"All Yugoslavia Is Dancing Rock and Roll" Yugoslavness and the Sense of Community in the 1980s Yu-Rock Jovanovic, Zlatko Publication date: 2014 Document version Early version, also known as pre-print Citation for published version (APA): Jovanovic, Z. (2014). "All Yugoslavia Is Dancing Rock and Roll": Yugoslavness and the Sense of Community in the 1980s Yu-Rock. Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Københavns Universitet. Download date: 08. Apr. 2020 FACULTY OF HUMANITIE S UNIVERSITY OF COPENH AGEN PhD thesis Zlatko Jovanovic “ All Yugoslavia Is Dancing Rock and Roll” Yugoslavness and the Sense of Community in the 1980s Yu-Rock Academic advisor: Mogens Pelt Submitted: 25/11/13 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 4 Relevant Literature and the Thesis’ Contribution to the Field .................................................................................... 6 Theoretical and methodological considerations ........................................................................................................... 12 Sources ............................................................................................................................................................................. 19 The content and the methodology of presentation ....................................................................................................... 22 YUGOSLAVS, YUGOSLAVISM AND THE NOTION OF YUGOSLAV-NESS .................. 28 Who Were the Yugoslavs? “The Seventh Nation and the Seventh Republic” .......................................................... 29 Yugoslav Idea from Illyrian Movement to “New Yugoslavism” ................................................................................ 37 Jugoslovenstvo as Yugoslavism and as Yugoslavness .................................................................................................. 43 “THE HAPPY CHILD.” GEOPOLITICS, SOCIALIST SELF-REPRESENTATION AND YUGOSLAVNESS IN ZAGREB NEW WAVE AND POST-NEW WAVE SCENE ............. 54 “The Best Punk East of England” ................................................................................................................................. 56 “And Still, We Would Like To Be the Centre of the Universe” .................................................................................. 64 “Let the Tunes Go for the Nations in Love” ................................................................................................................. 76 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................................... 82 “THIS IS A COUNTRY FOR ALL OF OUR PEOPLE.” YUGOSLAVNESS AND “ANATIONALITY” OF THE BELGRADE NEW WAVE SCENE ....................................... 84 “Belgrade in Zagreb” and “Zagreb in Belgrade” ........................................................................................................ 86 “Do You Believe Me, or You Think for Yourself?” ..................................................................................................... 99 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 110 “I LISTEN TO PLAVI ORKESTAR – I AM NOT A NATIONALIST.” ANTI-NATIONALISM AND YUGOSLAVNESS IN THE 1980S LJUBLJANA YOUTH CULTURE .................... 112 “Ohm Ljubljana, You Are Yugoslavia” ..................................................................................................................... 114 “The Little Man Wants to Cross the Line” ................................................................................................................ 128 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 138 “ENTIRE YUGOSLAVIA, ONE COURTYARD.” POLITICAL MYTHOLOGY, BROTHERHOOD AND UNITY AND THE “NON-NATIONAL” YUGOSLAVNESS AT THE SARAJEVO SCHOOL OF ROCK ................................................................................... 140 “Das ist Walter” ............................................................................................................................................................ 142 2 “From the Vardar to Triglav, All around My Buddies” ........................................................................................... 157 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................... 168 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 169 SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... 176 RESUME ......................................................................................................................... 177 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 178 Periodicals ..................................................................................................................................................................... 178 Statistics ......................................................................................................................................................................... 178 Books and Research articles ........................................................................................................................................ 179 Films ............................................................................................................................................................................... 193 Discography ................................................................................................................................................................... 194 Internet sources ............................................................................................................................................................. 196 3 Introduction “Igra rokenrol cela Jugoslavija, sve se oko tebe ispravlja i savija” (“All Yugoslavia is dancing rock and roll, everything around you is straightening and bending”)1 The point of the departure for this study is Eric Hobsbawm’s dictum that nationhood and nationalism, although constructed from above, cannot be understood unless also analysed from below – i.e. “in terms of the assumptions, hopes, needs, longings and interests of ordinary people, which are not necessarily national and still less nationalist.”2 Drawing on this dictum, the present thesis examines the sense of community in Yugoslav society through the analysis of Yugoslav rock music culture. My focus is on the Yugoslav-ness of this culture – a culture commonly referred to as Yu-Rock or Yugo-rock – in the specific socio-politico-economic situation of 1980s Yugoslavia. My argument is that the Yugoslavness of Yu-Rock was inextricably connected to a larger, over-arching, web of knowledge and ideas to which it related, most importantly those concerning different conceptions of Yugoslavism as an “imagined community.” The point here is that the sense of Yugoslavness should not be reduced to any particular form of Yugoslavism, because Yugoslavism meant different things for different people. Thus, the concept of “Yugoslavness” that I operate with in the thesis is influenced by the work of anthropologist Stef Jansen, who argues that Yugoslavness was not always openly “Yugoslavist,” but rather more about open interethnic boundaries and thereby most often assuming a pronouncedly tolerant, antinationalist and cosmopolitan character.3 In this regard, I want to underline that the existing research on rock music in the former Yugoslav lands has recognised the antinationalist character of Yu-Rock and has stressed its role as 1 Elektični orgazam, ”Igra rokenrol cela Jugoslavija” Letim, sanjam, dišem (Belgrade: PGP RTB, 1988). This is a direct translation from Serbo-Croatian, which corresponds to the English phrase “twist and turn.” 2 Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 10. 3 Stef Jansen, “Cosmopolitan openings and closures in the post-Yugoslav antinationalism” in Cosmopolitanism in Practice, eds by Magdalena Nowicka, Maria Rovisco (Farnham, England / Burlington, VT : Ashgate Pub, 2009), p. 80. 4 an alternative to nationalism of the 1980s. Nevertheless, the existing research has dealt with the issues concerning Yugoslavness of the 1980s Yu-Rock only in passing, either peripherally or from the perspective of the dissolution of the common Yu-Rock scene in the 1990s. Thus, very few of the central questions concerning its agency, origin and causality in the 1980s have been asked. This study is an inquiry into this issue – the issue concerning questions of agency, origin and causality of Yugoslavness in 1980s Yu-Rock. This is not an easy task. Yugoslav history is a complicated subject – not least because, as Metthew McCullock puts it, Yugoslav identity is contradictory, located at the crossroads of “nowhere” and “everywhere.”4 This means that locating Yugoslavness can easily ends up by being arbitrary, defined either too rigidly or too loosely that