The "New Wave" in Yugoslav Rock and Roll in the 1980s (Musical Creation within Totalitarian Frameworks)
Keywords:
Yugoslavia; rock and roll; communism; totalitarianism; resistanceAbstract
In the last decade of communist Yugoslavia's existence, the totalitarian system gradually lost its power, retreating to nationalism. On the Yugoslav music scene, the "New Wave" brought different rock formats (punk, goth, darkwave, industrial). The paper is showing examples of the rock bands from Belgrade, Ljubljana, Za-greb, Sarajevo and Skopje. The lyrics of the songs anticipate the collapse of ideol-ogy and of Yugoslavia as a state and concept.
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