but to develop on that I should reflect about 30 years in the past.

Marina Gržinić recounts that the 1980s display the time of chartering independent music culture and production in Slovenian space (Gržinić 1996: 11), but during the transition period,80 independent cultural production did not have the best economic and institutional chances for free development in its own ways, dynamics and forms of production. It was dependent on the public sector infrastructure, connected to the selectivity of public cultural institutions, when it came to independent’s using the public space, which in result restrained cooperation between independent cultural productions on local, national and even more on international level.81 Bibič writes that the independent cultural production or alternative cultural

80 The time of transition marks the period of the transition from socialistic and a one-party political system to capitalistic and multi-party systems. 81 Of the ten-year post-socialist time and complete priority of granting infrastructure to the public cultural sector, Bibič claims we can talk about monopolistic position of public sector in the field of

93 production has developed under the conditions of cultural, political and economic regime, which performed control over the field of free artistic culture, even by preventing the access to infrastructure conditions for the actual existence of independent or alternative cultural production, and their freedom to practice (Bibič 2005: 94-96).

4.3.1. “May The Sun Shine Bright For You”: The Development Of Independents And Alternatives In Slovenia As We Know Them Today

The prevention and restraints can be explained by the improper use of the terms ‘alternative’ and ‘subculture’82 during the transition period. It was the case that even the political changes of that time avoided the subject of Slovenian cultural policies, by the same policies, which implemented and lead cultural and art institutions, as well as government bodies in the 1980s. Describing cultural and art productions as ‘alternative’ or ‘subcultural’ directly implicated on the deviation from settled national cultural forms, giving the cultural political government bodies the ability to exclude alternative production from national cultural production (Gržinić 1996: 10).

The main alternative cultural practices in Slovenia have never completely unified youth subcultures and student movements, according to Tomc at least not in the 1960s New Left movements. Which is why he recognized three main youth practices: student sub-politics, rock subculture and communal countercultures (Tomc 1989: 113). The student political movements of the sixties in Slovenia, apparently was completely oblivious to the rock music scene, even though, as Tomc writes, progressive rock existed as the most creative form of the hippy subculture and also shaped the most widespread youth subculture at the time (Tomc 1989: 109 and 116).

cultural infrastructure on one side and on the other side the complementing discrimination of the independent (private and non-profit) sector, when it comes to granting the access to free public infrastructure (Bibič 2005: 94-96). 82 The research on youth subcultures in 20th century Slovenia, The Other Slovenia, led its author Gregor Tomc to distinguish between three different types of youth movements: subcultures in the narrow sense of its meaning, sub-politics and countercultures. He concluded the following explanation: youth subcultures are those youth movements, which create its own means of expression and lifestyle; youth sub-politics develop their own political meanings, convictions and actions; whereas youth countercultures try to unify the aspects of subcultures and sub politics in one fused stance (Tomc 1989: 8).

94 Subcultural development and existence lives outside the marginalized space and under the dominant culture, but rather creates its domain in parallel to it with a heavily needed distance to the mainstream. But while punk started the subcultural smash in style articulation in Slovenian space and with it brought the punk rock ‘youth myth’ brought from Western countries – boredom, apathy, indifference, depression, isolation, etc. – it has never limited itself on subculture as it did in the West, but rather it started to represent the everyday life (Tomc 1989: 136 and 148-9).

Slovenian cultural production of the 1980s, or independent and alternative scene as it was called,83 managed to develop various cultural practices and fields of art in the 1990s. These ranged from popular culture to multimedia projects. The whole decade, even before transition has given leap to an important generation of artists and cultural phenomena, but as Gržinić states the alternative saw certain a need for different cultural infrastructure: new channels of distribution and exchange of information with the world (Gržinić 1996: 21).

Marina Gržinić, on the other hand, firmly denies proper use of the terms ‘alternative’ and ‘subculture’ during the transition period of the 1990s. She explains that even the political changes of that time avoided the subject of Slovenian cultural policies. Using the terms ‘alternative’ and ‘subculture’ directly implicated on their deviation from settled national cultural forms, giving the cultural political government bodies the ability to exclude alternative production from national cultural production.

Miha Zadnikar accounts that the Slovenian representation of independent culture today is known as that, which lives through autonomous projects and receives grants from the municipality, government, or even private sponsors corresponding to their capitalistic game without presenting too much of a threat or nuisance. Alternative culture, on the other hand, has seen a revival and strengthening through its subcultural schemes, which either half-legally or in some segments completely illegally lives its life in the ‘occupied’ or in its words, liberated space. The rules of this type of alternative are not clear, it thoroughly tries to mismatch all possible trends and its sensible population is defiantly growing (Zadnikar 2002: 127).

83 The latter notion, as will be evident, has been discarded.

95 If having a possibility of the alternative means that one has the possibility to act outside the system of prevailing relationships, outside the ‘autonomous’ and universal ways of life which most people live (Pezelj 2013: 49), then how come the autonomous and independent are sometimes part of the alternative and sometimes stand by its side? Neven Korda Andrič happens to further divide the alternative in Ljubljana into two segments that make unity in the nonconformist lifestyle of many of the city’s inhabitants. On one side alternative is the independent culture, composed of independent producers, non-government organizations and private practices that operate on social levels of education and culture. On the other side, there is the autonomous culture, the space of subcultures and counter-cultures (Korda Andrič 2013: 118).

Independent music producers, underground audience members and supporters of autonomous culture in Slovenia may not exactly agree with what represents the alternative, it is worthwhile to conduct that the meaning of this term, like Gržinić stated, has changed. The field that might once be known as creating alternative music and the underground, would now be referred to as non-commercial and independent music production (Muršič 2011b: 6).

The research of independent youth clubs in Slovenia provided a description of the term independent scene, as an initiative made by one or more individuals who find a public space to hang out in their city or town, to create and realize other similar groups of non-profit interests. The absence of hierarchical organization in such spaces creates autonomous and creative scenes built from ground up and all the contributors do everything to keep it going (Muršič 2012: 20). The main problems in alternative or independent cultural (not merely music) production in Slovenia, further remain to this day as “trans-generational” infrastructural and financial issues (Bibič 2003: 15).

Territorial centralization, along with lack of infrastructure and funds is another issue that pesters local alternative and independent scenes across Slovenia. Ljubljana, as the capital city, is the place of the highest concentration and diversity in cultural production and consumption. In 2005, Bibič writes that the particularities of the city show themselves on one side as infrastructural starvation of many public cultural institutions, yet on the other side we can see a major difference between provisions in infrastructure of public institutions and non-profit and private cultural producers

96 (Bibič 2005: 87). The majority of independent and non-governmental cultural producers and its public are unable to invest themselves in procuring their own property, which is why they mostly rely on the access of public infrastructure and almost always solely count on the aid of public authorities and their cultural-political measures or similar (Bibič 2005: 93).

4.3.2. “Jesus Is My Tintenkiller”: Early Independents In Slovenia

“We are self-financing. If your money comes from the League of Socialist Youth or anyone else, you are not independent.” 84 (Boris Furlan in Bizović 1988)

The foremost occurrences of ‘different’ music production in Slovenia dates back to the 1970s, and are according to Mitja Vrhovnik Smrekar inseparable with the emergence of new and ‘different’ social spaces. These places nested the creation of certain cultural and artistic content, which not only became subcultures and later (mainstream) cultures, but in fact marked an important transition from the margins to the establishment – the most important aspect in expanding and strengthening the fields of difference into the field of diversity (Vrhovnik Smrekar in Gržinić 1996: 36).

There have been different active and passive organizations and participators, who helped shape the underground music space in Slovenia (Ačimovič 1994: 37). Muršič explains that the alternative independent production of music records proved to present an important quality of Slovenian music production, especially if we look on it from a prevalent popular music aspect, according to which smaller productions tend to set forth new music market niches and are commonly controlled by major corporations. Still, the artisanal craftsmanship of producing music independently is aesthetically and quality-wise immensely richer than commercial production. In that sense, independent production creates independent creativity of the margins for the margins (Muršič 1995: 70-71).

84 Boris Furlan is the founder of Slovenija, in his words, an independent production label from the coastal city of Koper, Slovenia. He started the label in 1984. Their records were regularly played in local and Italian radio stations. In his interview with Siniša Bizović, Furlan stated that they tried to reach across the then Yugoslavian border and introduce their music to the United Kingdom, though they were quite disappointed to learn how very closed it was for non-UK music (Furlan in Bizović 1988).

97 One of the first independent music labels operating in Slovenia was ŠKUC85 - their milestones were a 1973 album Odpotovanja by singer-songwriter Tomaž Pengov, and a 1978 7-inch vinyl single by the iconic punk band Pankrti in 1978. The publishing activities were later broken into various sections, such as ŠKUC- R.O.P.O.T., Galerija ŠKUC Izdaja and FV label86. They pushed the frontiers of independent production with audiocassette releases, although the first independent music label in the 1980s was Dokumentarna, but they ceased to exist in 1986 (Muršič 1995: 70).

In 1987, the weekly magazine Mladina published an interview with Igor Vidmar, an important figure in the development of rock culture in Slovenia, who was at that time the manager of ŠKUC-R.O.P.O.T. music publishing. In his interview, Vidmar explains the cause behind the low numbers in record circulation, even if the records came from better-known alternative bands such as Laibach. The producers try to sell as many records as possible to cover the costs, but there is always the standard problem of lacking the initial capital. Vidmar’s view of independent music publishing, with regard to the British examples, was that the publication should have a concept and content realization, outside of the already existing and conventional system of music production and distribution. Though, he pointed out, that this type of independence does not mean they could not use financial, distribution and media mechanism of the dominant system. He further on explains his own definition of independently created music: the one that is recorded, produced and designed without

85 ŠKUC or Student Cultural Centre, it is one of the oldest and most influential non-profit culture and art organizations in Slovenia., which hailed as a next chapter of the 1968-1972 student movements in Ljubljana. Brane Mozetič writes that for many years its main activities were music publishing and concert organization for “different” music. (Mozetič 2012) In the 1980s ŠKUC came in partnership, what was called ŠKUC-Forum, which only enhanced the music publishing activities in the following sections: R.O.P.O.T., Buba, Art Rock, AFK. Among the early releases are important and progressive albums by Laibach, Via Ofenziva, Borghesia, Čao Pičke, and so on. (ŠKUC 2015) 86 The FV record label initially released cassette recordings from concerts organized by ŠKUC- R.O.P.O.T. (Gračanin 1987: 38). FV was found on the extinguished grounds of FV Disko – club, and FV 112/15 theatre group, initially divided into FV independent recording label (one of the first ones in Yugoslavia) and video production section called FV Video. (Zemira Alajbegović 2015). When FV clubspace ceased to exist and with it the last possibilities for live music representation, the founders saw the only way in its continuation the publishing venture. Zemira Alajbegović, who was one of the founding members of the FV label and a member of Slovenian electronic group Borghesia, mentioned that when Borghesia wished to release an album, collaborations with at that time, three major record labels in Slovenia proved to be too complicated. Thus they ventured into self-production in collaboration with Italian independent label Delivery production in order to insure not only an independent production infrastructure, but also an independently functioning distribution circuit that bypasses the conventional mechanism.

98 the dominant music system’s interferences. The issue of who later actually publishes the record is unimportant to him (Vidmar in Gračanin 1987: 38).

In the same article that Tomi Gračanin published in Mladina, he also interviewed Zemira Alajbegović. In her answers she mentions that even though the FV label got many requests from musicians that were turned down by the major labels,87 they were not exactly inclined to produce everything, which did not pass corporate gates. Even music labels that were in the past favourable toward publishing punk music records, were towards the end of 1980s almost completely ignoring the new punk and hard-core music scenes because it was too different. The FV label mostly produced albums of bands that were part of the alternative concept and not the popular, because the latter found their working system inappropriate (Alajbegović in Gračanin 1987: 39).

These interviews can depict an allegation of some sort that early Slovenian independents did value the production of more alternative sound for the music’s sake, but their work approach was less dogmatic in independent aestheticism and DIY ethics. Zemira Alajbegović, for example, noted that the do-it-yourself approach and the amiable label-band relationship is necessary for the actual production to go through: the bands are the actual initiators for recording, they take care of the recordings and design the album layouts. However she also described that this approach was the only one possible for an independent music label to sustain and continue its publishing. Later theoretical approaches to independent music production and distribution are likely to mention the aestheticism in the sound that is derived from non-professional recording and production and the value of ideology behind the independents.

The importance and influence of the Front Rock88 music label has also been mentioned in many sources. Ačimovič and Muršič for instance both mention the

87 In 1988 Siniša Bizović researched the successes and defeats of independent music production in Slovenia and Yugoslavia, upon which he published an article (Bizović 1988). In the article he mentioned 5 of the most representative major labels that controlled the popular music market in the late 1980s: Jugoton, PGP RTB, Jugodisk, Suzy and Helidon. Some of the more known independent labels in Yugoslavian space at that time were the mentioned Škuc, Slovenija and the FV label, along with Dokumentarna A, Feniks and Brut (Bizović 1988). 88 Front Rock music label was born in the late 1980s – it has been officially active since 1989 (Muršič 1995: 174). Its founder, Dušan Hedl, was very active in the Northeast region in Slovenia as an organizer of youth club Trate and later expanded the music spectre to all different art forms. He worked

99 immense contribution it had and still has to the Slovenian underground rock scene. The label was found at the very last brink of the 1980s and because its policy was to always work under minimal resources, it became the independent music production leader in 1990s and an inspiration to future generations of independent labels to come. Front Rock also operated with a recording studio called ‘Studio na meji’,89 which was one of the outposts for new connections between alternative artists, music and culture cooperation and the promotion and encouragement of the independent and alternative music scene. They have also been fairly regular with album publications: in 1995, for instance, five records were issued, which is quite a large number for an independent label in such small area (Muršič 1995: 174 and Ačimovič 1994).

Even though the 1990s saw some very prominent independent music producers, among which are previously mentioned Front Rock, FV label and even, at a time, the largest independent Kif Kif Records, as well as others. According to his contribution in the 1994 compendium on rock culture in Northeast Slovenia, the number of independent labels was still ‘terrible’ (Ačimovič 1994: 38).

Publishing pioneers such as Mario Marzidovšek, set forth the starting of certain alternative and underground sub-scenes. Marzidovšek for instance was one of the crucial actors in Slovenia’s electronic music scene and the owner of the first underground audiocassette recording label in Yugoslavia, called MML which he found in 1984. He is still thought as the pioneer of independent music publishing and recording: he has set up an impromptu recording and production kit in his living room and managed to produce and distribute almost 80 recording cassettes in a mere 4-year span, from 1985 to 1988. The scene in which he and many like-minded enthusiasts co-created, has since published a wide range of genres, from electronica, industrial, ritual, experimental, as well as punk and alternative rock (Muršič 2011c).

extensively as an independent producer and collaborator with very the influential local rock group CZD (Center za Dehumanizacijo). During its beginnings Front Rock held an important function in the local punk and rock scene and has produced some of the first music records for many Slovenian and even a few international alternative music groups. The labels contribution to non-conventional music publishing is valued, because of its appreciation to music’s individualism and cultural specifications, due to which they brought alternative music and a new fresh thought to life. Some of their records have even become internationally sought rarities. Along with the regular music production and distribution, they made several series of “No Border Jam” compilations, which still call out to an important promotional representation for Slovenia’s contemporary rock creative in other parts of Europe. In 2000 Front Rock became part of Subkulturni Azil music-publishing program (Front Rock 2015). 89 Roughly translated as ‘Studio by the border’.

100 An important part of his production and publishing legacy is also the creation of an avid network of kindred artists, producers and publishers from around the world. Between 2010 and 2015 the independent music label Monofonika produced a six- volume compilation “Ex Yu Electronica”, a record by Mario Marzidovšek titled ‘Ultimatum’, two records from the electronic artist group “Študentsko delavski rock teater v opoziciji”90 and a CD version of the MMT label compilation titled ‘Zvoki Maribora’91. (Monofonika 2013) These records are immensely sought after beyond Slovenian borders, from the United States to Japan and in some foreign online shops are also marked as ‘Sold out’.

4.3.2.1. “Rave On”: Independent Distribution From 1980s Until Now

If the idea of complete independency – self-efficiency, self-financing and self- distribution (Bizović 1988) – was a given practice among independents in the 1980s many of them were open to major distribution channels, as seen in Gračanin’s interview with Igor Vidmar. Independent principles according to which a label should have autonomous abilities to put all production, recording and distribution plans into realization and still sustain in the music market, proved to be to challenging to coming labels, like Nikad robom and Non-stop Records, the one-offs (Azerrad 2001) which never saw existence past their first production (Bizovič 1988).

Boris Furlan of the Slovenija label mentioned their struggles to maintain a complete circle in music production, completed with their own recording studio, concert hall, production of albums and audiocassettes, a fanzine92 and a distribution

90 Translation: Student workers rock theatre in opposition. 91 Translation: The sounds of Maribor. 92 Fanzines and independent music labels are the rudiment creators of music subcultures, or in newer times, the marginal, underground rock scenes. Such scenes are, according to Beranič, marginal only in market, economic and media values and not in content and ideas that are carried through within the layers of the rock culture (Beranič 1994: 35). Fanzines compensate for the written description of a sound culture that is the flying flag in a music scene, and independent music labels often underwent to releasing such medium. One of more important relationship between a fanzine and an independent music label in Slovenia, was the collaboration between Fron Rock label and Cicifuj fanzine from Kočevje (Slovenia). It was a rarity to have such collaboration and showed one of the few practices in rock subculture operation that enables a subculture in modern society to survive. Firstly, this is represented in partial production and media independency (from the central mechanisms) and with that, an actual freedom of work. (Beranič 1994: 35)

101 network, which connected Koper, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Italy and Vienna (Austria) (Bizović 1988).

The FV label, which was one of the strongest frontrunners in independent production and distribution, found that because of their locality (Ljubljana) and willingness to promote Slovenian underground music and scene, such as punk rock and hard-core. One of the most important aspects of their work was distribution, which was by 1985 still not fully organized, but they already covered underground music market in all bigger cities – in some stores, clubs and galleries. Their idea was to create the widest possible range of distribution and proved to be most successful by establishing a mail-order record service and correspondent distribution networks outside of Yugoslavia (Korda in P.E. 1985).

Even so, by the 1990s and by the time of transition, they started to lean more and more heavily on public funds for culture, even limiting their production repertoire. Monika Skaberne, now the new representative of the FV label, explains that the funds for culture are limited and those for underground music even more so. The guerrilla tactics of survival, dedication and altruism are nowadays almost unimaginable – the money from selling concert tickets and record albums slowly stopped covering the cost already in the 1990s.

Music during the Yugoslavian period had the possibility to be freely distributed among former republics, where also the larger part of concert visitors came from. However, after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the music market deflated to the size of less than 10-percent. Skaberne recounted that among bigger problems for independent distribution in the mid-1990s, were the music stores: music traders preferred if smaller labels collaborated with one of the major distribution houses, because their records were more successfully sold, whilst the independent distribution was bad for business. Another problem for record sales was presented through media, which started rejecting alternative productions and on top of that slowly became more and more ignorant of the music, genres, musicians and music scenes (Skaberne in Bašin 2005).

Igor Bašin himself was interviewed on the state of alternative music in Slovenia in the mid-1990s, in which he stated that music record distribution suffers due to bad distributers. His idea of a good distributer was of one that buys the music

102 on the same day as it is released and it is degrading to music listeners that they sometimes have to wait a long time until new releases reach the shelves. He is regretful to the fact that one cannot buy a music record by some groups, which held successful concerts in Slovenia in the past, which means that the distributers are oblivious to national music consumption (Bašin in Velikonja 1996).

4.4. “RELIGION DIDN’T DO A THING”: INDEPENDENT MUSIC LABELS FROM LJUBLJANA

This section is an exposition of three independent music labels from Ljubljana that, through their ideology and work organization, expose a somewhat fresh look on the independent music production I wrote about in this chapter. All of the three are self-described independents, though with different beginnings and different patterns of operation, and all three are naturally also part of Indie-Grad. They were created from the impulse of “go-it-alone business” and strongly advocated democratic social relations and all processes, especially during production (Hesmondhalgh 1997: 256). Even though centralization proves to be a great issue, I chose to interview consultants from the Ljubljana independent music scene, and to see if they could provide an insight into the questionable matter of the independent scene cluster that is fixated in Ljubljana.

4.4.1. ZARŠ Label – The institution baby

The label ZARŠ93 has been functional and officially running since 2008, only the radio has been unofficially making music releases since the 1980s, but their first actual release was an album by avant-rock trio Žoambo Žoet Workestrao. The producers at ZARŠ label are not concerned with publishing any particular music genres and are open to consider any music style, from jazz to electronica, to rock, punk etc. Their most important attention lies in the quality and authorship of the music considered and which in the end corresponds to the music credo of the radio.

93 ZARŠ music label logo, see: Picture 2, Appendix I, page 157.

103 Most of the music released is Slovenian – with one foreign exception, the Croatian band Tito’s Bojs.

In the last 46 years, Radio Študent has been one of the most stimulating, preserving, reflective and accompanying actors of alternative cultures in Slovenia and abroad. Becoming a music label seemed to be a logical continuation to that work. This seemed to be even more important in the last decade since the economic situation and the factual economics of music publishing has not been kind for the current music production. ZARŠ was established by the Radio Študent collective, which means it went through a communal process of decision-making, preparations and implementations, yet none of the label’s executives (Radio Študent director, music editor in chief and the label label trustee) are currently exclusively employed at the label.

Because the label resides in the same place as Radio Študent, they have instant access to a recording studio, which is available to use for musicians signed by ZARŠ at no charge. The label always offers their recording studio as a free of charge option, only the band has to find their own technician (most commonly one that already works for Radio Študent and is available) and pay for him/her itself. The band is also in a majority responsible for the pressing and printing of the album, but the label can find them viable options from the providers in which they have collaborated with before.

Since ZARŠ is owned by a radio, it is of course natural that the radio acts as the main advertiser of new music releases, hence the band has no costs with promotion. Distribution of music releases go through the labels regular promotional channels, via the ZARŠ web page and Indie-Grad portal and at various venues organized by Radio Študent. On the other hand, since the ZARŠ musicians claim the majority circulation of the music records they recorded for the label, they are also represented as an important distributor.

Needless to say, their most substantial problem lies in distribution and sales, which is attributed to low sales of physical releases, even though they are successful in selling them on concerts and band tours. Like many other independents, ZARŠ still values the relationship between a music listener and the band, where the music release of the band acts as the bonding agent between the two. Another close knit relationship

104 could be possible between the listener and the radio, as the publisher and the media, only the executives cannot find a firm relation, in order to disrepute piracy and illegal downloading.

Like most Radio Študent projects, ZARŠ, as a side project, is also included in their yearly application to governmental financial aid, especially from the Ministry for Culture. They believe that in order to halt the increasing extinguishing of Slovenian music production, the independent labels would especially require greater institutional, finance, media, publishing, festival, distribution and educational support. One of such attempts to ‘rise up’ from the cut back was the establishing of ZARŠ and most importantly Indie-Grad.

4.4.2. Moonlee Records – Hard core independent

The Moonlee Records94 label was established around the year 2004, when the band members of Slovene-Croatian music group Analena concluded that it would make more sense to create a music label and produce records with more quality than to go into collaboration with already existing music labels. They wished to take a step forward, since they perceived smaller labels to be too dilatant and the majors were not interested in their type of music. Thus they decided to form a label in order to produce records and release their own album, which also marks the first release of the Moonlee independent label.

The band members made an assessment that they could do things better if they themselves acted as label-owners since they already had enough money and contacts to start a label. With that, they tried to solve their own problem; only they had no idea that they might create such a successful business in under a decade. As of now Moonlee Records is represented as one of the most important independent music labels in Slovenia and former Yugoslavian countries.

The label is divided between the Slovenian and Croatian work teams, but the beginnings of the label are more related to Croatia’s capital Zagreb. The label’s focus now lies in Ljubljana, however, as a music producer they still act as a transnational

94 Moonlee Records logo, see: Picture 3, Appendix I, page 158.

105 units that look beyond the Slovenian borders. To this day they have released close to 40 albums by bands/musicians from Slovenia and ex-Yugoslavian countries (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia). The need for an ‘all ex-Yugoslavian recording label came from the knowledge that there are many outstanding music performers in the ex-federation area, which do not have “the basic infrastructure” that would enable them to record or progress. Another issue was that this type of infrastructure, that is a ‘multi-national recording label’, would also have to help the artists to push their work beyond regional borders, choosing from the best of them.

Initially, they are not against any specific music genre, yet they mainly produce records from bands that play any of the subgenres of rock. The bands that are signed under the Moonlee labels have so far become some of the most recognized punk-rock bands in the ex-Yugoslavian area. They strongly encourage their bands to tour as much as possible, since they know touring provides much needed coverage outside the usual music scenes and they are able to push the sales of physical music releases. Also as Radio Študent, Moonlee likewise opted for the organization of music venues, most notable on the one-day festival ‘Moonleejada’, which marks yearly releases of the label.

Their approach to work is structured as a semi-radical scheme, since they started a label in the alternative cultural and music background. At that time they considered that applying for governmental financing programs would hurt their reputation. The idea was to create a sort of a story with the existing alternative music scene away from any sorts of bureaucracy. They wanted to be able to start and finish a project without relying on the institutional or any other financial flow: to record an album, because they believe in the band and for the reason that they want to invest their energy and knowledge into a record, even if they might not get funds to do it in advance.

One of their (international) practices is also to exchange records with foreign music labels of a similar music profile – the foreign label sends records to Moonlee, and they send records of a similar profile back to them. This sort of inter-exchanging distribution does not happen only in Europe but all over the world (Japan, USA, etc.). The consultant MR explained that this label is already a part of an international

106 network of record labels, which first help each other, then later co-operate during the promotion processes, with mutual concerts and naturally with distribution.

He explained that the relationships between music labels on international or national level are generally good, because they share the idea of self-sufficiency and the no-matter-what existence. Still, the rose-glass vision breaks into a harsh reality, when any label emerges into the public and becomes part of the music market – no matter how great relationships are shaped, all the music labels are at the end rivals. And since talking about finances in independent music labels is always a somewhat grim subject, even though these types of labels might completely disregard outside financings, their ‘independence’ can only get them as far as to the buyer. In the end, the label still depends on the sales of recordings and merchandise.

‘Procuring’ or, better, finding new artists to sign is another matter. Their website statements about approaching new artists show that their interests in bands stand according to their personal liking and taste. They accept suggestions and view the bands web pages, but also warn that by no means they would accept music material in any physical or digital form in advance. Also the team is happy to contribute to any kind of press release or media material, as long as the creators of the project feel that a positive review from Moonlee label would be beneficial.

The Moonlee consultant MR, mentioned that there are many music projects in Slovenia that ‘go through’ if the funds for it are secured, but if they are not the project is simply left behind. Since he is the driving force for most of their projects, he states that they try to go through with every single one of them and not just act as a music label that produces a record the first year, then next year they do not. This is their expression of self-sufficiency and stance of independence, nevertheless in the global view it may act completely different.

The label has brought many distribution innovations to the Slovenian music space, including being the starter unit in forming Indie-Grad and introducing streaming and Internet distribution deals with various global providers.

107 4.4.3. Kapa Records – The sidekick

In 1998, when the creative grounds of Metelkova mesto, the birthplace of Kapa,95 were only just forming, Kapa Records released their first album – ‘Hate’ by the punk-rock band Not the Same. It took them almost five years to produce another one, so their practice was fairly fresh and learn-by-making. Today, their approach to work is according to their standards, still very DIY, although their finances sometimes come from governmental sources and the label hears some critique on that account. Still, the executives see the label as small independent, yet fairly significant in the Slovenian music scene.

This type of financing is possible because the Kapa music label is financially covered by the Kapa association, which is registered as the applicant. This association also covers the running of the Gala Hala Club and its activities in Metelkova where it is situated. The Kapa label is like the society’s sidekick and collaborator, which creates and executes some of the projects with which the society applies for public finances. The Kapa association is for instance funded by a four-year cultural financial program of the government, which gives the association a good review on all of the finances with which they can operate and set plans for future projects. Although they are to some extent funded by government and municipal aid programs, the financers have no effect on the work program of the label, their choice of bands, genres etc. These are completely in the label’s domain.

The money that comes from the music sale is seen as a plus and is invested for later. To some extent the labels profit also offer certain financial support to its bands. One such example is aiding those bands that would like to go on a (international) tour, but cannot afford it: they find much needed connections, book the tour and partially finance it. They greatly encourage tours, especially international ones. A band can really feel like a band when they are touring and can create greater bonds between band members. Most of the bands that return from the tour usually play a great end- of-tour concert.

Kapa is foremost a Slovenian music label, because they release records by Slovenian artists. Initially they covered bands from punk and punk-rock genres, but

95 Kapa Records logo, see: Picture 4, Appendix I, page 158.

108 the labels preference changed and developed through time and they started to welcome more and more diverse musicians.

AK who is the consultant from Kapa label, explained that the independent marginal position the label and its musicians exist in right now is actually quite satisfactory to all parties. Even more, many bands that are signed under Kapa have expressed that they do not wish to be promoted in the mass media. Similarly, the label itself has no wishes to expand their market as far as to widely promote the music they produce, because they know that their bands would be against it.

The consultant AK’s working relationship with bands as he explains it, is correlational: the more the band works, the more he is able to do for them – e.g., open new options, find connections and open doors. The bands and their regard to the music, scene, label and music business differ: some already have mailing lists and connections; some would never have any problem doing an interview, others would not even do a single one; some bands need to be pushed forward; some have their own channels of recognition; some are prepared to shoot several videos for just one album; some have friends and know how to push their music through them, other bands have different channels. All in all, the percentage of the bands engagement is crucially important and the more the better.

Despite some occurrences when some of Kapa’s bands would share a music venue with musicians that are perceived as part of the mainstream, the bands are unlikely to also share the audience. Which is why, the consultant AK explained, finding the audience can also be disproportional. In his view audiences are whimsical. Music listeners are probably more faithful to some clubs or concert halls than other. And if that so happens a certain type of audience endorses a band that they have seen in one of their venues of preference, they will most likely not choose to see that band again, if the band for instance booked a concert in some other club/place.

Similar whimsical audiences can be, found when tracking digital downloads – they depend on whether a band tours internationally, or plays at massive youth oriented parties in Slovenian regions. One of the label’s most useful tools for pushing their digital music releases is a platform called Bandcamp, which has become a quite a recognizable digital phonogram provider for lesser known bands and labels, which even a mild music and Internet enthusiast would know how to use.

109 One of the issues the consultant AK sees is because it is still mostly unknown to the Slovenian audience, especially because they are fairly reluctant and unwilling to pay for the music. This especially happens if the band offers a download of their album or a single, with a charitable option called ‘name your price’, which means that the ‘buyer’ has a choice to pay for the download or not. The ratio between foreign buyers who would donate at least one Euro and Slovenian buyers, who would refuse to donate, is in the consultant AK’s experience far more in favour of the foreigners. In a good humor, he added that he could consider himself as part of the no-payment mentality, because he would also prefer to get an album for free or attend a free of charge concert by a great band, than offering something in return. He questions whether this is perhaps only part of the Slovenian mentality.

Considering the differences in the physical and digital market, Kapa also measures differences according to the geographical domain where the market is active. In Slovenia, for instance, digital phonograms are not successful, because Slovenian audiences are poor digital buyers and two of their (solely) digitally released albums were far more successful internationally. In Slovenia, however, they are much more likely to push physical releases, especially at concerts because the audience who admire the band, feel responsible in order to encourage musicians and buy their record. It does not make much difference whether audiences decide to buy a CD, LP or a T-shirt, but the label knows they need to produce just enough to be sure that almost all will be sold. Apparently, there is a statement among independent labels: if a band sells 1,000 CD’s, they are practically “kings”.

Alongside working for Kapa and his own media endeavours, the consultant AK stated that Radio Študent is probably the best media to promote Slovenian independent production: it works 24/7 and has so much space that music can be very easily connected to it. On the other hand, the independent production in the country is so small that the radio can easily overview only that, which it finds interesting. However, it is not their only target media. If Kapa releases a record, it will be recorded in about 20 different editions and if they have smaller media attention and a concert, they can count that number up to 60 – plus the international ones. One album by their band can have five to 20 reviews outside Slovenia: in blogs, magazines, and fanzines.

110 5. “QUEST”: THE NEW AGE OF THE INDEPENDENTS

“I saw people’s faces light up when I said the name of an independent company rather than a major corporation.” (Fonarow 2006: 18)

“Music has a fundamentally social life.” (Field 1994: 77)

New independent labels are created all the time, and in relation to their creations they also disappear very soon. Decision for music production often starts out of the enthusiasm of one person, a group of people or a band, but despite the zeal, there are also high probabilities that the initiators will after some time start to neglected their work. One of the observations is, that an average life span of an independent music label is two years of activity, before it ‘dies out’ (Jaquet 1997).

On the other hand, success tends to suborn even the truest of independent disciples, so it is not so uncommon for the independents authenticity and work to be questioned, especially since they tend to get their share of the music market pie, which has become more and more immersed with cultural consumerism. Straw observed that it is to be particularly true within the notions of regional and national music spaces (Straw 2005: 368).

Independent music producers, among them also my research participants, tend to describe their working decisions out of “complacency”, which supports their yearn for authentication of their production, as is the case of Atton’s description of a punk fanzine (Atton 2010: 518). And despite the complexities with the term, certain authors suggested that independent music production is, to some extent, considered as part of music communities96 (Fonarow 2006; Frith 2003; etc.). I tend to look further into matters of communal in independent production in Slovenia as well as to overview the need to (re-)create collectives for independent music producers and publishers.

96 Simon Frith states that radio to some extent suggests a »broader taste community. (Frith 2003: 97)

111 5.1. “NORMAL PEOPLE SCARE ME”: AUTHENTICATING INDEPENDENCY

The authentic is immersed in a self-proclaimed field of restriction produces cultural goods that are objectified for its appropriated public. All the while the broader public is presented with cultural goods from the competitive and market- targeted ‘large-scale cultural production’ field. The opposition between the two fields create the structural possibility for cultural production in general (Bourdieu 1985: 17). Frith considered authenticity and its conditional relationship to the commercial, with examples from the rock ’n’ roll community. Throughout its history, the rock ’n’ roll community believed that its authenticity is continually being corrupted by the commercial in the music industry, even though history might show a “commercial music form” as a continuous recovery for the sake of music as an art form and the subcultures that produce music (Frith 1996: 42). The communities in the field of the restricted share an inclination to develop their own criteria for evaluating products, thus creating the autonomy to define criteria for product production and evaluation (Bourdieu 1985: 26).

Even so, if we talk about the authentic in the ethical sense, we can perhaps speak about the continuation of certain practices that make particular experiences and/or products, which tend to be more authentic than others (Muršič 2013: 46). The partiality in authentic music practices is portrayed by binaries, such as alternative underground music versus alternative sellouts, or independent music production and distribution versus major corporate servants to the industry. What is alternative and independent nowadays, and how it appeared to be perceived by those research participants included in my research, nevertheless differs from the somewhat pietistic views of the authentic.97

The research participants who work within the independent music sector (publishing, media, etc.), often interchanged the alternative and independent in their responses, as means to call out attention to the authenticity in their work, the defiant stance against anything that might be seen as a mainstream or commercial.

97 The music discourse has seen numerous connotations in connection to the term authentic: genuine, truthful, real, honest, actual, etc. (Moore 2002: 209).

112 Authenticating oneself as being alternative, independent or even indie, helps to stipulate the attitude one has towards their aspect towards the industry they are part of – whether it is a business entity or an individual. Indie music fans in the United States for instance still differentiate themselves from alternative98 music fans: indie is defined as more a harmonic sound of British bands, while alternative gives out American connotations of more abrasive music genres such as punk (Fonarow 2006: 40). The essence of alternativeness in any aspect is to have a binary other and in the music culture that means accepting the notion that mainstream99 dominates the music culture (Wall 2007: 40). Since independent music production represents the alternative in the music industry, it also weighs on the development of alternative understanding of music, alternative tastes of music and alternative types of commerce (Lee 1995: 19).

On the notion of alternativeness in the independent Slovenian music culture, research participants accounted that many bands/labels/etc. can turn mainstream, even though they start out as alternative. In such cases the line between alternative and mainstream becomes blurred and unrecognizable, because discerning between one and the other is tricky, though most of the bands still kept some connection to the alternative. The media, as the raising agent of music tastes and trends has a special affinity to forgetting the line between the alternative and the popular, in Slovenia especially tends to be incapable of making the difference between popular and quality popular music100.

Independent music culture creates products that demand somewhat different strategies from those that have already become proficient in the broader public (Bourdieu 1985), according to which it was able to determine certain aspects of an “evolving ideology of independence” (Lee 1995: 15). Stephen Lee proposes three such aspects: by appropriating certain business deals, such as pressing and

98 Fonarow explains that the example of alternative music fans has taken a stance, which comes from the American term 'Alternative'. It is important to note that in the United States, alternative is written with a capital A (Fonarow 2006: 40 and 45). 99 Tim Wall suggests that the mainstream is actually the clearest and fastest of music currents, which is not stopped by side margins and clutters of alternative complexities and as the most common though runs continuously from the source (Wall 2007: 40). 100 In the eyes of the media the independents are represented as alternative rebels, even though most bands produced under the independent wing find inspiration from bands that are in the eyes of the global audience popular or at least moderately recognizable and commercial.

113 distribution, the independent labels exclusive business strategies have become less common; major labels have started to appropriate more and more language, style and genre aspects of independent labels in order to renew their market; due to increasingly unarguable nature of any kind of alternative economic and business practices, the term independent label had to be redefined. Despite the distressing future and the “shrinking terrain” Lee painted for the independent label, he argues that smaller record companies could still declare an independent stance and thus may avoid their inevitable submission into the mainstream discourse (Lee 1995: 15).

5.1.1. “A Bone To The Dog”: Further Determinations

“/…/ independents are small record companies with no ties to vertically integrated corporations.” (Hesmondhalgh 1999: 35)

Further determinations of production independency can expand to impressions that one needs to differentiate itself from the major’s corporative and dominative practices, or as consultant AK declared, independents express a position that they are not willing to be part of corporative network101, that they retain creative freedom and are not limited by the quantity of sales or releases.

Given that the British independents were determined as independent, according to their means of distribution (Fonarow 2006: 30), the Slovenian independent and non-governmental organizations, which today in majority look over the independent labels, defined themselves as independent on their courses of financing and to the extent of their control to use the resources (Muršič 2011b: 13). It is the latter mode of independence that has started to interest me, especially due to the fact that the majority of the independent music labels I have come across, Slovenian and those I got to know about in Barcelona, tend to rely on other ways of financial support than marketing, distribution, promotion and public awareness

Nevertheless, applying for public tenders, counting on institutional assistance and relying on government/municipal/regional funding is often wearying – to those who run the label and in the end to the bands as well. Many autonomous

101 Especially distribution.

114 organizations are eventually urged to somehow carry on by maintaining the present conditions, which mostly become the sole purpose of their existence (Muršič 2012: 212). In consequence, a new means of music distribution, digital and on-line options especially, became viable alternatives to stimulate the recognition and interest in independent production

Independence can be as well measured by genre choices and music tastes, with the evident fortitudes being quality in difference, uncommon venue spaces, supporting bands that are interesting not popular and nurturing underground currents. The consultant AK further stated the previously obvious: one of the most important distinctions between independent music labels and major music labels is that independents are not lead on by money102.

Another determination in rage of independent denotations, identified by my research participants, is that the majors are occupied with a much wider range of media and they are not selective to where an article about their product appears. On top of that they have a stronger bond with the media, because they work with certain performers and musicians that can offer the media an exclusive piece of the new material and include some other information that the media would normally overlook. Even so, such definitions of major’s music production can also be applied to “large independents”103 (Hesmondhalgh and Baker 2011: 13), many of which have started to operate and produce in a similar way as major labels do.

The consultant AK noted on those ‘large independents’ or foreign independent music labels that have substantial structure and work with globally known music names, but have somehow managed to separate themselves from the majors and keep

102 Unless they reach success with certain artists, expand their business and turn into large or major labels – a case evident among larger Slovenian music labels. Both research participants, AK and MR, agreed that the majority of independent records from their respective labels are sold in concerts, not in shops. Similarly to Bibič’s statement that independent culture scenes often have to rely on financial aid from cultural sectors of state and local budgets (Bibič 2005: 93), both consultants also agreed that the financing of independents differs from majors: where majors look out on sales and the best means of selling their products, which is logical because the music market in Slovenia is small and an established mainstream label is ought to look out on all possibilities to make profit; or perhaps to survive in the time of crisis 103 Large independent music labels, such as British 4AD, Rough Trade and Factory, or US labels like Sub-Pop and Matador, can be differentiated from their contemporary indie music labels, because of their ability to »sustain a position in the mainstream« (King 2012). They are by no means excluded from Slovenian music market – as it shows, almost all larger and commercial music labels started out as independent.

115 a DIY ethic, which is probably also appropriated to their work with bands. They created their own successful distribution channels, but their way of work is completely distinctive from the monetized majors. Conclusively, the consultant MR accounted that the balance between the independents and majors has today more or less crumbled, since most of the larger independents function in ways that match the majors.

5.1.2. “Fists Of Love”: The Independent Doom Pattern?

The specific issue of Slovenian recording labels is, as consultant MR stated, the dependence on public finances, which turns them into mere record printers. The recording and publishing process is being produced from a public finance budget, but afterwards the production may stop because the label loses an interest to have anything to do with the record release in the future. The release has been financially covered and that is mostly the end of its story. Instead of using this subvention as a support to launch the products on the market more easily, the launching process is pulled back.

Even so, Moonlee label rejects music production with the aid of public finances, which as they put it, makes their work much more difficult. Instead they have to push all their releases as far as possible, so that they might be able to get some financial profit to produce another record. However, all financial help is naturally welcome, whether they choose to publish a music record DIY style or with the help of public tenders, it only means that they have to be self-sufficient, because they were unsuccessful in applying for public grants.

However, both research participants MR and AK granted, that if it would solve certain issues like distribution, they would be willing to accept possible collaboration with larger and more commercial labels. Even so, AK pointed that their distribution channel is nevertheless still very narrow, due to the small music market. The media inclined toward independents is rare and perhaps intentionally creates appropriated and more particular kinds of audiences. The consultant AK drew an example: the music listeners who know and follow the Slovenian independent music production, would probably read or hear about the music produced in one of the

116 independent music media, but the same listeners would also probably avoid buying their music in large and commercial music shops.104

Another, already mentioned issue is centralization of the independent music scene on a national level, which is not equally scattered. Not only is the production and distribution concentrated in Ljubljana, but even concert events. A Slovenian band could have 10 concerts per year in the capital and only a few in other towns. If we would monitor the Slovenian alternative music scene, we could sooner or later observe a sequence of the same concerts, which is not positive for either actor in the production circle. Even so, as consultants ZV and AK agreed, the ‘centre’ is hard to break.

5.1.3. “Guilt Dispenser”: Public Finances, A Double-Edged Sword

Selling a larger then average quantity of music releases requires complete PR,105 the availability of certain media (preferably prominent press and radio media), larger physical or digital music stores and enough capital to cover the basic costs of printing and promotion. Not all independents have such ambitions, only those that have, often settle for signing distribution contracts with the majors (Frith 1981: 157). Principal actions that follow the recording of a music album require much work before the record is released.

In the late 1970s and 1980s, when independent labels started booming left and right, their work was mostly committed to long hours and multi-tasking (Hesmondhalgh 1997; Lee 1995). Many musicians and label owners might see it completely overwhelming, but those truly committed to their product, do not only work for it but also live it. Then and today, many independents were struggling with keeping the label alive and running, while managing a steady job and even several other businesses. Only true dedication pays off to the extent they want it to, but it takes time, skill and devotion to perhaps only reach the satisfactory results. The

104 The number of these has in the past couple of years, since I first started researching and more thoroughly following independent music production in Slovenia, even further decreased, especially in the capital – Ljubljana. 105 Public Relations.

117 consultant MR conceivably has pride in his DIY working ethics, but he cannot see much of the same effort coming from other labels and self-promoting musicians

The problem is that the majority of the work processes of the label usually come to a halt after the record is released, which is, however, the crucial time in a labels’ operation, because the release of an album in reality represents the beginning of the work process. This process involves promotion, distribution and a great deal of marketing efforts to present it to the audiences and the media. In the words of consultant MR: if you want to run a working music label, you need to present your product; you need “to popularize it.” Not many small independents are inclined toward that.

He also mentions the dissatisfaction of the musicians, who expect the latter work to be in majority done by the label. A band might put a lot of effort into making an album and in the end it seems a little unfair to them that nothing ever happens to the record, because they expect that by signing and recording to a label they would also get a final product. The end result of this type of label-band relationship is that the musicians do not get sufficient support from the recording label they become somewhat disappointed. Their band starts to questions its stay with the label and in reverse the label comes out with unreasonable expectations that the band will bring some financial input in the beginning of the production.

Robert Strachan explains that the growing economic issues, something that is also evident in the examples of the Slovenian music labels, contribute to uncertainties and lowering confidence due to which, independent music labels operate with more and more feeble ambitions and expectations. The public and the media, also sometimes even small-scale music labels, have therefore started to expect limited potential from such production (Strachan 2007: 250).

The idea of becoming a ‘sell out’ has been one of the biggest concerns and occurrences in the independent music culture since the 1980s. The notion that one’s aesthetic value would decrease, due to its business ventures, would have almost un- repairable consequences in smaller or larger music scenes (Hibbett 2005: 64). The ‘popularization’ of the music releases should be therefore done carefully and with enough attention to the collective unconscious embedded in the particular society (Maxwell 2002: 112).

118 The band-label loyalty then also plays an advantage to the independent music labels when it comes to satisfy the consumers. Independents are closer to musicians and the zeitgeist of the audience attractions, they are thus able to pinpoint the music appeal almost as soon as it occurs. The flexibility with which independents respond to market conditions and the rapid changes in work strategies, work as their assets when dealing with music market and distribution competitors (Duffy 2002). However, as Hesmondhalgh writes, the independent music labels have invented some manoeuvres to continuously bring attention to their work (Hesmondhalgh 2006). Many larger independent music labels, such as Mute Records106 who serve as brands themselves, creates greater potential for their artist’s album to be identified as desirable on the music market. The authenticity of such ventures however remains debatable, or as Keith Negus argued, it is “neither true nor false” (Negus 1999: 131).

5.2. “MESSAGES RECEIVED”: QUESTIONS OF COMMUNAL EFFORT AND DIGITAL EMBODIMENT

“Indie ideology is generated by the cultural principles of the wider society. Indie is a musical community centrally focused on how an audience can have the purest possible experience of music.” (Fonarow 2006: 30)

As I have already reached my hand inside the ‘troubled’ field of what communities are and how they are (or could be) defined in the line of music and music production, I will use this section to present certain communal aspects and

106 Branding record labels is not entirely common practice among music labels, but the case of Mute Records presents a fine example of how branding in music industry works. The label was started by Daniel Miller in 1987 and has since existed as the house label for many outstanding music acts, such as Moby, Goldfrapp, Depeche Mode, New Order, Swans, Laibach, etc. and was even one of the first British music labels with an Internet presence. In 2002, however, the previously independent label was bought by EMI, a multinational music recording and publishing corporation, with Miller remaining in charge of Mute Records global activities. The relationship between the companies ended in 2010, with an agreement that EMI would support Mute founder Daniel Miller with the establishment of a second record label, the Mute brand would once more become an independent music label, but the new one would operate under the Mute trademark – licensed by EMI and supported with services such as licensing, sales and distribution. The original Mute catalogue was owned by EMI until 2012 and was then officially bought from Universal by the German corporation BMG. The current catalogue has also seen some changes in ownership and distribution companies in the US and Europe. Most of the time the turbulent ownership has brought questions about loyalty of the artists to their label, especially since EMI announced job cuts in 2002 and some artists were subsequently dropped. In spite of that many artists have shown compelling fidelity to Mute, alluding to the fact that the brand name Mute is enough for them to ensure good sales and promotion (Van Isacker 2010 and Smith 2013: 506-510).

119 practices of the actors included in Indie-Grad platform, that may have not been obvious.

Communities, as Benedict Anderson writes, are mainly to be differentiated according to the ways they are ‘imagined’, to which he follows that imagined communities are those that outgrow the direct interpersonal relations, or even further from that (Anderson 2007: 23). Among others he pointed at those that have been prompted by the media107. The media, radio especially, is to be imagined as a concentrated and constantly repeated system of contemporary verbal communication, transfer of information and experiences. Even though these features are short-termed, their sediment however leaves layers and layers of collective cultural experience of a certain population, during a certain period. Muršič explains that such experiences can be found either among the elite, as well as mass and alternative cultures of the modern time, and despite the pressures of the globalization, local levels tend to express remarkable examples of hybridization (Muršič 2008: 481).

Independent music producers have evidently had a tendency to create and integrate into business ventures, in order to help out the “independent community” (Fonarow 2006: 34). Such mergers are predominately focused on opening those channels that are controlled by the major corporation. Strachan argues that the feeling of collectivism and community seems almost defining for the identity of DIY and independent music culture actors (Strachan 2007: 252). My observation of the independent’s platform perceives it from its beginning as a community structure, to a later point of its insufficiency to exist as such.

5.2.1. “Common Sense”: On Keeping It In The Group108

The outlook toward collectiveness and communal encouragement was present in Indie-Grad from the start, with a motivation that every member of the platform

107 Anderson stipulates that in order to prompt and strengthen communal belonging and awareness, nation and community-building policies use educational systems, administrative regulations, mass media, and so on (Anderson 2007: 142).

108 Vered Amit accounts that personal networks, as well as social groups are able to call into play certain cultural imaginigs, such as 'categorical identities', 'notions of home', 'belonging' or 'community'. (Amit in Amit and Rapport 2002: 23)

120 would be able to contribute109. Popular music history shows that several larger independent production businesses stressed the importance of label collectives and media community reinforcements, which help them with not only national, but also international promotion (Hesmondhalgh 1999: 47), and as it was already stressed, along with promotion and greater piece of the market pie, opening up distribution channel remains at the forefront of the battle between the independents and the music industry110.

In order not to fight industry alone, independent labels are often tempted to team up with one another. Such collective business venture is for example the cooperative between Playground Music Scandinavia, a Scandinavian independent record company, the already mentioned Mute Records and Beggars Banquet – the largest and most influential group holder of independent music labels in Europe.111 Similar collective undertakings can also enable individual labels to establish close relations with the rosters of its partners and create easier access to promotional tools (Lee 2002: 4). Another example is the British artist-led music hub called the Communion. Their work is a combination of promotion, recording, publishing and production and is intended to develop and help songwriters and musicians flourish in the music industry (Communion 2015).

These examples portray the work of a music label collective on more international level, than the local, even though it could be argued that individuals and groups in local scenes tend to assume features that have been past on by such internationalization. Even so, no matter how many channels a music label or a label- collective uses to reach forth, there is an important relationship between the locale and the music value (Straw 1991: 369). The latter, despite its positive aspects, can also fall in danger of being overly exposed, or even becoming a nuisance. Such perils

109 All managers, executives or publicists of music labels that collaborated with Indie-Grad, got the option to co-manage the Indie-Grad web page, meaning that they had some access to change the contents of their share. Every contributor and record label got a user name and password, which they would nuse to update their news, publish events and announcements of new releases, etc. 110 Geoff Travis of the Rough Trade once remarked that by having one’s own distribution network, meant also having control and power over decisions of what goes out to the market and sent out to other informational streams to the music audiences (Hesmondhalgh 1998: 257) 111 Like Rough Trade, Beggars Banquet started out as a record shop in London and as they expanded their branches, they have outgrown their 35-year old trading legacy into a Beggars Group – a parent recording and distributing company, which currently houses some of the most recognizable UK independent music labels: 4AD, Rough Trade, Matador, XL Recordings and The Young Turks (Beggars Banquet – About 2015).

121 are even more apparent if the locality112 is small and overcrowded with various intertwined audiences. An independent label can inform its audience about a release and another label can alert their audience, which is already intertwined with the previous audience. Indie-Grad as a platform thus holds a segment of even more intertwined audiences.

Another object of importance is the effect of collective’s internationalization on the community and the music scene that exist in the locality, from where the collective emerged. Research participants for example stressed the importance, that Indie-Grad be further internationalized, have a complete English web page version and reach way out of the frames of Slovenian music market. They believe it would have a profound effect on Slovenian musicians and audiences, because they would know the international market is observing them and the local music scene would act upon that. As is, the international music media and press has assumingly continued to keep similar discussions alive, as to achieve that musicians as well as producers from all nationalities should be part of the global community (Fonarow 2006: 12).

5.2.2. “Disconnection Notice”: Localized relations and undertakings

Kevin Dunn developed on Hesmondahlgh’s idea that smaller DIY labels are more responsive toward underground music trends and offer greater artistic autonomy (Hesmondhalgh 1998: 249), by stating that that they also tend to engage in much more close-knit personal relationships with musicians and bands, because label administrators tend to gain more active participants in the independent music scene (Dunn 2012: 223-4)113.

Kapa label for instance prefers to keep working in the locality and create firmer bonds with Slovenian bands. Instead of internationalizing, they are able to keep track with the scene and research the ‘home environment’: the label admninistrators

112 Gupta and Ferguson state that is is worth keeping in mind that the notions of locality or community both refer to a »demarcated physical space« as well as clusters of interaction. (Gupta and Ferguson 1992: 8) 113 Despite that, thorugh his research, Dunn concluded that larger and commercial punk labels might have a more personal connection with their musicians than the smaller ones do, only the larger independent labels have a substantial preference to sign a band that rose to prominence through a small label (Dunn 2012: 223-4).

122 are in touch with the band members all the time, they are in constant contact with the scene, to which they are at the same time contributing, and qualitatively involve.

The creation of Indie-Grad was a pragmatic approach for independents to market their production in the local music market, as well as the consultant MR mentioned, an acceptable means of parading the digital unification of the independent music producers and publishers. Smaller labels are thought as ‘institutionally creative’ meaning that they tend to find various ways to sell their releases – they were among first to jump in the virtual music market. Still, several research participants pointed out, that the platform would not become fully operational, if a research of actual entities that create the independent music scene in Slovenia is not made. Independent production, unknown to Ljubljana’s alternative music scene most probably bubbles under the surface in several places, but it has not yet been discovered, or as one consultant pointed out, it is deliberately kept private.

Breaching the locale with an online platform and aiding to bigger promotion of individual labels was to some research participants questionable, however some independents that physically exist outside Ljubljana, are unable to stay active within Ljubljana’s independent music scene, and thus rely on Indie-Grad and Radio Študent. God Bless This Mess is a music label that is settled in the city of Murska Sobota, almost 200 km from Ljubljana, but its importance to the Slovenian underground music is invaluable. At the Tresk#5 festival, their representative revealed that such festivals are great: he does not have many chances to actually do label promotion in Ljubljana and with such events there are better possibilities for the label to sell some of the releases and merchandise elsewhere than at concert events.

Pushing forward music releases and label catalogues through publishing festivals is a viable option, if the label has established a working network. The GTS organization from Barcelona, for example, was not partial to being part of some bigger independent collective or alternative distribution current. Their network for distribution was built almost entirely within the Barcelona locality and fairly small intake on the Spanish alternative music market and international alternative music scenes. Because GTS works as a type of media and music label, alongside the nature of their work they must perform most of the production, promotion and distribution tasks themselves. The Catalonian and Barcelonan independent music network is

123 however already well connected and because it keeps itself a little more secluded from the rest of similar Spanish music networks, people in the business tend to know each other personally. When a new record is produced, it is only a matter of couple of emails and phone calls until it sits on the shelves of smaller record retailers and is promoted through a few underground media channels.

5.2.3. “It’s Just That Simple”: The Failed Community

Despite strong inclinations toward democracy, collectivism, co-operation with musicians and collaboration among independent entities (Hesmondhalgh 1997: 256) that was exhibited during an interview with consultant MR and later observed at Tresk#5 festival, scepticisms towards the collective were still perceptible from other interlocutors. One of the important statements was that the independent labels in Slovenia already collaborated among themselves, so there is no real solution in institutionalization of such collaborations. Aiding toward international collaboration would however be more tangible. Even so, striving toward better opportunities for the included independents becomes beside the point, if the actual origin of Indie-Grad platform was to save a music label.

The imagery of the collective also shatters when considering the fact that the participating actors of the collective will not be prepared to contribute such an input, as the creators of the platform would have wanted. Bearing in mind that music labels normally work actively in marketing and building media and social audiences (Suhr 2012: 131), the consultant AK explained that since the platform showed almost no promotional effect, so the invited independents did only as much as they were asked to do and put not hopes into any achievement.

Another issue was lack of enthusiasm to run the platform, no coordination, as well as not contribution from the labels, even though the platform was set up for their use specifically. According to consultant ZV, the idea of an independent record label community shrivelled up just after its beginning. The platform initiators and the member record label representatives never had any real meeting or a communal get together. The exception was Tresk festival where they shared a space of booths intent for the labels individual promotion. When asking, how come a large community

124 meeting never took place, ZV responded that it is almost impossible to get most of them together, even less if everybody would be present.

The persistent question remains: “Who and how many people actually know about it?” In ZV’s opinion, not many and what lacks not only in the platform but also in music scene are the interest and a shaped community. One cannot expect to have viewers and interested public audience, if the creators and artists themselves are not sure about it. In return, according to her, Indie-Grad does not acknowledge Radio Študent or the ZARŠ label. The selection of independent labels, which would create the independent labels network, and especially of people, who would work for Indie- Grad, was in her opinion unimaginative and unfavorably random.

5.3. “CASTLE ON THE HILL”: CONDITIONS OF SURVIVAL AND WHY WE NEED SOMETHING LIKE INDIE-GRAD

In practice one should not only understand the channels and means of distribution, but also to know who is the receiver of the records, where they are from and what are their preferences – DeNora calls this social distribution (DeNora 2004: 34). The Internet and all its tools – platforms, portals, blogs, web-page providers, social networks etc. – may create a virtual space. However, the actual real people who occupy it in any shape or form, within their actual geography or the audience circle they would perhaps belong to. The music on the Internet is not only consumed and produced, but it is also heavily distributed with measurable consequences (Jones 2002: 214).

Product promotion can after a while, become quite demoralizing if independents wish to avoid the manipulation of the audience and over-saturation on the music scene (DeNora 2004: 485). There are only so many ways to advertise a music release or a band until the label turns tiresome and annoying to itself. The Kapa music label for instance utilizes many channels through which they can promote their music and let people know something new is coming up. Indie-Grad was to be one of channels, but they see it as far less important than others. Of course the label welcomes any collaboration with the platform, for instance meticulous updates on

125 Indie-Grad’s web page and by selling Indie-Grad merchandise at the music stand of one of their bands concerts.

After a considerable though on the subject of the benefits and drawbacks that drive individuals and social groups to form under collective imaginary114, especially in the body that is Indie-Grad, these last pages will look on the questions/conditions of existence and insistence of independent labels, as well as query into why independents might need such platforms.

5.3.1. “Quality Janitor”: Why The Need?

The objective of Indie-Grad is to be an open source platform: a space in which anyone that is a part of it can use it for his or her own purposes. It had many possibilities: to be an Internet fanzine, so it could stop relying on the contents of Radio Študent; physical record and digital distributor; band merchandise shop; a forum with a booking desk; the most up-to-pace newsletter of Slovenian independent production to the media; and the most important, to give the labels more than they can do themselves.

To prevent the platforms over-profiling, it is considered that the only specialty of such online space should be to keep creating a space for low-level information exchange of those researching and digging for less-known music sounds. The consultant ZV believed that the work of Indie-Grad should not be to change currents and break new grounds. It should be a static base, a platform where information exchange can happen, but it should not act as a unified distributor or organizer of independent music. To unify independent music and publishing would be to break its spine and disable them to work as independents, keeping themselves alive by vibrating around the music space. The chaotic nature of anything independent is actually very good for music production.

All along its existence, the platform has communicated ‘belonging’ as the key expression, according to which smaller labels, and even more self-publishers, would see the potential in collective joining. Strachan for instance argues that personal

114 Amit argues, translating Appadurai and Anderson, that it is possible for people who do not know each other, to share a distinctive collective identity. (Amit 2002: 24)

126 investment is not only up to bands, but also the independent producers, even if they scold the inevitable commercialization of their products. (Strachan 2007: 254) The consultant MR as a spokes-person for the platform further declared that joining Indie- Grad is to be part of an establishment, even though the number of active and progressive labels among those included is about three or four. Therefore, what is on the plus side?

5.3.2. “Teaching Technology”: Distribution Benefits

Online platforms that push further independent production have, to some extent, very good chances to break the distribution gates open for smaller publishers. Even though mechanical and mass-distribution remain in the domain of the mainstream music industry (DeNora 2004: 19), many digital music distribution providers that generally target independent labels, may have ulterior motifs. Not only do companies seek new digital options to boost their distribution, even music artists are becoming more and more aware that with the help of the Internet, DIY approaches may not be so out of place. By searching the Web one may even find articles, such as “The Indie Musician’s Guide to Digital Distribution” (HypeBot.com 2015).

Another example is IODA – Independent Online Distribution Alliance,115 which acted as an independent distributer of online music (IODA 2014), part of which was also Moonlee. IODA’s influence and business developed to that extent that they even stopped taking on new labels and started making distribution deals with online music sellers such as iTunes, Napster, Amazon and such. A few years ago they merged with The Orchard, the largest independent music and video distribution and marketing company, after which the newly established collaboration put all its digital music on the worldwide market: iTunes, Last FM, Deezer, Shazam – all very

115 In 2009, Sony Music Entertainment started a strategic partnership with IODA, after which IODA merged with The Orchard in 2012. The collaboration is now the following: IODA and The Orchard agreed to combine their global digital distribution businesses in a merged company, under the name The Orchard, and Sony, serves as a strategic investor in the combined entity. Sony, which already owns 51% of IODA, thus 50% of the new venture, has an option to buy the rest of the merged company at a later date. The independent part of these dealings is now half and the other half belongs to the mainstream company (The Orchard – About Us / History 2014).

127 established, worldwide known on-line music-streaming providers (The Orchard – About Us / History 2014)

Another constrain, lifted of the independent’s shoulder, is the possibility of taking away the responsibility of physical (as well as digital) distribution duties on the local level. The consultant AK for example expressed that this would be one of the most welcoming things that could happen to the Slovenian music labels in a long time. By doing that, Slovenian independent music would have an open door to other countries and bands could have opportunities to perform in completely new music scenes, which they would otherwise perhaps overlook.

Even physical distribution to now declining number of music shops would prove beneficial. Beggars Banquet and similar large independent collectives, among other things, secure new releases with bringing them to local and regional shops where independent music is sold, they sign contracts with them, expand the offers etc. Since mail order distribution and phonogram purchasing are long gone, online collaboration between music labels have become increasingly active.

5.3.2. “Waiting Room”: What Bands Can’t Do That Labels Are Able To Do

The ‘competitive’ side of online promotion and distribution users might not be only the majors, but also self-publishing bands that cannot afford the costs of studios and production/distribution expenses. Social networking sites and platforms, on the other hand, offer musicians and bands to share their work with potential audiences and with that give them certain capacities to build their own career. Suhr explains the shift to the virtual world, where the present crucial factors, such as production, promotion, distribution, consumption and even live performances can directly happen and are manufactured by the medium, e.g., the artist. As such, social networks and online platforms can provide everything for an up-and-coming band, even secure a level of freedom from the corporate music industry (Suhr 2012: 123). Therefore, where lie the benefits, if the work can be done practically at home?

Such generalizations are not as easy as they seem. The consultant MR, is along the line also a professional musician, knows that the work labels do professionally, can be hardly done by a band itself. A band could not complete the

128 production and distribution path as successfully as a label could. They would have to know certain people, they would need to have certain know-how on how distribution even works and they would need experience, especially a wider image of the music market. He very rarely met bands that knew how to do all of that, on the side of making music, recording and performing.

Whatever a band goes though, smaller independent music labels go thought themselves, so all the value of producing a record, successful album sales or touring is a fruit of collaboration and a mutual effort, which creates a firm bond between the band and its label. Generally, labels do not take risks with bands if they do not feel that they will receive good and long feedback, but with smaller labels, trust in the bands might just prevent it to break up and give support to continue its musical path.

The independent’s collectives can offer at least a slight overview of how-it-is- done by the labels if choosing the fate of a self-released artist is the musician’s choice, or contribute to connection with other artists or collaboration with labels. Some even take this notion for granted.

129 CONCLUSION

A considerable amount of time has passed since I started doing research on my thesis and ever since I put my focus on Indie-Grad, the platform was established as well as lamented by its own initiator. Already when I firstly spoke to the key consultants, I had noticed disinterest in some of them, as well as certain pessimism about the platform’s future. The intention of the platform was to invite Slovenian independents to collaborate and share a communal space in which they would be able to optimize their conditions. Instead, such imaginary was not successful, due to impartiality to the benefits of the platform and even questions about the need of integration, from the members themselves. The initiatives that the platform administrators and Radio Študent as its founding parent though as advantageous, has not met positive considerations neither from the journalists employed by the radio, nor the rest of the media. The advertised assignments have evidently missed to achieve comprehension on its home grounds.

The lamenting account above can be interpreted as pointing out to institutional failures of administration or the engagement deficit form members of ‘community’, a term I use as a possibility to explain the initial commitment, which tried to institutionalize and necessitate the circle of independent music labels and producers, which already had some established relationships. There are no culprits, but mere objectified consequences.

Throughout, this thesis tried to portray an overview of a music platform, as well as look into the issues that propel independents to gather in ‘communities’, ‘collectives’ or ‘business entities’. I used early examples of unified distribution networks and independent cooperatives that have, to a large extent, contributed to creating similar enterprises today. Their politics and ideology has somewhat inspired the work of future independents, even those that are led by my research participants. Even though their principal work ethics told them otherwise, their resourcefulness has aided them to tailor market demands according to their needs and abilities116. Such an

116 For one, they learned to ‘pool’ resources, meaning they worked toward avoid business risks and maximizing advantages (Pooling 2015), as well as share certain national, municipal or even European resources and projects.

130 example is a Worldwide Independent Music Industry Network (WIN), which was founded in 2006. It represents more than 750 musicians who aim to secure their rights with the issues on business, creativeness and market access. In the pact titled ‘Fair Digital Deals Declaration’, which the WIN members signed in July 2014, they launched a global initiative against digital exploitation of independent artists work and to seek for fair treatment of artists that sign deals with streaming services (Independent music labels sign fair deal streaming pact 2014; Worldwide Independent Network 2015).

Alongside my observations of such happenings among Slovenian culture and music independents, the autoethnography in Barcelona proved helpful for me to understand the necessity and undertakings independents use to improve their financial situation. As I got involved with different non-government and independent organizations in Slovenia, after my return to Ljubljana, I have been reminiscing about the schemes and projects that GTS were undertaking to enhance a much-needed empowerment of their finances and products. Even so, such resourcefulness is sensitive. Korda Andrič argues that the alternative means of production are becoming submersed into socially dominant courses of production (Korda Andrič 2013: 118-9).

Duffy’s suggestions and solutions for contemporary independents to support each other and become more dynamic (Duffy 2002: 4), have in the case of Indie-Grad already been realized to some extent, although an important issue remains: the proposal for solution-seeking and emancipation of independent music labels has been made from the part of an independent that faces the same financial and institutional problems as the rest of the Slovenian independents. Possibly the lack of engagement, enthusiasm and participation to the online independent collective, has been represented as a fault on the part of music labels and artists. Nevertheless, the main liability for such state actually lies in the general dormant and dispassionate interest from the part of the makers of the music scene. On one side, such actors protest against insufficient financing of such projects and programs (Bibič 2003: 19), only on the other hand they seldom fully realized that the financed project in the manner that it is able to continue its existence beyond its start-up help.

In addition, the important assignment in overviewing such circumstances is to question how music independents look upon being dependent on institutional finance

131 security, while continuing their namesake ethics. Even more, does their authenticity of independence stay true in order to continue its cultural interpretation (Moore 2002: 201)? The process that Gržinić (1996) describes as renaming the alternative into the independent culture has a bottom definition that explains how even though the Slovenian independents were at that time able to make their autonomous actions and authentic processes tangible, it does not mean that all independents have done so (Korda Andrič 2013: 118). Expressions of authenticity are often conveyed through impressions that the independents expressions have integrity, which are communicated to the audience in an unmediated form (Moore 2002: 214), whereas it is not sure whether such impressions are embedded into the music scene where a particular independent is active, or it is continually and subtly conveyed.

Ventures into production, promotion and distribution on the Internet, entails undertaking a completely new institutional and business model of work, however such representations might then seem as a practical and obvious attempt to disseminate the independent production among broader audiences and to the contrary of less flexible major corporations. The online music consumers perceive their choices as personal taste, though in reality they are a part of broader social and economic structures (Hibbett 2005: 76). Even more so, Slovenian independents, those who, as according to Duffy, continue to stay dynamic and creative (Duffy 2002: 4), tackle with issues such as introducing new digital technologies and options, like music streaming and online music consumption among Slovenian music listeners. They are actually observing an evident lack of engagement to do so from all chief actors in the Slovenian music market.

Facing such resolutions are the hard principles of DIY ethics from independents, which in their terms choose not to subordinate their production and distribution to new trends, as innocent as they may be. Since independence still in part remains a question of the artists view (Shuker 2010: 159), putting their art in the hands of local and independent producers has “demystified” the production process and a statement that they do not belong to mainstream (Azerrad 2001: 497). Retaining in such expulsion of mind offers such independents and their following artists a stronger attachment to their original ethics and production procedures.

132 Because I was enabled an insight into the operation and actuality of independent music labels form Ljubljana and Barcelona, I initially looked for differences between their work and contrasts between music scenes, based on Tresk and Cau d’Orella music festivals for independents in respective cities. However, in due time I have observed more similarities in their operational motivations, even though I did observe certain differences in ethical approaches toward the work between various independent producers.

If, as Shuker states, independency exists as the view of the artists, then, surely, artists, as well as their producers, must agree upon the course of action a music label is to take when seeking out new possibilities to promote and distribute music releases. If, by chance, both parties agree to sustain the unpaved path of self-sufficiency and have a resilient attitude toward the market and the industry, their choices remain unaffected and conscious. Such actions, for instance, are to some extent taken by the GTS association and many smaller independents and self-publishers from Slovenia.

The early US independents that were started by alternative music bands such as Dinosaur Jr. and Beat Happening, owe their new careers to initiative and resourcefulness, even though not all of them in the end survived until the 2000s (Azerrad 2001: 501). Another aspect that may seem as a mere romantic notion, yet it is something I have strongly sensed during my interviews, would be to keep a critical mind to the current state of things and the field in which one operates, also to be as stubborn as possible in order to create reality from a single idea.

Since 2013, when I was first introduced to Indie-Grad, the platform has faced many upgrades and changes, though the collective of independent music labels it represented stayed more or less the same. In mid-October 2014, I had my final interview with the ZARŠ administrator and Radio Študent spokesperson for Indie- Grad, AZ. We sat outside on one of the balconies that are part the radios residence in the dorm building of the oldest student campus in Ljubljana. The interview was actually a more relaxed conversation with the mentioned person, the radio’s music library custodian and another music editorial journalist were present and we all enjoyed the last warm days of early autumn. Our discussion was mainly oriented on the condition that the Slovenian independent culture was facing at the present time and what can they expect in the future.

133 In a more or less joking manner of speaking, the lack of motivation, interest and ambition into making changes swayed around in their words, though they are the ones that represent the new forces of the independent music movement and are keeping it alive as such. Sometime during the casual exchanges of opinion and the usual complaints over the situation, I asked the consultant AZ what is going on with Indie-Grad. His response was quick and blunt: “Well, Indie-Grad is dead.”

According to him, Radio Študent has finally lost hope and the rest of the administrators and others from the radio that helped try to keep it alive have either turned to manage other projects or left the team. By the end of 2014, the web page administrator had put up some more news and updated certain music releases, but since then the web page has remained dormant. Despite all the efforts, Radio Študent seemed to lose hope and willingness to continue running this project, although the Tresk festival still remains strong on their agenda, because it is one of the profitable projects they are able to market.

When new momentum arises, Indie-Grad will be picked up from the ashes and split into various distribution and promotional bodies, which will then be attached to an already existing and more established online portals and platforms that already carry out some promotional activities for the Slovenian independent culture. Ironically so, due to the lack of financial support the Cau d’Orella festival also ceased to exist within the beginning of 2015, even though they were able to successfully repeat the event five consecutive times.

I have been somewhat reluctant to feel the sense of defeating that has strained the transcripts of interviews done with research participants, the words of individuals I have talked to on occasions, the executives of independent entities that I have worked for and the media messages and commentaries. Even though the pages of supporting theories do not exuberate optimism, it was the reality that showed me the real face of the situation and I have yet to gain confidence to pick my spirits up.

Nevertheless, the independent detour to artistic expression and ethics still deems to be “ultimately more rewarding” (Azerrad 2001: 501) to not only selling out, but also giving up. And if there are still those who enjoy making music and playing it publicly for the sheer pleasure of doing so, independents will, as they always did, find ways to invent new possibilities to make their music heard.

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152 SUMMARY / POVZETEK

Magistrska naloga, z naslovom ”Never Mind The Mainstream”: Vtisi o samozadostnosti na razpotjih neodvisne glasbene produkcije – primeri iz Ljubljane in Barcelone, opisuje trenutek na neki glasbeni sceni, v neki skupnosti in na nekem mediju, ko ključni posamezniki zaznajo manko dejavnosti neodvisne glasbene produkcije in poskušajo njeno stanje osmisliti ter izboljšati. Raziskava, ki jo pričujoča naloga zajema, je plod dlje časa trajajočega opazovanja z udeležbo na barcelonski in ljubljanski neodvisni glasbeni sceni, pogovorov s posamezniki na obeh scenah ter zapisov izpovedi udeležencev v raziskavi, ki prav tako predstavljajo ključne akterje na ljubljanski sceni.

Ideja o spremembah in izboljšavah, predstavlja posledico zaradi vse manjše prepoznavnosti neodvisne glasbene produkcije in založništva v Sloveniji, kot tudi vse večjih izzivov, ki vsakodnevno tarejo neodvisne glasbene producente in založnike na sploh. Raziskava, ki je v veliki meri plod dela na slovenskih tleh, se je kronološko in prostorsko pričela leta 2012 v Barceloni. Tam sem v času 4-mesečne prakse opravljala delo asistentke produkcije v društvu Gràcia Territori Sonor (GTS), ki je pomembno vpeto v barcelonsko nevladno in neodvisno kulturno-umetniško, predvsem pa glasbeno sceno. Moja, sicer le nekajmesečna vključenost v njihove aktivnosti, me je pripeljala k avtogeni etnografiji tamkajšnjega dogajanja, še posebej v sklopu tridnevnega festivala Cau d’Orella, ki je pospešil moje zanimanje za ’skupnosti’ v glasbenih scenah in kasneje osmislil delovanje podobnega festivala na slovenskih tleh.

Slabo leto kasneje, ko je fokus magistrske naloge pričel dobivati svoje okostje, se je moje zaznavanje ’domače’ neodvisne glasbene scene ustavilo na novem pojavu: Indie-Grad. Radio Študent, moj takratni delodajalec in eden od pomembnejših snovalcev neodvisne ter alternativne scene v Sloveniji, je s skupino poznavalcev in predstavnikov neodvisne produkcije, pričeval odkrivati tančice dilem, stisk in problemov, ki so zadevali njegovo lastno založbo ZARŠ. Temu je botrovalo dejstvo, da se je pomanjkanje vidnosti neodvisne produkcije in založništva kazalo že veliko prej, zaradi česar je omenjeni radio ustanovil nekajdnevni festival Tresk, kot stičišče

153 založništva in glasbe na enem mestu. Ker pa festival, ki se zgodi le enkrat na leto, ni dovolj prodoren promotor aktivnosti, ki se dogajajo skozi vse leto, je Radio Študent sklical sestanek, na katerem so oblikovali predloge za preoblikovanje in izboljšanje delovnih pogojev ter rezultatov, ne le hišne založbe ZARŠ, temveč za neodvisne producente nasploh.

Indie-Grad je bil oblikovan kot manjkajoči člen, platforma in središče na spletu, ki bi rehabilitiral neodvisne založnike, jih nudil podporo in pomoč pri nujni promociji ter distribuciji glasbenih izdaj.

Preučevanje ozadja nastajanja pojava Indie-Grad je seveda zajemalo opazovanje scene: delo Radia Študent, kot enega od pomembnih snovalcev ter nosilca ’platforme’, iz njegovih prostorov kot tudi zunaj; obisk prireditev v produkciji Radia Študent, ki so oglaševale delo Indie-Grada; sodelovanje na festivalu Tresk, kjer je bil Indie-Grad prvič uradno predstavljen in imel tudi lasten prostor na fonogramskem sejmišču; ipd. Prav tako sem v času snovanja etnografskega dela in začetnih korakov k raziskavi opredelila težo pridobivanja neposrednih podatkov tistih posameznikov, ki so bili vseskozi prisotni pri oblikovanju in začetkih platforme. Slednji so prerasli v udeležence v raziskavi, ključne sogovornike ter tiste člane neodvisne glasbene skupnosti, s katerimi lahko še danes po koncu opazovanja in raziskovanja, brez zadržkov pokramljam.

Poglavja te magistrske naloge pretehtavajo različne vidike predmeta raziskave, kot tudi vdihujejo življenje nekaterim pomenom, ki jih lahko dojamemo le med vrsticami. Ker so udeleženci raziskave v intervjujih uporabljali veliko med seboj povezanih ali pa nasprotujočih si terminov, sem se v prvi vrsti odločila za podroben vpogled v tiste pojme, ki Indie-Grad opisujejo navzven: platforma, portal, kolektiv in skupnosti. V drugi vrsti iskanja prave terminologije sem poskušala najti tiste zorne kote, ki nam skupine posameznikov v določenem prostoru in času predstavljajo kot koncepte v kulturi in scenah. Pri tem sta me najbolj zanimala problematika in pomen zamišljenih skupnosti ter lokalnosti, v katerih skupnosti v (glasbenih) scenah obstajajo.

Drugi pomemben aspekt je bila obširna predstavitev pojmov alternativnosti in neodvisnosti, saj sta na nek način neizmenljiva, po drugi strani pa v slovenski nevladni kulturni sceni pravzaprav kontradiktorna. Pojem neodvisnosti predstavlja

154 fokus, saj so njegova semena v glasbeni zgodovini obrodila nešteto novih trendov in načinov delovanja, ne le produkcije in založb, temveč glasbe same, pri čemer žarišče mojega zanimanja zadevajo neodvisni podvigi različnih založb, posameznikov, medijev in distribucijskih kanalov, ki so še posebej živahno ustvarjali v 80-ih in 90-ih prejšnjega stoletja.

Politike avtonomije in ”naredi-sam” delovne etike slednjih, še danes podžigajo marsikaterega glasbenega zanesenjaka v Sloveniji, zato ni nenavadno, da je kar nekaj udeležencev v raziskavi, ki primarno delujejo v neodvisnem založništvu, svoja stališča do glasbenega trga in industrije, izrazilo kot taka. Prav zato, sem pod krajši drobnogled vzela neodvisne glasbene dejavnosti v Sloveniji z začetka 80-ih let 20. stoletja pa vse do danes, ki so krojile neodvisno produkcijo na naših tleh in nekatere izmed njih še vedno uspešno delujejo. Vključitev uvida v delovanje nekaterih pomembnejših neodvisnih založb na ljubljanski glasbeni sceni (Kapa Records, Moonlee Records in ZARŠ), je bilo tako neizogibno in na nek način tudi daje smisel ali pa kaže na razliko od Slovenske neodvisne produkcije nekoč. Osredotočanje na ljubljansko glasbeno sceno se je zgodilo spontano, hkrati pa je precej samoumevno: v njenem okolju omenjene tri založbe delujejo, prav tako pa je tu domet dejavnosti Radia Študent, kot enega od glavnih snovalcev aktivnosti na širši glasbeni sceni, najbolj zgoščen. Problematika centralizacije in težave, ki jih to dejstvo predstavlja za neodvisneže v drugih regijah, dosežeta razumevanje in določene rešitve (v obliki platforme Indie-Grad), vendar je to nadlogo težko dokončno izkoreniniti.

Zadnji del naloge, kot tudi raziskave, me je kot bodočo antropologinjo in opazovalko glasbene scene, ki mi je tako domača, postavil v pogum jemajočo vlogo iskanja bistva. Za prikaz trenutnega stanja, je bila pomembna opredelitev diferenciacije slovenske neodvisne glasbene scene od drugih scen, kot tudi odstop od večnega boja med neodvisneži in komercializacijo ter sredinskim tokom glasbene industrije. Gre namreč za razlike v dojemanju prostora, občinstva, nujnosti promocije izdelkov ter ne nazadnje tudi možnosti financiranja delovanja, ki v veliki meri vprašujejo v avtentičnost neodvisne izkušnje.

Vplivne odločitve prehoda iz dejanske navzočnosti na glasbenem trgu v virtualnega, je za mnoge glasbene založbe, kot tudi samozaložnike, pomenil pomemben preboj in opaznost v širšem geografskem območju. Prav tako mnogi tuji

155 neodvisniki prepoznavajo vse večjo težo po združevanju v digitalne kolektive ter portale, ki vplivajo na nujne aspekte kot sta distribucija in promocija glasbe, vendar so veliko prevečkrat v svojih težnjah marginalizirani. Ne nazadnje je bila v tem poglavju nujna tudi kritika delovanja neodvisnih založb, ki se ne zavedajo lastnih pomanjkljivosti; teženj po skupnosti in sodelovanju med entitetami, ki na to (še) niso pripravljene; ter (ponovno) osvežiti spomin na spornost pretirane lokalizacije.

Magistrska naloga, ki s svojim naslovom pošilja neodvisni klic, naj se ne oziramo na prevladujoče trende in raje pogledamo v domače narejeno in morda nekoliko okorno skrinjo, ki je vseeno polna zakladov, zajema trenutek na sceni, ko sta bila pogled in vrednotenje potrebna. In četudi Indie-Grad predstavlja tisti stični moment, ki je uresničil tako to nalogo, kot tudi nujnost sprememb na neodvisni sceni, moja raziskava nosi dve perspektivi: primerjava in poskus opisa stanja neodvisne glasbene produkcije in založništva, ki se venomer sooča z riziki lastnega obstoja, ne glede na lokacijo; po drugi strani pa je tudi pokazatelj, da težavam, vzponom, padcem in iskanju rešitev navkljub, neodvisneži lahko in morajo nemoteno delovati naprej.

156 APPENDIX I: IMAGE REFERENCES

Picture 1: The first Indie-Grad promotion flyer, distributed at Tresk#4 festival in 2013, various alternative music venues across Slovenia and at Radio Študent premises. (copy: Špela Kastelic personal archive, 2013)

Picture 2: ZARŠ music label logo, white version. (Radio Študent/ZARŠ label archive, 2015)

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Picture 3: Moonlee Records logo. (Moonlee Records archive, 2015)

Picture 4: KAPA Records logo, black version. (KAPA Records archive, 2015)

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Picture 5: Cau d’Orella Jornades de Música Electrònica festival 2012 logo, used exclusively in online media and social media advertising. (Cau d’Orella archive, 2012)

Picture 6: Fira/music fair at Jornades Cau d’Orella 2012 festival. (photo: Cau d’Orella Facebook album)

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Picture 7: Tresk#5 music festival 2014 advertisement, advertised in print media, online media and Radio Študent social media. (Radio Študent archive, 2014)

Picture 8: Tresk#5 at Kino Šiška music fare – Radio Študent/ZARŠ music releases stand, with visible Indie-Grad banner overhead (behind the stall are sitting, left to right: Radio Študent journalist newcomer, the thesis author and Michael C. Jumic) (photo: Radio Študent Facebook album)

160 APPENDIX II: COMPILATION OF SONG TITLES

This Appendix serves as a reference and clarification to the use of certain song titles in chapter and section titles of this thesis. My choice as to characterize the titles with names of songs is partly due to personal preference of wanting to lively up the dull title descriptions. On the other hand, such direct reference on music bands cannot be more than appropriate: when choosing a particular song title, I considered the context of chapters/sections in which it would be used; to expose the general content of selected section in advance; as well as wanting to include the artists and music of which I wrote, to some extent.

The following table thus lists all the song titles with names of artists, the albums in which individual songs were released, the labels that produced the album and the year in which the album was released – all in the order in which they appear in the thesis, from the first to the last chapter. The referenced music covers a period from the late 1970s to this day and includes worldwide as well as home music productions (i. e. Slovenian music production).

Song title Artist Album Label Year

“If I Could Tell You” The Pastels Up For A Bit With The Pastels Glass Records 1987

“Bringing Up Baby” Talulah Hosh Bringing Up Baby 53rd & 3rd 1987

“Oh Shit!” Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady Liberty, Liberty 1979

“Some Dispute Over T- Butthole Surfers Independent Worm Saloon Capitol Records 1993 Shirt Sales”

“Hold On” 14 Iced Bears Hold On Borderline records 1991

Young God “Killing For Company” Swans The Great Annihilator 1994 Records

“Undertaker” Spock Studios A Degree Below Your Means ZARŠ 2012

“Indie Cindy” The Pixies Indie Cindy Pixies Music 2014

Ron Johnson “Man Of Few Syllables” Big Flame Rigour 1985 Records

“The Dream’s Dream” Television Adventure Elektra 1978

161 Godspeed You! Lift Your Skinny Fists Like “Terrible Canyon Of Static” Constellation 2000 Black Emperor Antennas To Heaven

“Chartered Trips” Hüsker Dü Zen Arcade SST Records 1984

“Extraterrestrial Skies” Oknai Ain’t A Dream rx:tx 2011

God Bless This “Made In My Hand” kleemar Banana Split 2013 Mess

Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out Twin/Tone “I Hate Music” The Replacements 1981 The Trash Records

Rough “Havoc All Ended” Swell Maps Whatever Happens Next… Trade/Rather 1981 Records

“Charity, People!” Nikki Louder Alain, I’m Sorry ZARŠ 2009

“Beat My Head Against Black Flag My War SST Records 1984 The Wall”

“Fifty-Fifty Clown” Cocteau Twins Heaven or Las Vegas 4AD 1990

“Digital Desire” BeatMyth Questionable Image KAPA Records 2012

“Tribe” Dubzilla Dubzilla ZARŠ 2011

“Calling For Reason” Trus! First Step Moonlee Records 2013

“Hey Scenesters!” The Cribs The New Fellas Wichita 2005

“When In Rome” Mudhoney Piece Of Cake Reprise Records 1992

“They Should Make A Paperhouse The Servants Disinterest 1990 Statue” Records

“It’s What You Want That The Wedding George Best Reception 1987 Matters” Present

“The Back Door” The Bodines Played Magnet 1987

“Another Girl, Another The Mighty Overground All The Way 1993 Planet” Lemon Drops Records

“Look Back And Laugh” Minor Threat Out Of Step Dischord Records 1983

“Paint A Vulgar Picture” The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come Rough Trade 1987

“Manic Incarnation” Mission of Burma Forget Taang! Records 1987

Get Off “Starcrossed Logistics” Analena It’s Never Too Late To Split Up Records/Mesmeriz 2001 ed Records

Siouxie and the The Tinderbox Interview With “This Unrest” Geffen Records 1986 Banshees Siouxie

“Hipster Than Hip” New Wave Syria Summer Self-released 2013

Freaks. Ten Stories About Power, Claustrophobia, “They Suffocate At Night” Pulp Suffocation And Holding Hands Fire Records 1987

“See That Animal” Elastica Connection Deceptive 1994

162 “May The Sun Shine Bright Primal Scream Sonic Flower Groove Elevation 1987 For You”

God Bless This “Jesus Is My Tinetenkiller” Hexenbrutal Giant 2013 Mess

“Rave On” Happy Mondays Hallelujah Factory 1990

“Religion Didn’t Do A EWOK No Time KAPA Records 2013 Thing”

Homestead “Quest” Dinosaur Jr. Dinosaur 1985 Records

We Can’t Sleep At Dej Še Kazga Zbudte Pa Ga “Normal People Scare Me” KAPA Records 2009 Night Sabo Vzemte

Moonlee Records/Napravi Bernay’s “A Bone To The Dog” Zabraneta planeta Zaedno/MKC & 2013 Propaganda Pruegelprinz Records

Homestead “Fists Of Love” Big Black Atomizer 1986 Records

Noise Appeal “Guilt Dispenser” It’s Everyone Else New Religion 2014 Records

“Messages Received” Cabaret Voltaire The Voice Of America Rough Trade 1980

Imagination & Mechanical “Common Sense” Karmakoma Self-released 2014 Metamorphoses

“Disconnection Notice” Sonic Youth Murray Street Geffen Records 2002

“It’s Just That Simple” Wilco A.M. Reprise Records 1995

“Castle On The Hill” Ride Tarantula Creation Records 1996

Half Man Half “Quality Janitor” This Leaden Pill Probe Plus 1993 Biscuit

Hibernate, 1000 miles from the “Teaching Technology” Yanoosh rx:tx 2009 Earth

“Waiting Room” Fugazi 13 Songs Dischord Records 1989

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Izjava o avtorstvu:

Izjavljam, da je magistrsko delo v celoti moje avtorsko delo ter da so uporabljeni viri in literature navedeni v skladu z mednarodnimi standardi in veljavno zakonodajo.

Ljubljana, 10. septembra 2015 Špela Kastelic (lastnoročni podpis)

164 Izjava kandidata / kandidatke

Spodaj podpisani/a ______Špela Kastelic______izjavljam, da je besedilo magistrskega dela v tiskani in elektronski obliki istovetno, in dovoljujem njegovo objavo na fakultetnih spletnih straneh.

Datum: 10. 09. 2015 Podpis kandidata / kandidatke:

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