2009 Cvitanovic Balkan Soundscapes
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Transcript of 2009 Cvitanovic Balkan Soundscapes
(Re)constructing Balkan identities through popular music
Marin Cvitanović
Space: Extent of an area, usually expressed in terms of the earth’s surface.
Absolute and relative space.
Place: Organized world of meanings (Tuan) Center endowed with meaning by human
beings (Mayhew)
Emotions
Places are important in literature, movies or art
“Genius loci”
Almost all sounds in our lives are what in semiotics is called “indexical”: their meanings are quickly understood by most humans.
Sounds and music spread over space, to particular cities or over particular channels.
Sound is heard (or listened to) and thus embodied within particular spaces or soundscapes
people who know and enjoy these sounds.
Music relatively neglected
Songs are made in characteristic circumstances, written in languages specific for certain regions and peoples, authors express their views about people, events and places relevant for a wide circle of listeners. Through music changes are registered quicker and are more recent.
Culture
Music is a means of cultural communication and a product of culture
It evokes the sense of place, as well as creates it
Quick
Regional identity not just common culutral or social characteristics
Perception of those characteristics
From inside or outside
August Zeune 1808.
Physical feature – social circumstances
“Creating” the Balkans
Internet databases → around 110 songs
Only 75 analysed which contain metaphores, coded messages or used directly to explain things
4 categories
Balkanization
1912 – 1999 → seven wars
36 out of 75 talk about the war
‘Balkan butcher is opening a new butchery’ ‘Just another war’ ‘Living in the scent of ćevapi and the smoke of
bombs
War as a common thing and the most obvious association with the region
Rebellious music Majority of the songs about the war Language is vulgar; slang
“People die for their soccer team” “Who doesn’t know how to shoot gets an F in
home economics” “Killing is a part of the folklore”
Turbo folk Gordy (1999) and Kiossev (2002) Indigenous to the Balkans Politics
Hedonism
It turns the lowermost picture of the Balkans upside down and converts the stigma into a joyful consumption of pleasures forbidden by European norms and taste.
This popular culture arrogantly celebrates the Balkans as they are: backward and Oriental, corporeal and semi-rural, rude, funny, but intimate.
As an act of counter-identification, is a kind of willing regression into a great, scandalous, Balkan "neighborhood," away from both Europe and the annoying official homelands
Binary opposition
‘Not gentle, typical Balkan guy’ ‘Never cries’ ‘Womanizer’ ‘Smells like burek, hairy and sweaty’
‘Proud, special woman’ ‘Never gives up’ ‘Made for him’ ‘So pretty it hurts’ ‘Her mini-skirt makes every guy faint’
Passive, in relation to men, “supporting role”
Yu rock scene in Slovenia Questioning the dominant political discourse
Perpetuates the idea
We’re running towards EuropeNATO is keeping us safeFrom Al Qaida, Saddam and the MosqueGo go SloveniaAuf Wiedersehen BalkanSelam aleikum
Orientalistic discourse
Perception from the inside 10% of the lyrics from Croatia, 80% from Serbia
and Bosnia Chronologically – late ’80 and early ’90
‘Balkan is elsewhere?’