Transferenceand Invention: Punk in a Slovene Village of Trate Raiko Mur5id - pop,jazz, taitornt,Vole. Openedwithin the previousvoluure with severalarticles on very ac- and rock - the fiejd of subculturesis approachedherein, again. The authoris a tive researcherand professorin Ljubljana(Slovenia), editor to several(including serial) volutnes,and orgarriser of diversenational and internationalacadernic gatherings' The first analysesof contemporarycultural phenomena.including popu- lar music,weie trying to discussthe modernsociety in generalvia social and cultural criticisrnof particularphenomena of popular or massculture and its alternativecounterpafts (e.g., Adorno 1986; Adorno and Hork- heimer 1980; Horkheirner1989; Marcuse 1989; Rosenbergand white 1965; Roszak 1978). Later, in the seventies,British sociologistswere concernedwith commodificationof popularmusic and its use,influences of massmedia and recordingindustry, and sociologicalanalyses of youth subcultures(Hebdige 1980: Brake 1984;Frith 1986, 1987).Birming- ham's Centre fbr ContemporaryCultural Studiespaved a way to diverse studies of contemporaryculture with use of more qualitative research methodologies(cf. Hali and .lefferson1975; I-lall, Hobson,Lowe, and Willis.lgS0). With ethnographicstudies (e.g., Willis 1978; Finnegan 1989;Cohen l99l;FornZii litrdb..g and Sernhede1995), the notionof overwhelmingilfluence of popular music industryto the everydaylife of ordir-raryconsumers began to change(cf. Longhurst 1995).Ethnographic studiesof particular music subculturesrevealed the fact that the modern cultural productionprocess is not a one-wayprocess. One of remained unansweredquestions is if there ale any differencesbetween modern cul- tural practi""i in urban centresand rural areas.ln the presentpaper I will 113 try to presenta case str,rdyof particularsuburbanisation process of the countrysidein Slover-riawhich was,at leastin the periodafier World War II. characterisedby adoptionof variouspopr-rlar music genresitt a pat'- 'fhe ticular village. processesof taking over of particularpopurlar music stl,lesare far frorn being trivial: they nay l'epresent1ar deepersocial of particularmlsical tasteis' pro..rr., and changesduring time. Shaping -['he as shapiugof any other taste(cf-. Bourdieu 1984).a socialprocess' limits of particuiartaste are, at leastroughly speaking.congrlrent with limits of particularsocial strata.althougl-r the boundariesbetn'een thepr areblurred. A Local Punk Scene On the contraryto the f-rrststudies of tnodernsubcultures and popular music.it becamemore and more obviousthat manyinteresting plocesses in popularrnusic are occurril.lgoll regionallevel (cf. carney 1995).and thc on^muchmore hidden local and even micro-locallevels. Alter all. at the sametitne an individual'schoice of asso- choiceof music is often "anol1y- ciating with others(mates, peer groLlps.etc.). The creativityof local ,-,rouri rock,jazz, or other popular music groupsperformitlg i' places *u, .irr.cl becausethcy didl't enter global mass production' "livir]g" However.tl-re essential contactwith musicis still very inlportattt - andit is only possiblewithin the everydaycontacts ou the local level' Sometimes.rock activitiesmay be evenrlole developedin the rural be- areathan in towns. Suchwas an exceptionalcase in Sloveniain tl-re ginr-ri1gof the eighties.I will describeparticular local or.micro-localsub- I'lturJin the ruial part of Slovenia,centred arou'd activitiesof sevcral pr-rnhrock groupsin the early 1980sand the still activeand r'vellhuowt.t begarr |,rd.rground ,.otk gt'o.tpC)ZD (Centre for Dehumanisation)rvl'rich and to plu! in the village of Tratein 1984and nowadaystnake rehearsals 1995a)' '..oriing, i' a village o1'CerSak(on the groupCZD seeMur5id work Dr-rri'g the past seveial yearsI have been co'ducting etlmographic to in thelillage of Trate in the North-Eastpart of Slovenia.I was trying trans- fbllow the emergenceof a local punk scenein the eightiesand its arouud fbrmation ancldisappearing in the nineties.The scenewas centred be- a very important "iitug. youth club which operatedas a rock club Slo- trveenI9i9 andl994.ln a srnallvillage of Trate,there was the only with vene rock club. regularlyopen throughoutthe 1980s.In a village 114 350 inhabitants,two punk bandsstarted to play in 1980/1981and tlie third onewas establisl-redin 1982.In 1984.those grolrps split and another two emerged.One of them.C'ZD - Centrefor Dehumanisation,became a uniquephenomenon in tl-reSlovene rock sceneand is still very active.All of them haclrehearsals in the village rock club. called The Trule Youlh ('lub. I wrote aboutthe club and the local subcultureelsewl-rere (Mr,rrSic 1995b:1997). In Slovenia.and in the lbrmer Yugoslavia,rock music was intro- ducedat the beginningof the 1960sand was. as elsewhere. essentially an urban popular music form. Wher-rthe developmentof the rock scene touched villages. we would expect to find a reproductionits old- fashionedforms. However,at the end of the 1970s,the youth in the vil- lagestrom Slovenskegorice didn't lister-rto old-fashionedpopular music st-vles.Tl-rey took music of their time - punk rock - as their "own" form o1' expression.Tliey successfullytook over the contemporarl,style. ar:tochthonisedit (on that conceptsee Mur5id 1998).and developedtheir' orrn urd\geno\\sne\\ domes\ica\edsty\e. N\enbo;s (.rit\r one exeep[o\1. thele w-ereno girls actively participating in music rnaking) fiom Trate anclnearby villages startedto play. they wele 14 to 16 years old. Ftor"r-r the very beginningot'their musical activities. they wrote their or.vnsongs. 'l'hey neversang ir.r Englisli. but in a local dialect.It was the only way 10 expresstheir own experience.And that is what is all about in popr-rlar nrusic. Although there wele appal'entinlluences of by then leadingpunk groups fi'orn England, from Liubliana and other placesfrom the fbrmer Yugoslavia.the punksfi'om Slovenskegorice were developingtheir own way of appropriationof the currentpopular music style. lt was. essen- tially, the way of their own growth.It concernednot only music,br,rt the entirelife-style of the youth who lived in the village and went to school in the nearbytown of Maribor. How'ever.neither a weak rock scenein Maribor. nor the weakerrock sceneacross the borderin Austria pla,ved ar-rysignificant role in the developmentof the village punk scene.The onl1,urban experiencethat matteredwas a tough atrnosphereamong the u'orkersemployed in industrialfacilities of the town Maribor.which u,as at the time one of the leadingindr.rstrial centres in the fbrmer Yugoslavia. Althougli urbanatmosphere was much more imaginedthan experienced. it rvas reflectedin the lvlics of the {rrounsBulli. Masukr and Diuntbu,s" 115 and, later, in mixture of industrial sound and elementarypunk rock fbrrn in the music by the groupCZD. At the very beginning.a new musicalstyle was apparentlytrans- f-erredfiom the Great Britain. Kids from Trate got the first information o1' punk frorn televisionand radio and by readingthe musicalnewspapers (Sropfrom Ljubljana, Diuboks from Belgradeand Bravo from Germany. etc.). However, the initiative transferof a new radicalmusic style and subculturalstance did not bring completeinformation. Like in othersimi- lar transferenceprocesses, receivers of informationdid understandmuch more than the information transferredcould provide. This surplus of meaningis, I suppose,the mysteryof musicaleffects in general.Later more on that. we have to answerthe question,why has punk rock fallen on the fertile groundin the village of Trate.To answersuch a question, we have to analysethe mechanismsof its transfer,adoption, and its de- velopnent witl-rinthe particularlife context. Transference and Its Backup: Transformation, Innovation, Crea- tion, and Adaptation The analysisof above mentionedtransference process in the village is possible,because the otherwisehidden mechanisms of its functioningare much more transparentin the rangeof a relatively small group of people than in anonymousenvironment of cities. observing the situationin a srnallplace. like a village,an observergets an opportunityto studypar- ticular living situationlike observinga kind of a sociallaboratory. An- thropologicalmethodology has been developed on the basisof suchsmall communities'studies. Punk subculture in Slovenia was not just another fashionable "ctaze". It was, in fact, the first socially impoftant and genuinesubcul- tural movementin Slovenia,although some other subculturesappeared before.Punk - as both, a musicalstyle and a lifestyle- was initiatedim- mediatelyafter its appearancein England.The first punk band in Slove- nia, the group Pankrti, appearedin 1977.The majorityof previousrock bandssang in either English or Serbian-Croatianlanguage, but all the punk bandsbegan to sing in Slovenelanguage, using urban slang and lo- cal dialects.They didn't simply reproducedmusic which camefrom the GreatBritain, but activelydeveloped their own style.They didn't appeal the British audience,but sangto their fellows in particular"underground" tlo placesin Slovenia.They werethe first generationsocialised in the devel- tped media environmentand sharedmuch more in colnmon with their age mates from Western Europe thal with their parents.They simply inted to enjoy in rock music.They took it as a normalpart of theil life' But politicai situation was not ready for their claims for freedom (cf' Maledkarand Mastnak1985). It happenedthat punk movementin Slove- nia was important not only becauseof outburstof a local music creativ- ity, but alsoas the first germof