Remember the Nineties? Turbo-Folk as the Vanishing Mediator of Nationalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6141576 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Uros Cvoro (0000-0002-0993-7444, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 121-137 |
| Publication date | 2012-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cultural Politics an International Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1743-2197 • E-ISSN: 1751-7435 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/17432197-1572021 |
| OpenAlex | W1881306852 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 9 |
This essay discusses the music style of turbo-folk as the vanishing mediator between two kinds of nationalism in Serbia: anti-Yugoslav nationalism and pan-Balkan regionalist nationalism. Using Slavoj Žižek's account of the concept of the vanishing mediator, I suggest that the nationalism of turbo-folk created the ground for its benevolent successor of “apolitical” pop. Far from being merely a phase in the longer trajectory of the evolution of music, turbo-folk is the condition that made possible the apolitical transnational contemporary pop folk. The nationalism of turbo-folk was a necessary mediator, and its very nationalist “excess” established the “normal” popular music today. As the “new” Serbia attempts to purge the nationalist and criminal elements of the nineties, turbo-folk “vanishes” and is positioned into the nationalist pathology of Serbia in the nineties. I argue that this shift is nowhere more apparent than in the most recognizable and popular performer of turbo-folk, Svetlana Ražnatović Ceca, whose musical popularity has been rivaled only by her political notoriety. Yet Ceca's popularity has grown throughout the region, presenting an exemplary case study of turbo-folk's representation of nationalism
Aesthetics · Art · Folk music · Literature · Musical · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Popularity · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Populism, Right-Wing Movements
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2023 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |