Turbo-folk

Turbo-folk is a popular musical sub-genre that originated in Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

. Having mainstream popularity in Serbia, although closely associated with Serbian

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

performers, its sound is as popular in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

, Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

and Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

. Its style is a sub-genre of folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

with dance

Dance music

Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

, Eurodance

Eurodance

Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...

and/or pop

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

elements (pop-folk, dance-pop etc), with similar styles in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

(Laïko

Laïko

Laïkó ), is a Greek music genre. Also called folk song or urban folk music , in its plural form is a Greek music genre which has taken many forms over the years...

and Skiladiko

Skiladiko

Skiladiko , , is a derogatory term to describe laiko music or a so-called "decadent" form of laiko and it derives from the Greek for dog , meaning "dogish" or "doghouse", and the current nightclubs in Greece in which Greek folk music is performed...

), Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

(Manele

Manele

Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....

), Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

(Tallava

Tallava

Tallava is a type of Balkan music created in the Republic Of Macedonia mixed with Romani, Greek, Turkish, Albanian and Bulgarian undertones....

), Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

(chalga

Chalga

Chalga is a Bulgarian music genre. It is a blend of Arabic, Balkan, Bulgarian, Greek and Turkish influences, as well as motives from flamenco, filmi and klezmer music...

, pop-folk

Pop-folk

Pop-folk is the umbrella term for the popular musical genres originating in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that are characteristic by the fusion of commercial folk music and "nightclub" music. The term is used alternatively for Turbo-folk and Chalga and is mostly used in Bulgaria...

) and Republic of Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

(turbo-folk).

Etymology

The term turbo folk itself was coined by Rambo Amadeus

Rambo Amadeus

Rambo Amadeus is the stage name of the Belgrade-based Montenegrin singer-songwriter Antonije Pušić, popular all over the former Yugoslavia...

, who used it jokingly during the late 1980s in order to describe his own strange smorgasbord

Smörgåsbord

Smörgåsbord is a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden. In Norway it is called koldtbord, in Denmark it is called det kolde bord, in Finland seisova pöytä and in Estonia rootsi laud...

sound combining various styles and influences. At the time, the term was nothing more than a soundbite

Soundbite

In film and broadcasting, a sound bite is a very short piece of a speech taken from a longer speech or an interview in which someone with authority or the average "man on the street" says something which is considered by those who edit the speech or interview to be the most important point...

, the phrase being intentionally humorous for combining two contradictory concepts - "turbo," a way of injecting fuel into the engine and "folk," a symbol of tradition and rural conservatism.

Origins

The so called "novokomponovana muzika" (newly composed music) can be seen as a result of the urbanization of folk music. In its early times, it had a professional approach to performance, used accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

and clarinet

Clarinet

The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...

and typically included love songs or other simple lyrics (though there have long been royalist and anti-Communist lyrical themes persisting underground). Many of the genre's best performers also play forms imported from even further abroad. These include Šaban Šaulić

Šaban Šaulic

Šaban Šaulić is a Serbian singer He released his debut EP Dajte mi utjehu in 1969 when he was 18 years old. In 1970, he served the mandatory Yugoslav army service in Bitola, now in the Republic of Macedonia...

, Toma Zdravković

Toma Zdravkovic

Toma Zdravković was a famous Yugoslav folk singer from Serbia.Toma Zdravković was an outstanding figure on Serbian folk scene; a bohemian and a poet, he lived up to his sad songs. The songs, although having the form of Serbian folk music, had spirit of chansons...

, Silvana Armenulic

Silvana Armenulic

Silvana Armenulić was one of the most prominent commercial folk music and traditional sevdalinka singers in former Yugoslavia...

and. At a later stage, the popular performers such as Lepa Brena

Lepa Brena

Fahreta Jahić Živojinović is Yugoslavian pop-folk singer, better known as Lepa Brena , . Born in Tuzla and raised in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina , she moved to Novi Sad in 1980 to pursue her career in singing. In 1982...

, Vesna Zmijanac

Vesna Zmijanac

Vesna Zmijanac is a Serbian folk singer.She released 13 albums, 6 singles and several compilations. Her singing career started back in 1979 with the single "Thank You for All", and after that came a few popular singles and first album in 1981...

and Dragana Mirković

Dragana Mirkovic

Dragana Mirković is a Serbian pop-folk singer.She is very popular in Ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Turkey...

used more influences from pop music

Pop music

, oriental music, and other genres, which led to the emergence of turbo folk.

Turbo Folk was conceived with the commercial rise to stardom of singers who used traditional Serbian music in addition to meaningless or quasi meaningful lyrics, like Lepa Brena

Lepa Brena

. However, the commercial success of the turbo folk phenomenon left no musician immune to it. Later on, it became mainstream.

Pre-origin of turbo folk in its native sense was in 1991. There were several illegal radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

s in New Belgrade's Blokovi

Blokovi

Blokovi is the semi-formal plural name for a group of urban neighborhoods in Belgrade's municipality of Novi Beograd....

neighbourhood. The owner of one such station was DJ W-ICE who mixed folk songs with dance rhythms and broadcast them. Later he appeared in Zorica Brunclik's video, and then in other commercial folk performers' videos.

However, a few more years would pass before the term turbo folk made a comeback in earnest. 1993 was a year of severe economic hardship and galloping inflation in FR Yugoslavia

Fry

-Food and cooking:* Frying, the act of cooking food in oil or fat** Pan frying, frying food in a flat pan** Stir frying, frying food in a wok and stirring it while it cooks* Full breakfast, a traditional cooked meal, also called a fry-up or Ulster fry...

. War was being fought only a few hundred kilometres away and the country was under an international trade embargo; many Serbian citizens sought solace in the escapist sounds of commercial folk music.

Commercial turbo-folk seemed to take its presentation up a notch in this period. Hedonism and a flip-off attitude became prominent themes. Songs like "Ne može nam niko ništa" (No one can touch us) by Mitar Mirić

Mitar Miric

Mitar Mirić was born in 1957 in Ugljevik, Bosnia and Herzegovina SFR Yugoslavia. He is a popular Bosnian Serb folk singer. Some of his most popular songs include: "Voli me danas vise nego juce", "Doviđenja društvo staro", "Zivela ljubav", "Ne može nam niko ništa", and many other great hits...

, singing about a couple's love surviving against all odds, but also implicitly defiantly celebrating Serbia's isolated international position appealed to the general sentiment of the Serb people.

Still, if there is a single song that widely launched the turbo folk phenomenon, it would be 1994's "200 na sat" (200 per Hour) - an energetic tune about speed and sports cars performed by Ivan Gavrilović.The song is a cover of 2 Unlimited

2 Unlimited

2 Unlimited is a Dutch Eurodance/Hi-NRG act formed in 1991. The project was the brainchild of Belgian producers Jean-Paul DeCoster and Phil Wilde, and was fronted by a Dutch duo, rapper Ray Slijngaard and singer Anita Doth. During five years of enormous worldwide popularity, the act scored 16 chart...

's eurodance

Eurodance

Eurodance is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s or early 1990s primarily in Europe. It combines many elements from House, Techno, Hi-NRG and especially Italo-Disco...

hit "No Limit." The same song was later covered by Croatian parody group Vatrogasci

Vatrogasci

Vatrogasci is a Croatian parody rock band formed in 1991 by Tihomir Borošak and Dean Parmak. The Band is known in particular for humorous songs and their often parody specific songs of contemporary musical acts....

, as "Nema ograničenja" in which the phrase "turbo folk" is explicitly mentioned in the chorus line. On the same day, "200 na sat" and "Gori more, tope se planine" (Sea is burning, mountains are melting) by Željko Šašić

Željko Šašic

Željko Šašić is a Serbian pop-folk singer.-1994 - Gori more:# Gori more# Soliter# Vežite mi ruke# Crna ženo# Suze bola# K'o na grani jabuka # Reci, Srbijo# A tebe nema...

were first aired on Belgrade TV Palma. That event could be considered as the manifest of turbo-folk.

Soon, a distinct style would be known by that name. Short-skirted leggy girls such as Ceca, Mira Škorić, Dragana Mirković

Dragana Mirkovic

Dragana Mirković is a Serbian pop-folk singer.She is very popular in Ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Turkey...

, Snežana Babić Sneki, and others, all of whom were already established performers (though with slightly more demure attitudes) quickly embraced the new style, letting go of most inhibitions and going on to become some of turbo-folk's biggest stars.

The mix of scantily clad young women, lascivious stage movements and innocuous, accessible lyrics proved to be the winning combination that launched many performing careers and ensured high ratings for plenty of television stations across Serbia

Serbia

Influences

Production and marketing strategies in turbo-folk emulate and worship global main-stream trends in music, fashion

Fashion

Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...

and design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

. It is basically only the vocals using the characteristic rhythmic ululation

Ululation

A is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid movement of the tongue and the uvula. The term ululation is an onomatopoeic word derived from Latin...

s techniques that distinguish it from Western pop music.

As mentioned, turbo folk is strongly rooted in commercial folk and neo-folk (novokomponovana muzika) which had already been massively popular throughout entire SFR Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s, making it difficult to exactly pinpoint where one ends and the other begins.

Musically they sound very much alike; both are blends of Greek laïka music

Laika

Laika was a Soviet space dog that became the first animal to orbit the Earth – as well as the first animal to die in orbit.As little was known about the impact of spaceflight on living creatures at the time of Laika's mission, and the technology to de-orbit had not yet been developed, there...

, Turkish "Arabesque" and Serbia

Serbia

n brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

s on one side, as well as rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

and contemporary electronic dance music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

on the other. The major differences lay in visual and lyrical presentation. Turbo-folk is unabashed in its delivery of in-your-face sexuality with half-naked bodies, banal love stories, and suggestive lyrics, while traditional commercial folk at least tries to put up a more dignified front, though not always successfully.

Since both subgenres pick from the same pool of musical talent, the most obvious differentiation goes along the lines of a given performer's age. Younger female singers usually play the sex card with provocative, revealing wardrobe on-stage and scandalous, jet-setting, bed-hopping lifestyles off stage. Older performers, whether by necessity or by choice, concentrate merely on vocal abilities and usually stay clear of risqué lyrics.

It should be noted that there are those who don't consider turbofolk to be a distinct genre or even a subgenre, but merely the next stage in commercial folk's evolution.http://www.sac.org.yu/komunikacija/casopisi/fid/XXV/d10/html_ser_lat They point to what they see as a clear generational trend over the last 30 years or so, and their argument goes as follows:

The 1970s commercial folk had the buttoned up Lepa Lukić and Silvana Armenulić

Silvana Armenulic

Silvana Armenulić was one of the most prominent commercial folk music and traditional sevdalinka singers in former Yugoslavia...

as its biggest stars - singers who made names because of exceptional, or at the very least above average vocal talents. Then in the 1980s, the places at the top were taken over by Lepa Brena

Lepa Brena

and Vesna Zmijanac

Vesna Zmijanac

whose huge popularity was thought to have more to do with their physical than vocal attributes; to some it appeared that their love lives were more important to their popularity than the quality of their music. The fact that the 1990s and 2000s brought Ceca and Jelena Karleuša

Jelena Karleuša

Jelena Karleuša Tošić , professionally known under her maiden name Jelena Karleuša and initials JK, is a Serbian pop singer, fashion designer and former columnist. She rose to fame with her debut turbo-folk album Ogledalce , and has since been a popular Serbian female singer...

to the top of the commercial heap was the next logical step according to this view. It was only natural, they argue, that considering the trend up to that point, the next step in commercial folk would be open disregard for the vocals & music and complete focus on the physical.

Social and pop-culture aspects

Initially dismissed as benign lowbrow entertainment targeting consumers' basic instincts, turbo folk began to acquire a deeper social dimension during mid-to-late 1990s. Two events that triggered this in large part were the Ceca-Arkan relationship and the launch of Pink TV

RTV Pink

RTV Pink or Radio-Television Pink is a popular, privately-owned, national TV network in Serbia. Pink is the leading commercial station in the Serbian television broadcast market. TV Pink has gained a strong reputation for its entertainment programming...

.

The former quickly grew to represent more than just a matrimonial union between two individuals, one of whom happens to be a popular singer and the other a known war criminal. In addition to being a major media event covered live on Pink TV

RTV Pink

, in the eyes of some, their lavish February 1995 wedding was also the unofficial merger of two worlds.

Left wing criticism

According to this persuasion, turbo folk and Serbian involvement in Bosnian

Bosnian War

The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...

and Croatian conflicts would become inextricably linked from then on. They point to appearance of Pink TV

RTV Pink

on Serbian airwaves in 1994 along with its considerable commercial success through promotion of this lifestyle as further proof of their theory.

This left-wing section of Serbian and Croatian society explicitly viewed turbo folk as vulgar, almost pornographic kitsch

Kitsch

Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...

, glorifying crime, moral corruption and nationalist

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

xenophobia

Xenophobia

Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...

. 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

Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...

". Along the same lines, British culture theorist Alexei Monroe calls the phenomenon "porno-nationalism".

Furthermore, left-wingers considered Pink TV

RTV Pink

to be the major pusher of this deplorable material with the calculated intent of providing Serbian citizens with mindless, sugary entertainment to get their minds off the brutal war being waged just across the border in Bosnia and Croatia with the help of the authorities those very same citizens helped elect.

However, turbo-folk was equally popular amongst the South Slavic

South Slavs

The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...

nations during the brutal wars of the 1990s, reflecting perhaps the common cultural sentiments of the warring sides. When a Bosniak

Bosniaks

The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...

market seller in Sarajevo

Sarajevo

Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

was asked why in the midst of a Serb shelling of the city he illegally sold CDs by turbo-folk superstar Ceca, a wife of the notorious Serbian warlord Arkan, he offered a laconic retort: "Art knows no borders!"

Right wing criticism

On the other hand, turbo-folk music was not without its detractors on the right wing either. In fact, Serbian conservative nationalists often described it as an example of undesirable Turkish

Ottoman Turks

The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...

elements, left behind in the national psyche by the Ottoman Empire. Seeing it as something that carries a strong Islamic, oriental, and "un-European" sentiment they talk of it in terms of a "Tehranization of Serbia" as one of the MP

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

s put it in his speech before the Serbian parliament

National Assembly of Serbia

The National Assembly of Serbia is the unicameral parliament of Serbia. It is composed of 250 proportionally elected deputies elected in general elections by secret ballot, on 4 years term. The National Assembly elects the President of the National Assembly who presides over the sessions...

during mid-1990s.http://www.nspm.rs/Intervjui/2005_cirjak_turbofolk.htm

In Croatia, the right wing considers listening to turbo-folk as nothing short of high treason. This hostility is understandable, given the fact that turbo-folk could be heard during executions of Croatian civilians and POWs. Anto Đapić (former mayor of Osijek

Osijek

Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

, and national leader of the far-right Croatian Party of Rights

Croatian Party of Rights

The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The "right" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century...

) has declared "as long as I am mayor, there will be no nightclub-singers [cajki] or turbofolk parades in a single municipal hall".

Still, turbo-folk had a considerable following among the urban youth, with no parallels in its Balkan commercial folk predecessor. Dizelaši (approx. direct translation as "Dieselites") (as they were called, due to their fondness for Diesel

Diesel (clothing company)

Diesel S.p.A. is an Italian design company. It is best known for luxury, pret-a-porter clothing aimed at the young adult market. The company is owned by its founder Renzo Rosso, and is based in Breganze in northern Italy.-History:...

clothing), a new stratum of young men favouring a healthy, sporty lifestyle and macho values, widely embraced turbo folk and were for years its core audience.

General non-ideological criticism

As mentioned, turbo-folk culture was, and to a certain extent still is, actively promoted and exploited on commercial television, most notably on Pink

RTV Pink

and Palma

RTV Palma

RTV Palma was a Serbian television station based in Belgrade.Its program consisted mostly of music videos of Serbian and Western pop music and turbo folk....

TV-channels that featured many turbo-folk music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s.

Filmed visual presentations are criticized by some for celebrating the external symbols of easy acquisition of wealth, being too eroticized

Erotica

Erotica are works of art, including literature, photography, film, sculpture and painting, that deal substantively with erotically stimulating or sexually arousing descriptions...

, and promoting violence. However, others respond to this critique by arguing that precisely such content is representative of the global pop-cultural

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

scene. They point out that an average music video shown on MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

depicts just as many if not more "women treated as objects

Objectification

Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is made as objective as possible in the purest sense of the term. It is also treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object...

", golden chains on muscular bodies, and generally everything that is recognized and condemned as banal, sub-intellectual and unsophisticated.

In Western pop-rock music all of this is typically defended as being motivated by its potential to provoke and challenge "safe" value systems of the civic order. The subversive potential of turbo-folk is to be found in the fact that this phenomenon represents an imitation of global trends in popular culture but is, both by its critics and by its fans from abroad (including cyberpunk

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...

author Bruce Sterling

Bruce Sterling

Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...

), treated as in opposition to those trends.

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

Nationalism

" regime of Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević

Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...

, "fully controlled by regime media managers". John Fiske feels that during that period, turbo-folk and its close counterpart Serbian pop-dance had a monopoly of 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

Ideology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

positions.

Turbo-folk today

Following the 5 October regime change in Serbia, turbo-folk entered its own transitional phase. Due to the style's ties to Milošević's establishment (whether perceived or not), many Serbian media outlets suddenly weren't as open to it as they once were. In some of the media this was a response to an authentic lack of public desire to see and hear something that reminded many people of the lean Milošević years, but for many others, including Pink TV

RTV Pink

, it seemed like an opportunistic attempt at ingratiation with the new authorities

Democratic Opposition of Serbia

The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a wide alliance of political parties in Serbia , formed as a coalition against the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia and its leader, Slobodan Milošević in 2000...

.

Many performers responded by incorporating even more pop elements into their sound, making the line between turbo folk and Western pop blurrier than ever. Ceca, turbofolk's most prominent star, started putting out highly produced records packed with polished dance tracks.

Still, this temporary TV scale-down and partial abandonment by some of its biggest stars never really endangered turbo-folk's survival or its essential popularity.

The most representative artists

Lepa Brena
Lepa Brena
Fahreta Jahić Živojinović is Yugoslavian pop-folk singer, better known as Lepa Brena , . Born in Tuzla and raised in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina , she moved to Novi Sad in 1980 to pursue her career in singing. In 1982...
Dragana Mirković
Dragana Mirkovic
Dragana Mirković is a Serbian pop-folk singer.She is very popular in Ex-Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Turkey...
Ceca
Seka Aleksić
Seka Aleksic
Svetlana "Seka" Aleksić is a Bosnian pop-folk and techno folk singer.-Biography:...
Indira Radić
Indira Radic
Indira Radić is a Serbian folk, turbo-folk, pop-folk and pop singer. She has established herself on the Balkan music scene without creating controversy in the mass media.-Early life:...
Viki Miljković
Viki Miljkovic
Violeta "Viki" Miljković is a singer who is popular in the former Yugoslav republics....
Dara Bubamara
Dara Bubamara
Dara Bubamara is the stage name of a popular Serbian pop-folk singer. Born as Radojka "Rada" Adžić, she grew up in Satelit, a neighborhood of Novi Sad, Serbia. Her parents moved to Novi Sad from Derventa, Bosnia and Herzegovina before Rada was born...
Stoja
Stojanka Novakovic Stoja
Stojanka Stoja Novaković , born June 4, 1972 in Perlez, near Zrenjanin, in Serbia, is a Serbian pop-folk singer....
Aca Lukas
Aca Lukas
Aleksandar Vuksanović , most known as Aca Lukas is a popular Serbian folk singer.-Biography:Aca Lukas was born in as Aleksandar Vuksanović...
Tanja Savić
Tanja Savic
Tanja Savić is a Serbian pop-folk singer. She became famous after competing on a first season of the Zvezde Granda television singing contest and making it into the final six....
Slavica Ćukteraš
Slavica Cukteraš
Slavica Ćukteraš is a Serbian pop-folk singer. She became famous after competing in the first season of the Zvezde Granda television singing contest and making it into the final six.-Discography:*Nema pravila *Ćiribu, ćiriba *Exclusiva *Nevreme...
Maja Marijana
Maja Marijana
Maja Marijana or Marijana Radovanović, born 9 November 1972 in Novi Sad, Serbia, is a popular pop-folk singer who has considerable success in former Yugoslav countries. She has made eleven albums since she started singing in 1992....
Milan Stanković
Milan Stanković
-Biography :Milan started his career taking part in musical contest Zvezde Granda, where he became a favorite of the audience . He entered the super-final and attracted significant media attention. In the same year, his singles appear on the compilation disks "Zvezde Granda"...
Aco Pejović
Aco Pejovic
Aco Pejović is a popular Serbian pop-folk singer. He finished musical education in Podgorica at the Vasa Pavić High School for Music...
Mile Kitić
Mile Kitic
Milojko "Mile" Kitić is a popular Bosnian turbo-folk singer.He was popular in most parts of the former Yugoslavia. He is married to the Serbian singer Marta Savić.-Biography:...
Keba
Dragan Kojic Keba
Dragan Kojić is a Serbian folk-singer of Roma ethnicity. He released his first album in 1976 and has since then released many more albums...
Tina Ivanović
Tina Ivanovic
Radmila "Tina" Ivanović is a Serbian pop-folk singer and model.-Biography:Tina Ivanović is married to Ernes Karanović from Ribnica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tina was born in Kosovska Kamenica, Yugoslavia on September 28, 1974. At 14, she won a singing contest called "Prvi glas pomoravlja" in Batočina....
Goga Sekulić
Goga Sekulić
Goga Sekulić Goga Sekulić (Serbian: Гога Секулић) Goga Sekulić (Serbian: Гога Секулић) (born February 27, 1977 in Pljevlja, SFR Yugoslavia (now Republic of Montenegro) is a Montenegrin pop-folk singer with six studio albums...
Kemal Malovčić
Kemal Malovcic
Kemal Malovčić is a popular Bosnian etno psyhodelic singer.Malovčić's career began in 1970 at the age of 19 years when he released his first single 'Oko Sane' , referring to the Sana river, on which his home town of Sanski Most is located.His greatest success came with the Yugoslav band Južni...
Miloš Bojanić
Miloš Bojanic
Miloš Bojanić is a Bosnian Serb pop-folk singer. Milos was born in Bijeljina, He lived in Ruhotina, near Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then a part of Yugoslavia. His sons, Bane and Mikica, are singers as well, Bane lives in Chicago...
Mitar Mirić
Mitar Miric
Mitar Mirić was born in 1957 in Ugljevik, Bosnia and Herzegovina SFR Yugoslavia. He is a popular Bosnian Serb folk singer. Some of his most popular songs include: "Voli me danas vise nego juce", "Doviđenja društvo staro", "Zivela ljubav", "Ne može nam niko ništa", and many other great hits...
Nada Topčagić
Nada Topcagic
Senada "Nada" Topčagić is a Serbian singer hailing from Bosnia and Herzegovina.She was born in 1953 in Modriča, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then SFRY. She was most popular during the 1980s although she has been active to date. In 2010 Topčagić appeared on the Serbian reality television program The...
Nedeljko Bajić Baja
Nedeljko Bajic Baja
Nedeljko Bajić is a Bosnian singer known professionally as Nedeljko Bajić Baja and Baja. He currently lives in Novi Sad, Serbia.Nedeljko was born to a family with 2 brothers and 2 sisters...
Osman Hadžić
Osman Hadžic
-Early life:Osman Hadžić was born in Cazin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then Yugoslavia, to Bosniak parents. He was the first-born child of seven.-Music:...
Selma Bajrami
Selma Bajrami
Selma Bajrami is a popular Bosnian pop-folk singer who gained enormous popularity after her hit single "Kakvo tijelo Selma ima" ....
Sejo Kalač
Sejo Kalac
Sead "Sejo" Kalač is a Bosniak pop-folk singer from Pec. His father and his mother are from Pec, but his father was born in the little village of Selo Kalače, hence why his surname is Kalač. When his father died, Sejo made a song "E moj ćale" for his father. His mother Emira died in 2008...
Siniša Vuco
Siniša Vuco
Siniša Vuco , his stage name being simply Vuco, is a Croatian singer, spiritual leader and songwriter...

(Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

)
Sinan Sakić
Sinan Sakic
Sinan Sakić is a Serbian folk singer of Roma descent. He launched his career back in 1978 with the singles "Rastanak kraj reke" and "Sreli smo se mnogo kasno". As of 2006, he has released 27 music albums. He gained his first musical experience from his father who was a musician in the military...
Šaban Šaulić
Šaban Šaulic
Šaban Šaulić is a Serbian singer He released his debut EP Dajte mi utjehu in 1969 when he was 18 years old. In 1970, he served the mandatory Yugoslav army service in Bitola, now in the Republic of Macedonia...
Šako Polumenta
Šako Polumenta
Sakib "Šako" Polumenta is a Montenegrin singer, popular throughout the former Yugoslav republics.-Discography:*Ej, sudbino *Skitnica...

(Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

)
Sanja Maletić
Sanja Maletic
Sanja Maletić is a popular Serbian singer. She currently lives in Belgrade, Serbia...
Sanja Đorđević
Šemsa Suljaković
Šemsa Suljakovic
Šemsa Suljaković is a Bosnian folk singer. She was born in Maglaj, Bosnia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia....

(Bosnia)
Mina Kostić
Olja Karleuša
Olja Karleuša
Olgica "Olja" Karleuša is a contemporary Serbian pop-folk singer. She is not related to Jelena Karleuša as is often assumed.She participated in the Serbian VIP big brother final 2007....
Vesna Zmijanac
Vesna Zmijanac
Vesna Zmijanac is a Serbian folk singer.She released 13 albums, 6 singles and several compilations. Her singing career started back in 1979 with the single "Thank You for All", and after that came a few popular singles and first album in 1981...

External links

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Etymology

Origins

Turbo-folk

Influences

Social and pop-culture aspects

Left wing criticism

Right wing criticism

General non-ideological criticism

Turbo-folk today

The most representative artists

See also

External links