PETER STANKOVIČ (Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Balkan Rock Music: Local Folk Particularism as a Highway to Rock'n'Roll Universalism

The essay is trying to deal with an apparent question: why has Balkan rock music such strong rock appeal? The profound rock sentiment that many ex-Yugoslavian rock groups express is very close to the sentiment of Anglo-American rock groups, what is quite surprising from the point of view of obviously different cultural, political and economical backgrounds. What is even more surprising is the fact that the Balkan rock groups, which seem to be more closely attached to this profound rock sentiment, are exactly those groups whose music and lyrics is strongly influenced by the local folk tradition (Bijelo Dugme, Majke, Partibrejkers, Riblja Čorba etc.). There seems to be an essential convergence between pre-modern Balkan folk tradition and anti-modern rock'n'roll music.

In order to deal with this convergence, author introduces certain basic conceptions of Georges Bataille's critique of rationalised capitalism, which allows us to understand contemporary rock music as a strong cry against utilitarian capitalist work ethics and against its essentially irrational rationalism of endless accumulation. But the joyful celebration of endless present is also the point where rock music's anti-modernist sentiment comes very close to Balkan folk tradition and its loose hedonism. From this perspective the surprising closeness of Balkan rock music and contemporary Anglo-American rock is much more understandable. Local Balkan folk tradition turns out as one of those folk traditions which, because of their certain traits, made important contributions to universal rock'n'roll music (blues, Irish folk, country etc.).