turbo-folk

Turbo-folk grew in Croatia in part due to the popularity of the Croatian singer Severina's fusion of turbo-folk in her music. Turbo-folk is purportedly seen as a "part of everyday life in Croatia and serves a means of social release and reaction to the effects of globalisation in Croatia" according to contemporary art professor Urosh Cvoro of UNSW Sydney.{{cite book |last1=Cvoro |first1=Urosh |title=Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=978-1317006060}}

Upon introduction of Billboard Croatia Songs chart on 15 February 2022, it became apparent that mainstream music from Serbia and other former Yugoslav republics (which is all described as turbo-folk or by a derogatory term "{{Lang|hr|cajka}}" (plural: cajke) by its critics in CroatiaMarina Radoš, [https://www.index.hr/magazin/clanak/narodnjaci-cirilica-i-turbofolk-sto-su-to-uopce-cajke/2440998.aspx Narodnjaci, ćirilica i turbofolk: Što su to uopće cajke?]) dominated the music taste of the people of Croatia, as the only Croatian artists featured on the chart were Eni Jurišić, Matija Cvek, 30zona, Kuku$ Klan, Jelena Rozga and Grše, and the only Western artists featured on the chart were Glass Animals and Red Hot Chili Peppers.{{Cite magazine|date=2022-02-15|title=Croatia Songs (Week of February 19, 2022)|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/croatia-songs-hotw/2022-02-19/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220217114748/https://www.billboard.com/charts/croatia-songs-hotw/2022-02-19/|archive-date=2022-02-17|access-date=17 February 2022|magazine=Billboard|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Marjanović|first=Hrvoje|date=2022-02-18|title=Billboard Croatia nikad neće biti Билборд Кроејша|url=https://www.index.hr/clanak.aspx?id=2340703|access-date=2022-02-20|website=Index.hr|language=hr}}

Turbo-folk can be heard in Balkan clubs and Ex-Yu-style discos in parts of Switzerland that speak German. Reports of turbo-folk from 2023 describe the music used for diasporic youth in these areas to "socialise and live out the culture of their country of origin" according to Dr Müller-Suleymanova of ZHAW.{{Cite journal |title=Shadows of the past : violent conflict and its repercussions for second-generation Bosnians in the diaspora |url=https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/23217?pk_vid=afcc797701003c4a172241141544700b |journal=Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies | date=2023 |volume=49 |issue=7 |pages=1786–1802| doi=10.1080/1369183X.2021.1973392 | last1=Müller-Suleymanova | first1=Dilyara | hdl=11475/23217 |hdl-access=free }}

File:Grafit protiv turbofolka,Imotski01848.JPG's music in Imotski, Croatia: "Turn off all the "Cecas"/Light up the candles/Vukovar will never/Be forgotten" (written with stylized U's of a style belonging to the Croatian nationalist and fascist organisation Ustaše)]]

Critics of turbo-folk alleged that it was a promotional instrument of Serbia's political ideology during Milošević rule.{{cite web|url=http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/07/hockenos2507.html|title=In These Times 25/07 -- Serbia's New New Wave|website=Inthesetimes.com|access-date=23 April 2017}} This liberal section of Serbian and Croatian society explicitly viewed this music as vulgar, almost pornographic kitsch, glorifying crime, moral corruption and nationalist xenophobia. In addition to making a connection between turbofolk and "war profiteering, crime & weapons cult, rule of force and violence", in her book Smrtonosni sjaj (Deadly Splendor) Belgrade media theorist Ivana Kronja refers to its look as "aggressive, sadistic and pornographically eroticised iconography".{{cite web|url=http://filmcriticism.allegheny.edu/archives30_3.htm|title=Film Criticism|website=Filmcriticism.allegheny.edu|access-date=3 June 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nspm.rs/Intervjui/2005_cirjak_turbofolk.htm|title=Komentari|website=Nspm.rs|access-date=23 April 2017}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Along the same lines, British culture theorist Alexei Monroe calls the phenomenon "porno-nationalism".{{cite web|url=http://www.ce-review.org/00/24/monroe24.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816040649/http://www.ce-review.org/00/24/monroe24.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=16 August 2000|title=Central Europe Review - Balkan Hardcore|website=Ce-review.org|access-date=23 April 2017}} However, turbo-folk was equally popular amongst the South Slavic peoples during the Yugoslav Wars.

{{Blockquote|As long as I am the mayor, there will be no nightclub-singers of [{{lang|hr|cajke}}] or turbo-folk parades in a single municipal hall.|Anto Đapić, former mayor of Osijek and leader of the Croatian Party of Rights{{cite web|url=http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/66293/01/Baker_-_turbofolk_2007.pdf|title=Catherine Baker, "The concept of turbofolk in Croatia: inclusion/exclusion in the construction of national musical identity"|website=Eprints.soton.ac.uk|access-date=3 June 2018}}}}

The resilience of a turbo-folk culture and musical genre, often referred to as the "soundtrack to Serbia’s wars",{{cite web|title=Turbo-folk Keeps Pace with New Rivals|url=http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/turbo-folk-keeps-pace-with-new-rivals|website=Balkaninsight.com|access-date=21 July 2013|author=Gordana Andric|date=15 June 2011}} was and to a certain extent still is, actively promoted and exploited by pro-government commercial TV stations, most notably on Pink and Palma TV-channels, which devote significant amount of their broadcasting schedule to turbo-folk shows and music videos.

Others, however, feel that this neglects the specific social and political context that brought about turbo-folk, which was, they say, entirely different from the context of contemporary western popular culture. In their opinion, turbo-folk served as a dominant paradigm of the "militant nationalist" regime of Slobodan Milošević, "fully controlled by regime media managers".{{cite web|url=http://www.maney.co.uk/contents/slv/16-1#a1|title=Explore Taylor & Francis Online|website=Maney.co.uk|access-date=3 June 2018}} John Fiske feels that during that period, turbo-folk and its close counterpart, Serbian Eurodance, had the monopoly over the officially permitted popular culture, while, according to him, in contrast, Western mass media culture of the time provided a variety of music genre, youth styles, and consequently ideological positions.John Fiske, Television Culture, February 1988, {{ISBN|0-415-03934-7}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Music of Serbia
• Chalga
• Manele
• Arabesk music
• Disco polo
• Laïkó
• Rabiz
• Hardbass
• Dangdut
• Eurodance{{Div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last =Collin | first =Matthew | author-link =Matthew Collin | title =This Is Serbia Calling | publisher =Serpent's Tail | year =2004 | orig-year =2001 | edition = 2nd | location =London | pages =78–84 | isbn =1-85242-776-0 }}
• {{cite book | last =Gordy | first =Eric | author-link =Eric Gordy | title =The Culture of Power in Serbia | publisher =Penn State Press | year =1999 | chapter =The Destruction of Musical Alternatives | isbn =978-0-271-01958-1 | url-access =registration | url =https://archive.org/details/cultureofpowerin00gord }}
• {{cite book|author=Uroš Čvoro|title=Turbo-folk Music and Cultural Representations of National Identity in Former Yugoslavia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tyurCwAAQBAJ|year=2016|orig-year=2014|publisher=Ashgate; Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-00606-0}}
• Sabina Mihelj, [https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/retrieve/11127/license.txt "The Media and the Symbolic Geographies of Europe: The Case of Yugoslavia"], 2007.
• William Uricchio, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CSLCAJrvqawC&pg=PA170 We Europeans?: media, representations, identities], Intellect Books, 2008, p. 168-9

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120120034713/http://balkania-fanzine.com/blog/ Balkania Fanzine] - Turbo-Folk and Balkan Music Video Culture Blog
• [http://ceca.rs/turbofolk-politics/ Report about turbo-folk, ceca and politics]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090228062330/http://www.vest-dana.com/ Muzika u vestima dana]

{{Music of Serbia}}

{{Folk music}}

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Category:Serbian styles of music

Category:Music of Serbia

Category:Folk music genres