Basic research project, Slovenian Research Agency, code J6-5557
Engaged past: social-anthropological analysis of transformations of popular music in the area of former Yugoslavia
The proposed social- and cultural-anthropological, historical-anthropological and ethnomusicological research aims to rethink current cultural processes in the area of former Yugoslavia, focusing at that the Yugoslav and socialist pasts of the countries which emerged in its territory. The project aims to demonstrate and analyse the existence of historical continuity of social development in different socio-economic systems and offer a new consideration of the relationship between socialism, capitalism and everyday life (in light of the current socio-economic crisis), which can develop quite independently from social system.
The central theoretical problem of the proposed research project is the relationship between the dominant social order (and ideology), especially socialism and its later transformations into a capitalist system, and the development of popular music from the perspective of its margins, taken through its everyday cultural aspects of aesthetic preferences, daily use and systematic resistance to dominant trends.
The proposed research project reflects on transformation processes in popular music and through these processes follows wider social process in the studied area. Through music we “read” and analyse the transformation of national and transnational life in the area, identities, and actualisation of the past practices in the present.
The main aim of the proposed project is to critically examine socio-cultural shifts in the region of former Yugoslavia, simultaneously taking into account the development of its popular music. Popular music, usually considered a trivial phenomenon, is taken as a starting point in analysing the fundamentals of spontaneous (not only cultural) creativity, which can be used to offer an alternative reflection on finding a way out of the current all-encompassing crisis of the entire society.
The research team will employ ethnographic, historiographical, musical-analytical and comparative methods. With regard to existing global and local studies of the uses of Yugoslav popular music genres in the present, dominated by popular literature, the research team will focus on so far almost ignored fields and topics: nationalisation and internationalisation of popular music, the position of minorities and the situation of women and youth through the development of local variations of popular music, its transnational, festivalised and digital life, and the relationship between popular music and social system (socialism and capitalism).
Partners: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts and Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Project leader: Rajko Muršič
Researchers:
Faculty of Arts, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology: Miha Kozorog, Rajko Muršič, Urša Valič, Tina Glavič (expert co-worker)
Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, The Institute of Culture and Memory Studies ZRC SAZU: Ana Hofman, Tanja Petrović, Martin Pogačar
Time of duration: August 2013 – July 2016
Trans-Yu-Formator 