Scholars perceived the sevdalinka in exile as an evident expression of refugees’ Bosnian identity. Although this aspect might be important, we think that identity dimension of the sevdalinka was overemphasised. That is why we point at the appearance of the sevdalinka in Slovenia as a complex process of experiencing uncertainty and trauma of forced migration on the one hand, and youth creativity or a search for expressive freedom on the other. Hence, we aim to move focus from the refugees’ music life as collective experience to personal, highly individualised narratives. In addition, we argue that musical activities were in many aspects organised. In these activities ethnomusicologist participated, therefore the work of applied ethnomusicology, together with its practice of strategic essentialisation of music, should be discussed as integral part of refugees' music making process.
COBISS.SI-ID: 57804130
This article strives to broaden existing approaches in music scholarship, which, despite a long history of thinking about the role of music in shaping labour, have resulted in only sporadic attention to music labour itself. Drawing on Michael Hardt’s and Antonio Negri’s notions of affective labour as work intended to produce or modify peoples’ emotional experiences, the article treats professional music-making as embodied labour, exploring its specific conditions—in particular, in relation to gendered practices of work. Based on empirical research into the values and concepts of music labour in socialist Yugoslavia, this article attempts to provide insight not only into the geographically and temporally specific context of socialism but also more generally, pointing to its shared somatic, gendered and affective aspects. Such an approach draws on recent calls for empiricism in the wake of critical deliberations of the ahistorical and decontextualised nature of existing approaches to affective labour. Through a case study of the material working conditions and work subjectivities of female professional singers, its aim is to emphasise music-making as both material practice and sensorial experience, taking into account that both are in constant and heterogeneous flux.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38201645
This article argues that after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, Yugoslav rock music lost little cultural value and is still a prominent trigger of vernacular memories of the socialist Yugoslav past, as well as a vehicle of socio-political commentary in post-Yugoslav contexts. In this view, music is understood as a galvaniser of affective relationships to that past and to post-Yugoslav presents. In the first part of the article, the author discusses the theoretical and practical implications of digitally mediated music as immersive affective environments, working within the framework of media archaeology and a digital archives approach. It is argued that Yugoslav rock has retained its potency and appeal, where today, in a post-Yugoslavia context, it presents an outlet for the recomposition of musical preferences through nostalgia and opposition to the post-1991 socio-political developments. In the second part of the article, focusing on Facebook and YouTube, the author investigates how Yugoslav rock has been reframed in social media and how fragments of the country’s past are reframed in digital media environments. A qualitative multimodal discourse analysis is employed here to investigate a selection of fan pages of rock musicians and bands.
COBISS.SI-ID: 38721837