New Primitivism (
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
: Novi primitivizam) was a
subcultural
A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...
movement established in
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...
,
SR Bosnia-Herzegovina,
SFR Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
in March 1983. It primarily used
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
, along with
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
,
sketch and
surreal
Surreal may refer to:
*Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art
* "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki
* ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze
*Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor
...
comedy on
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
, as its form of expression. Its protagonists and followers called themselves the New Primitives.
Functioning as a banner that summarizes and encompasses the work of two rock bands
Zabranjeno Pušenje
Zabranjeno pušenje () is a Bosnian rock band formed in Sarajevo in 1980. The group's musical style primarily consists of a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex storytelling. Curre ...
and
Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors as well as ''
Top lista nadrealista
''Top lista nadrealista'' ("The Top List of the Surrealists", sometimes "The Surrealists' Chart Toppers")—also known as ''TLN'' or ''Nadrealisti'' ("Surrealists")—is a Yugoslav sketch comedy and variety television show. Produced by TV Sar ...
'' radio segment that eventually grew into a television sketch show, the discourse of New Primitivism was seen as primarily irreverent and humorous.
The movement officially disbanded sometime in 1987, although the bands and television show continued for a few more years after that—Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors until 1988, Zabranjeno Pušenje until 1990, and ''Top lista nadrealista'' until 1991.
Characteristics
Basing itself on the spirit of the Bosnian ordinary populace outside of the cultural mainstream, the movement was credited for introducing the jargon of Sarajevo
mahala
is an Arabic word variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or "neighborhood" in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations.
History
Historically, mahallas were autonomous social in ...
s (brimming with slang and
Turkish loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s) into the official Yugoslav public scene. Many of the New Primitivism songs and sketches involve stories of "small people"—retirees/pensioners, coalminers, petty criminals, street thugs, provincial girls, etc.—being placed in unusual and absurd situations. Stylistically, the New Primitives' methods drew comparisons to ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus'', sharing the short sketch form and utilizing
absurdity as means of eliciting laughs from an audience. The embodiment of New Primitivism is a youth who both reads challenging works such as
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
's ''
The Phenomenology of Spirit
''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' (german: Phänomenologie des Geistes) is the most widely-discussed philosophical work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; its German title can be translated as either ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' or ''The Phenomen ...
'', but also does not mind getting into fistfights. In the most general sense, the movement got established as a Sarajevan reaction to the
New wave and
Punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
movements that had been sweeping the Yugoslav alternative music scene for several years already. Some of New Primitivism's most notable traits were promoting and popularizing Sarajevan street jargon and slang that hadn't been well known outside of the city in others parts of Yugoslavia where
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and ...
is spoken. In doing so, the movement exposed aspects of the Sarajevan
mahala
is an Arabic word variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or "neighborhood" in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations.
History
Historically, mahallas were autonomous social in ...
culture to a wider audience by depicting local fringe characters such as petty criminals, alcoholics, lesser-known pop-cultural figures, blue-collar workers, and local streets hoodlums. Because of this, the movement was considered a locally patriotic and eclectic expression of Sarajevan urban culture.
The movement's protagonists had a specific view of New Primitivism. Perhaps the most prominent of them,
Nele Karajlić
Nenad Janković (; ; born 11 December 1962), known as Dr Nele Karajlić (), is a Bosnian Serb musician, composer, comedian, actor, writer and television director living and working in Belgrade, Serbia. One of the founders of the New Primitivism ...
, explicated it as being "created within clearly defined historical coordinates, both spatially and temporally, at the precise midpoint between the spot where
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip ( sr-Cyrl, Гаврило Принцип, ; 25 July 189428 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb student who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
Pr ...
assassinated Archduke
Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
Fr ...
in June 1914 and the spot where the Olympic flame was
lit in February 1984 while temporally, it took place sometime during the period between
Tito
Tito may refer to:
People Mononyms
* Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman
* Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...
's death in May 1980 and the beginning of the
Agrokomerc Affair
Agrokomerc is a food company headquartered in Velika Kladuša, Bosnia and Herzegovina with former operations extending across the entire area of former Yugoslavia. The company became internationally known in the late 1980s due to a corruption sc ...
in 1987" and seeing it as "resistance to any form of establishment – cultural, social, and political – not just the rock'n'roll one that dominated Sarajevo at the time with so-called 'dinosaur' bands like
Bijelo Dugme
Bijelo Dugme (trans. ''White Button'') was a Yugoslav rock band, formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1974. Bijelo Dugme is widely considered to have been the most popular band ever to exist in the former Socialist Federal Republic ...
and
Indexi
Indexi was a Bosnian and former Yugoslav rock band popular in Yugoslavia. It formed in 1962 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and disbanded in 2001 when singer Davorin Popović died. Some of their most notable songs are "Svijet u kome živ ...
, which the new primitives held in contempt to a certain extent". The movement's dominant method of social and cultural critique was to fully localize the narrative to Sarajevo, and use local urban legends, cultural and social phenomena and living fringe characters as catalysts for painting a wider political picture. In doing so, the movement became both a rigidly local expressional form that gave a platform to the language, culture and myths of the Sarajevan streets, while also breaking out into the wider Yugoslav arena. A major characteristic of the movement was the adoption of pseudonyms by all its leading figures, which tended to be either comical in nature or based on the semantics of nicknames that have always been very prevalent in Sarajevo. The main reason for this was so that none of the members could be ethnically identified. The second reason was to give a platform to the stylization of nicknames that was prominent in Sarajevo—a form of local patriotism and self-mockery.
The movement's "chief ideologue" referred to New Primitivism simply as "the first Sarajevan bullet to hit its target since Princip assassinated Ferdinand in 1914".
Origin of the term
The movement's name was introduced as a mock reaction to two early 1980s pop-culture movements:
New Romanticism
The New Romantic movement was an underground subculture movement that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The movement emerged from the nightclub scene in London and Birmingham at venues such as Billy's and The Blitz. The New ...
in the West and
Neue Slowenische Kunst
Neue Slowenische Kunst (; NSK; German: "New Slovenian Art") is a political art collective that formed in Slovenia in 1984, when the Socialist Republic of Slovenia was part of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. NSK's name was chosen to refl ...
in the Yugoslav constituent republic of
SR Slovenia. On one hand, the term New Primitivism was a clear anti-reference to New Romantic, as the Sarajevo lads sought to be anything but romantic and sugar-sweet while on the other hand, they also wanted to emphasize the stereotypes encountered in many popular Yugoslav jokes about Bosnians and Slovenians—the former portrayed as raw, unsophisticated, dim-witted, and openhearted, and the latter presented as stiff, cold, serious, distant, and calculated. In the artistic and expressional sense, New Primitivism was a reaction to the
New wave and
Punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
movements.
History
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, a generation of kids from the Sarajevo neighbourhood of
Koševo
Koševo ( cyrl, Кошево) is a neighborhood in the municipality of Centar in central Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located between the older parts of the city under Stari Grad and the newer more modern parts of the city under the ...
—all born in the early to mid-1960s—was coming up. Raised within upper-middle-class families inhabiting post-
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
apartment buildings typical of communist Yugoslavia, their interests included music, football, and movies. They soon converged on music as their main activity and simultaneously with entering high school started forming bands despite possessing very limited musical skills. Most of their musical influences were found in
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
popular culture—from early ones such as
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as "rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis made ...
,
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
, the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
,
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
, etc. to those found later on the emerging punk scene.
By early 1980, the kids were able to adapt a cellar at the 19 Fuada Midžića Street
low-rise
A low-rise is a building that is only a few stories tall or any building that is shorter than a high-rise, though others include the classification of mid-rise.
Definition
Emporis defines a low-rise as "an enclosed structure below 35 metres 15 ...
apartment building
An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...
into a makeshift rehearsal space where they held band practices,
chamber play
A chamber play is a play of usually three acts which can be performed with a small cast and practically no sets or costumes in a small space. The form became popular in the early 20th century, with leading exponents being Max Reinhardt and August S ...
s, even an odd
fashion show
A fashion show ( French ''défilé de mode'') is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase their upcoming line of clothing and/or accessories during a fashion week. Fashion shows debut every season, particularly the Spring/Summer and Fa ...
. Initially very informal with irregular rehearsals and frequently changing lineups (often through swapping band members), by 1981, the bands—named
Zabranjeno Pušenje
Zabranjeno pušenje () is a Bosnian rock band formed in Sarajevo in 1980. The group's musical style primarily consists of a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex storytelling. Curre ...
and
Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors—took on a more serious note. Adopting garage/punk rock sensibility, they started devoting more attention to songwriting and began playing small clubs around town. In parallel, from May 1981, some of the kids from both bands got a chance to collaborate on ''
Top lista nadrealista
''Top lista nadrealista'' ("The Top List of the Surrealists", sometimes "The Surrealists' Chart Toppers")—also known as ''TLN'' or ''Nadrealisti'' ("Surrealists")—is a Yugoslav sketch comedy and variety television show. Produced by TV Sar ...
'', a comedy segment on ''Primus'' radio show that aired weekly, Saturday mornings, on
Radio Sarajevo
Radio Sarajevo is a radio station and magazine that began airing 10 April 1945, four days after the liberation of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina near the end of World War II. It was Bosnia and Herzegovina's first radio station. The first words s ...
's channel two.
1982–1983: Forming a movement
The idea to create a movement as an umbrella entity encompassing their entire activity had been tossed about for months during the second part of 1982 and early 1983 between the individuals in and around Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors—the band's manager Malkolm Muharem, its main lyricist and mascot
Elvis J. Kurtović, and its singer
Rizo Petranović—who had come up with the New Primitivism Manifesto printed in 1982 in a local
fanzine
A fanzine (blend word, blend of ''fan (person), fan'' and ''magazine'' or ''-zine'') is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by fan (person), enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) ...
.
Additional notable members of the movement included
dr. Nele Karajlić,
mr. Sejo Sexon,
Dražen Ričl
Dražen Ričl (12 March 1962 – 1 October 1986) was a Bosnian rock musician and comedian, best known as the first lead vocalist of popular Sarajevo-based rock band Crvena jabuka.
Biography
Ričl was born in Sarajevo to Czech father Ferdinan ...
,
Boris Šiber,
Zenit Đozić
Zenit Đozić (born 8 October 1961) is a Bosnian actor, humorist, television producer and former rock drummer.
Career
Known under nicknames Zena and Fu-Do, Đozić started his entertainment career as a drummer of Sarajevo-based garage rock ban ...
, and others from the Sarajevo neighbourhood of
Koševo
Koševo ( cyrl, Кошево) is a neighborhood in the municipality of Centar in central Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located between the older parts of the city under Stari Grad and the newer more modern parts of the city under the ...
. Along the way, individuals outside of the narrow Koševo milieu, most notably
Branko "Đuro" Đurić, joined in and would also become prominent. Despite being a bit older and also not from the same neighbourhood, film director
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...
(who had already become well-established with his award-winning movie ''
Sjećaš li se Doli Bel?'') was an associate and friend of the crew; although his movies can not be directly associated with the movement, their spirit certainly shares some sentiment with New Primitivism. With the bands playing small gigs around the city, they encountered other up and coming rock bands such as
Plavi orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
that also cultivated similar thematic narratives focused on stories of local small time characters, but would eventually move away from the aesthetic and overtly turn towards mainstream commercialism.
The movement's wider unofficial unveiling was said to have taken place at an Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors gig in Sarajevo's CEDUS club venue during early March 1983. Also playing the gig was Zabranjeno Pušenje. Influenced by movies like 1979's ''
Quadrophenia
''Quadrophenia'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released as a double album on 26 October 1973 by Track Records. It is the group's third rock opera, the two previous being the "mini-opera" song " A Quick One, While ...
'' that portray the youth scene of London with subcultures like
mods,
rockers, and
teddy boy
The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the mid 1950s to mid 1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savil ...
s, the guys from Koševo tried to create their own local version of that. The formal introduction of the new entity changed nothing in the internal group dynamic as they all continued functioning as a neighbourhood gang of friends, but it gave the press something to latch onto and made it easier to market the bands outside of the city. By his own admission, Muharem used the movement to "try and create an impression to those in Belgrade and Zagreb that there's something more going on in Sarajevo than there actually is".
In addition to music and radio comedy, the lads decided to expand their modes of expression now that they functioned as a movement—attempting to come up with a clothing style to associate with New Primitivism. The movement's unofficial look was thus born with a démodé style consisting of waist tight
bell-bottom pants, plaid
suit jacket
A suit jacket, also called a lounge jacket, lounge coat or suit coat, is a jacket in classic menswear that is part of a suit.
Single and double-breasted
Most single-breasted suit jackets have two or three buttons, and one or four buttons are un ...
s, thin golden necklace worn above the shirt, and pointy shoes (the so-called ''špicoke'')—similar to the 1970s
leisure suit
A leisure suit is a casual suit consisting of a shirt-like jacket and matching trousers (pants)["Leisur ...](_blank)
look—which the lads adopted from petty hoodlums and small-time smugglers and
pickpocket
Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A th ...
s seen around
Baščaršija
Baščaršija (Cyrillic: Башчаршија; ) is Sarajevo's old bazaar and the historical and cultural center of the city. Baščaršija was built in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Ishaković founded the city.
Baščaršija is located on the n ...
selling, though not wearing, clothing items such as
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...
501 jeans that were either smuggled in from
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
or counterfeit locally in Yugoslavia. Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors especially embraced the throwback look, with young crowds soon showing up to their club gigs dressed this way. Meanwhile, Karajlić came up with the movement's unofficial creed: "Tuđe hoćemo, svoje nemamo" ("What's not ours, we want; because ours, we haven't got."), a parody on one of the often used political slogans of the communist period: "Tuđe nećemo, svoje ne damo." ("What's not ours, we don't want; ours, we won't give up on.").
One of the first activities on movement's behalf was writing an
open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
to Sarajevo's own
Goran Bregović
Goran Bregović (born 22 March 1950) is a recording artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the most internationally known modern musicians and composers of the Slavic-speaking countries in the Balkans, and is one of the few former Yugo ...
, the best known and most established Yugoslav rock musician who was at the moment going through a well-documented creative and commercial crisis with his band
Bijelo Dugme
Bijelo Dugme (trans. ''White Button'') was a Yugoslav rock band, formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1974. Bijelo Dugme is widely considered to have been the most popular band ever to exist in the former Socialist Federal Republic ...
's
latest studio effort getting poor reviews and selling underwhelmingly, in addition to reports of band members' infighting and vocalist
Željko Bebek
Želimir "Željko" Bebek (born 16 December 1945) is a Bosnian and Croatian vocalist and musician most notable for being the lead singer of former Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme from 1974 to 1984. He also has a successful career as a solo artis ...
's imminent departure. Dripping with jovial sarcasm and backhanded compliments, the new primitives' letter invites Bregović to join them, offering him a fresh start along with creative reset.
1983–1984: Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors get the ball rolling
Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors were the first to establish a bit of a buzz on the scene. Promoted by Muharem, who in addition to the band's business side also handled many of its creative aspects, EJK&HM were not only gigging in clubs around Sarajevo but in 1983 also started playing clubs nationwide; in Belgrade (
SKC), Zagreb (
Kulušić and Lapidarij), Rijeka (Palah), Pula, etc., getting enthusiastic reactions from young club crowds everywhere. Though their sound was hardly original with straight covers of the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
,
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
, etc. dominating the repertoire, EJK&HM live shows were a unique mixture of rock'n'roll with elements of
performance art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
and
stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...
, full of youthful exuberance with Elvis J. Kurtović—the band's lyrics writer and mascot—constantly interacting with the crowd between songs. They mostly played student clubs with their promotional activities strictly limited to printed press.
[Elvis J. Kurtovic @ Damar](_blank)
/ref> Muharem would get them publicity by talking up New Primitivism and ensuring journalists from youth-oriented papers—''Džuboks
''Džuboks'' ( sr-cyr, italic=yes, Џубокс, trans. ''Jukebox'') was a Yugoslav music magazine. Launched in 1966, it was the very first magazine in SFR Yugoslavia dedicated predominantly to rock music and the first rock music magazine to be p ...
'' and ''Reporter'' from Belgrade, ' from Zagreb, and ''Mladina
''Mladina'' (English: Youth) is a Slovenian weekly left-wing political and current affairs magazine. Since the 1920s, when it was first published, it has become a voice of protest against those in power. Today, ''Mladinas weekly issues are dis ...
'' from Ljubljana—have the 'right angle' for the story while the band members would contribute by providing colourful interviews and quotable sound bytes often delivered in form of a manifesto
A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...
.
In late July 1983, the fledgling band received a huge boost after ', a Yugoslavia-wide high-circulation weekly newsmagazine in the vein of ''Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' and ''Lui
''Lui'' (; ) is a French adult-entertainment magazine created in November 1963 by Daniel Filipacchi, a fashion photographer turned publisher, Jacques Lanzmann, a jack of all trades turned novelist, and Frank Ténot, a press agent, pataphysic ...
'', deployed its journalist Goran Gajić to Sarajevo for a story on the unconventional group. Published as a two-page spread headlined "Meteorski uspon Elvisa J. Kurtovića" (Elvis J. Kurtović's Meteoric Rise) in a magazine that's circulated in 200,000 copies, the story was by far the biggest media exposure the band had gotten up to that point. Building upon talking points already well established and developed by Muharem and Kurtović through the country's youth print media, the ''Start'' piece affirms and flatters the EJK&HM youngsters—proclaiming them to be "the next important thing in Yugoslav rock". Along with a new batch of the band members' trademark off-the-wall soundbytes sprinkled throughout, the article also re-published—on Muharem's insistence despite Kurtović's apparent opposition—their sarcastic open letter to Goran Bregović that thus got a much bigger audience.
Riding the wave of publicity generated by the ''Start'' piece, Muharem acted quickly in the fall of 1983 by ambitiously booking Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors for a double bill concert with D' Boys D' may resemble:
* D' (''D'' + apostrophe), the contracted form of words in several languages (for example, a French indefinite article); for a full list, see the Wiktionary entry
* Dʼ (''D'' + modifier apostrophe), Slavic notation for palata ...
at Sarajevo's Đuro Đaković Hall, an all-seater venue holding almost a thousand patrons. The show sold out quickly and was a smashing success, a remarkable triumph for a band that at the time hadn't been on television yet and still had no studio recordings.
Muharem soon arranged for the band to get some time in Akvarijus studio in Belgrade during December 1983 in order to record material for their debut album whose production was originally supposed to be handled by of Laboratorija Zvuka
Laboratorija Zvuka ( sr-cyr, Лабораторија Звука; trans. ''Sound Laboratory''), credited as Laboratorija (''Laboratory'') only on some of their releases, was a Serbian and Yugoslav rock band formed in Novi Sad in 1977. Noted for t ...
, but was eventually done by Goran Vejvoda
Goran Vejvoda ( Serbian: Горан Вејвода, ''Goran Vejvoda'') (born 1956 in London, United Kingdom) is an English-born, French-based, Serbian media artist (musician, composer, sound and visual artist, performance artist, photographer, wri ...
as well as Elvis J. Kurtović and Muharem themselves. Margita Stefanović
Margita "Magi" Stefanović ( sr-cyr, Маргита "Маги" Стефановић; 1 April 1959 – 18 September 2002) was a Serbian musician best known as a keyboardist of a Yugoslav rock band Ekatarina Velika (EKV).
Born in Belgrade, she wa ...
from Katarina II
Ekatarina Velika ( sr-Cyrl, Екатарина Велика, en, Catherine the Great), sometimes referred to as EKV for short, was a Yugoslav rock band from Belgrade, being one of the most successful and influential Yugoslav music acts.
Initi ...
made a guest appearance on the synthesizer during the album recording sessions as her band was recording its own debut album in the same studio at the same time.
EJK&HM and Muharem soon agreed a record contract with ZKP RTLj and their debut album ' came out in February 1984 right in the middle of the Winter Olympics being held in the city. Figuring that promoting the album during the Olympics would get them extra attention due to all the press and other visitors gathered in the city, EJK&HM held a press junket that largely turned shambolic as well as a series of club gigs at the popular student club Trasa. They also made one of their first proper TV appearances, lip-synching "Baščaršy Hanumen" on ''Hit '' (Yugoslav counterpart to ''Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...
'') while hamming it up for the cameras. The album release was followed by a promotional club tour of bigger Yugoslav cities, but since the record was selling poorly with less than 15,000 copies sold, the tour ended quickly and the deflated band members returned home to Sarajevo.
Malkolm Muharem soon quit working with the band.
1984: ''Das ist Walter'' released, ''Top lista nadrealista'' expands to television
A few months later, in April 1984, Zabranjeno Pušenje's debut album ''Das ist Walter
''Das ist Walter'' () is the debut studio album by Yugoslav band Zabranjeno Pušenje released on April 10, 1984. It was released through Jugoton in Yugoslavia.
The album title is the closing line from the 1972 partisan film ''Walter Defends Saraj ...
'' was released by Jugoton
Jugoton was the largest record label and chain record store in the former Yugoslavia based in Zagreb, SR Croatia.
History
Jugoton was formed in 1947. It is notable for releasing some of the most important former Yugoslav pop and rock records ...
in a limited issue of 3,000 copies, clearly indicative of the label's extremely low commercial expectations. Recorded in immensely modest circumstances over an unreasonably long period of seven months due to reasons beyond their control, the album features hyperlocalized punk and garage rock sensibility with songs referencing various Sarajevo-area toponyms and cultural touchstones such as Vratnik, Baščaršija
Baščaršija (Cyrillic: Башчаршија; ) is Sarajevo's old bazaar and the historical and cultural center of the city. Baščaršija was built in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Ishaković founded the city.
Baščaršija is located on the n ...
, Bare Cemetery, FK Sarajevo
Fudbalski klub Sarajevo (; English: Sarajevo Football Club) is a professional football club based in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is one of the most successful clubs in the country.
Founded on 24 October 1946, FK Sara ...
, Hadžići
Hadžići ( sr-cyrl, Хаџићи) is a town and municipality located in Sarajevo Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located south west of the city of Sarajevo. According to the 20 ...
, Bajram, Tržnica (city's main marketplace
A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
), ''Valter brani Sarajevo
''Walter Defends Sarajevo'' (; ) is a 1972 Yugoslav partisan film, directed by Hajrudin Krvavac and starring Bata Živojinović, Ljubiša Samardžić and Rade Marković. The film centres around a mysterious figure named 'Walter', who is activel ...
'', Fuada Midžića Street, and an obscure movie theater showing low-budget foreign films. Most of the songs center around individuals from the social fringe such as a Zenica prison
The Zenica prison (''Kazneno-popravni zavod zatvorenog tipa Zenica'', ''KPZ Zenica'', ''K.P. DOM'', ''Zenička kaznionica'') is a closed-type prison located in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was opened in 1886. It was the largest prison in Yu ...
-incarcerated hoodlum who knifed a man to death for sexually assaulting
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
his wife, a Hanka-and- Šaban-loving, hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
-bashing, anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
-graffiti-hating, West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
-despising local Vratnik heavy exerting his authority over the neighbourhood, a taxi driver who works only at night having recently returned home to Sarajevo following a prison stint in Zenica over an unspecified transgression, eager local community organizer/politician on his way up in the communist nomenklatura
The ''nomenklatura'' ( rus, номенклату́ра, p=nəmʲɪnklɐˈturə, a=ru-номенклатура.ogg; from la, nomenclatura) were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key admi ...
, Kreka and Banovići
Banovići ( sr-cyrl, Бановићи) is a town and municipality located in Tuzla Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in northeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The intensive develo ...
coal miners, etc.
Its initial sales were nothing to speak of.
Simultaneously with the album release, ''Top lista nadrealista'' moved to television as a weekly sketch comedy programme. The shows started airing on 2 June 1984 on TV Sarajevo's channel two as well as on JRT exchange for the rest of the country. Despite being placed in a milieu well removed from their natural setting—their comedy sketches were essentially fillers in-between folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
numbers—the show eventually proved a good vehicle for reaching a wider audience. After the opening few episodes that were largely met with indifference, the show started gaining a bit of an audience outside of its Sarajevo youth core with whom it had immediately struck a chord.
This gradually increased viewership of ''Top lista nadrealista'' had a positive effect on ''Das ist Walter
''Das ist Walter'' () is the debut studio album by Yugoslav band Zabranjeno Pušenje released on April 10, 1984. It was released through Jugoton in Yugoslavia.
The album title is the closing line from the 1972 partisan film ''Walter Defends Saraj ...
'' sales. Riding the buzz created by the TV show as well as the growing popularity of the "Zenica Blues" track (cover of Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...
's "San Quentin"), Karajlić's and Sexon's blend of punk and local storytelling began finding an increasingly receptive audience months after its initial release. No one was more surprised at this turn of events than the label itself as it was forced to order multiple new batches of the album copies on records
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, ...
and cassettes.
New Primitivism as a term also started catching on as Yugoslav media began using it when referencing the band's style or when talking about the television show. Also, another popular songs off the album, "Anarhija All Over Baščaršija" (Anarchy All Over Baščaršija
Baščaršija (Cyrillic: Башчаршија; ) is Sarajevo's old bazaar and the historical and cultural center of the city. Baščaršija was built in the 15th century when Isa-Beg Ishaković founded the city.
Baščaršija is located on the n ...
), explicitly mentions New Primitives, bringing them up in the context of "violent locals from Vratnik who love Yugoslav folk music, attack hippie
A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...
s, and are repulsed by the West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
".
On 15 September 1984 as ''Top lista nadrealista'' television episodes resumed broadcasting following the summer break, the band played Sarajevo's Dom Mladih
Dom Mladih ("Youth Centre Skenderija") is a multifunctional venue of modern concept and interior, located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of Skenderija, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technology, consisting of a dance hall wit ...
on a bill that also included Bajaga i Instruktori
Bajaga i Instruktori (Serbian Cyrillic: Бајага и Инструктори; trans. ''Bajaga and the Instructors'') are a Serbian and Yugoslav rock band formed in Belgrade in 1984. Founded and led by vocalist, guitarist and principal composer ...
in front of a raucous crowd of 4,500. The band was officially out of the clubs and now playing larger halls. In October 1984, Zabranjeno Pušenje went to Belgrade for a show at SKC where they were surprised to discover their newfound popularity. In addition to having to add an extra show in the same venue the next day due to popular demand, they also started getting recognized by kids on the street. The two SKC shows launched the band on an extensive and successful Yugoslavia-wide tour; on 4 November 1984 they sold out Hala sportova
Hala may refer to:
People
* Hala (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
* David Hala (born 1989), Australian Rugby League player
* Hāla (fl. 20-24), Indian king of the Satavahana dy ...
, a sports arena in Belgrade with 6,000 in attendance. Simultaneously, by November 1984, Karajlić began to get noticed by high-circulation lifestyle magazines in Yugoslavia such as ''TV novosti'' and ''Studio'' as the connection between his ''Top lista nadrealista'' television sketch comedy characters and his colourful rock star stage persona with Zabranjeno Pušenje got clearly established. The band would end up playing over 60 concert dates on that tour.
In parallel, the album sales ended up hitting the 100,000 mark while the term New Primitives also became well established in the process. However, the increased profile also meant increased scrutiny as Karajlić and the band were about to find out.
1984–1985: The 'Marshall' affair...
At a concert in Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Primor ...
's Dvorana Mladosti
Dvorana Mladosti ( en, Hall of Youth) is a sports hall in Rijeka, with sporting, cultural, business and entertainment events. The hall was built in Trsat in 1973. The size of the hall is 5,458 m2, and the surface of outer space is 10,486 m2. The ...
before a crowd of some two and a half thousand people on Tuesday, 27 November 1984, the band inadvertently set off a firestorm of controversy.
During soundcheck
A sound check is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance to adjust the sound on the venue's sound reinforcement or public address system. The performer and the audio engineers run through a small port ...
before the show, the band's amplifier went bust to which Karajlić jokingly exclaimed: "Crk'o maršal" (The "Marshall has croaked!"), followed by a pause before adding: "Mislim na pojačalo" ("The amplifier
An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...
, that is") (a switcheroo remark about the 1980 death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
of Marshal
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...
Tito
Tito may refer to:
People Mononyms
* Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980), commonly known mononymously as Tito, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman
* Roberto Arias (1918–1989), aka Tito, Panamanian international lawyer, diplomat, and journ ...
), getting a chuckle from a small group of people within the earshot. Liking the reaction he got during soundcheck, the twenty-one-year-old decided to start the actual concert by delivering the same joke as an explanation of why the show is starting late.
Reaction in SR Croatia
There were hardly any negative reactions during the concert or immediately after it as the band continued its tour with a triumphant concert at Dom sportova's Ledena dvorana in Zagreb in front of 12,000 fans on 10 December 1984. Though a few write-ups mentioning Karajlić's marshal quip appeared in neutral tone in Zagreb-based papers leading up to the Dom sportova concert, it would be the op-ed piece by journalist in the Rijeka-based daily newspaper '' Novi list'' that started an avalanche of criticism with far-reaching consequences. Headlined "Opak dim Zabranjenog pušenja" (Zabranjeno Pušenje's Sinister Smoke), Vičević's piece strongly denounces the band for "lack of morals" and "stepping over the line", additionally reproaching individual group members for past statements such as "Tuđe hoćemo/nećemo, svoje nemamo".
Vičević's piece cast the first stone that would soon turn into avalanche, and eventually end up in a legal process against Karajlić, as well as, by extension, complete public marginalization of the band, new primitives, and ''Top lista nadrealista''.
Initially, the ''Novi list'' criticism of the band only served to open another front in the ongoing row between two internal factions wresting for the control of the (SSOH), the provincial branch of the Yugoslav Socialist Youth League (SSOJ), itself the youth wing of the country's one and only political party— Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ). Ever since the death of Vladimir Bakarić
Vladimir Bakarić (; 8 March 1912 – 16 January 1983) was a Yugoslav and Croatian communist revolutionary and a politician.
Bakarić helped to organise the partisan resistance in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. From 1948 ...
a year and a half earlier, the fight for the control of SR Croatia's SKJ branch (SKH) had been on between two factions: the so-called ''bakarićevci'' who ostensibly pressed on with the old guard Bakarić policies and the so-called ''šuvarovci'', supposed reformers who gathered around the up-and-coming young thirty-seven-year-old communist Stipe Šuvar
Stipe Šuvar (17 February 1936 – 29 June 2004) was a Croatian politician and sociologist who was regarded to have been one of the most influential communist politicians in the League of Communists of Croatia in Socialist Republic of Croatia d ...
. Since the Rijeka concert had been organized by the local pro-Šuvar SSO in Rijeka, the rival pro-Bakarić camp jumped on Karajlić's Marshal quip in order to smear the concert organizers and other pro-Šuvar elements in the organization. The pro-Šuvar faction, which held control of the Croatian SSO's Zagreb-based weekly newspaper ''Polet'', used its pages as a platform for responses and counter-accusations. By extension, ''Polet'' vehemently defended Karajlić and Zabranjeno Pušenje. For his part, while generally appreciative of ''Polets support, Karajlić would also acknowledge in later interviews that it was no more principled than the attacks from the other side: "Neither side gave a damn about me, really, I was just a rhetorical device
In rhetoric, a rhetorical device, persuasive device, or stylistic device is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of persuading them towards considering a topic from a perspective, ...
, a prop used by both sides in their little internal fight".
Reaction in Sarajevo
Some ten days later, in late December 1984, the news of the Rijeka flap made it back to Sarajevo where more journalists—most notably Pavle Pavlović in the ''As'' weekly newspaper—were ready to condemn the band further. In his piece headlined "Otrovni dim Zabranjenog pušenja" (Zabranjeno Pušenje's Poisonous Smoke), Pavlović labels Karajlić's words "an insensitive association and piece of sarcasm that insults right to the heart". The columnist then trails off to even take ideological issue with the humorous sound bytes in radio jingles promoting the December 1984 release of the ''Top lista nadrealista'' radio material on audio cassette by Diskoton
''Diskoton'' was a major record label in SFR Yugoslavia, based in Sarajevo, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The company ceased to exist in 1992, with the outbreak of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The studio was destroyed along ...
. He continues by predicting that "the young band's life span will be little longer than that of a butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
" before adding that "sadly even such short time is enough to indoctrinate the impressionable kids with new thoughts, including continuous ridicule of everything that we've created so far as well as banal, low-brow tampering with the basic tenet of the People's Liberation War—Tuđe nećemo, svoje ne damo". Pavlović concludes by musing "whether the time has come to extinguish Zabranjeno Pušenje's poisonous smoke for good". Being published in a high-circulation newspaper, whose average number of copies distributed per issue regularly exceeded 350,000 by late 1984 (and would occasionally even go as high as 420,000), gave the story a huge audience in the city and beyond.
In addition to the high-circulation ''As'' tabloid, other Sarajevo-based newspapers such as ''Ven'' and ''Oslobođenje
''Oslobođenje'' (; 'Liberation') is a daily newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina based in the capital city Sarajevo. Founded on 30 August 1943, in the midst of World War II, on a patch of territory liberated by Partisans, in what was otherwise a ...
'' quickly joined in the condemnation of the band via strongly worded op-eds of their own.
Ironically, weekly tabloid ''Ven'''s relatively short broadside against the band headlined "Smrdljiv dim Zabranjenog pušenja" (Zabranjeno Pušenje's Stinking Smoke) came out in the very next issue after the same newspaper had named Zabranjeno Pušenje the "1984 band of the year" based on its own poll of Yugoslav pop-rock and folk composers. Only one week after awarding the group, ''Ven'' distances itself from Zabranjeno Pušenje by expressing "regret we named these young boys the best rock band of 1984" and assures the public that "had the news of their behaviour been available one week prior, they would have never been included in the poll". The unsigned op-ed concludes by telling ''Vens readers that "these youngsters are using the platform afforded to them to launch pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s that cause unequivocal associations of ridicule of the holiest of all Yugoslavs
Yugoslavs or Yugoslavians ( Bosnian and Croatian: ''Jugoslaveni'', Serbian and Macedonian ''Jugosloveni''/Југословени; sl, Jugoslovani) is an identity that was originally designed to refer to a united South Slavic people. It has ...
as well as scornful derision of one of the fundamental maxim
Maxim or Maksim may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine
** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition
** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition
*Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...
s of our society uđe nećemo, svoje ne damo.
The ''Oslobođenje'' piece, which reprinted Vičević's ''Novi list'' op-ed in full followed by ''Oslobođenjes own severe criticism of Zabranjeno Pušenje, was especially damning for the band considering the daily newspaper presumed a more serious reputation and tone than ''As'' and ''Ven'' and as such usually steered clear of pop culture and show business topics. Headlined "Opušci novih primitivaca" (The New Primitives' Butts), the ''Oslobođenje'' editorial by its columnist Ramo Kolar admonishes Karajlić for "insulting and smearing the Marshal of Yugoslavia in the ugliest way" and wonders "which sources
Source may refer to:
Research
* Historical document
* Historical source
* Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence
* Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...
(of life) do they he new primitivesdraw their insults and smears of the people they could barely remember (and who are immeasurably better than them ethically and in many other ways) from" before concluding: "It's one thing to crack locally-flavoured jokes, but it's quite another to spit upon the things that have made this country, which rose from the ashes and blood of its best sons, what it is. That is not something to be, excuse me, fucked around with by the ''new primitives'' or anyone else".
Stung by the ''Oslobođenje'' piece, the very next day the members of Zabranjeno Pušenje reacted by issuing a letter to all socio-political organizations within the city of Sarajevo and the Socialist Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, including the print media outlets that had been criticizing the band. Referencing the ''Oslobođenje'' write-up, the band members claim it "contains grave untruths and unbelievable accusations about our on-stage behaviour based on unverified and false rumours that have been maliciously spread in order to discredit us morally and politically". Expressing deep disappointment that as born-and-bred Sarajevans they're experiencing media attacks in their own city, the Zabranjeno Pušenje members also remind the public of their socialist credentials by bringing up their three performances at various Relay of Youth
The Relay of Youth (Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian language, Slovenian: ''Štafeta mladosti'' (Serbian Cyrillic, Cyrillic: ''Штафета младости''), Macedonian language, Macedonian: ''Штафета на младоста'', Albanian lan ...
runnings including their live performance before 100,000 youths at the Marx and Engels Square in Belgrade some six months earlier at the Youth Day
National Youth Day is a holiday dedicated to the youths of a country. It is observed by 18 countries, on many dates throughout the year. The United Nations agreed on the date of 12 August in 1999 in South Africa.
National Youth Day
International ...
celebrations. The letter continues by conveying "bitterness over the attacks originating from sections of the press in our own city without even seeking our side of the story" before making a veiled reference to ''As'' journalist Pavle Pavlović by complaining that "more credence seems to be given to a malicious manufacturer of false rumours and spitefully presented untruths than to us who were actually there". The gist of the letter is their claim that they never insulted the image and legacy of Comrade Tito thus denying media reports claiming otherwise and labeling them "monstrous lies". However, the letter was generally ignored within Sarajevo and SR Bosnia-Herzegovina as the only press outlets to publish it some twenty days later were Zagreb's ''Polet'' and Belgrade's ''Politika
''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and owners ...
''.
Since none of the press outlets in Sarajevo and the rest of Bosnia and Herzegovina published their letter, the members decided to go to the institutions of the system directly, arranging two days later to be received by the Bosnia-Herzegovina Communist League Central Committee member and managing to get some assurances from him that the situation would soon settle down. However, quite the opposite began happening as the band's already scheduled concerts started being canceled. The first in what would turn out to be a log series of canceled concerts over the coming months were the two shows scheduled in Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, enterta ...
on the 11th and 12 January 1985.
In a communist country where "verbal offence" was criminalized and listed in the criminal code
A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that migh ...
as grounds for legal prosecution, Karajlić, and other band members, were summoned for dozens of police questionings. Communist Yugoslavia had its sacred cows and public criticism or ridicule, either veiled or open, of Tito, the party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
, or the People's Liberation War was grounds for severe punishment. Karajlić ended up being taken to court with a criminal charge that was eventually reduced to a misdemeanor one in a legal process that stretched on for years.
...and its consequences
However, an even bigger problem was that Zabranjeno Pušenje became blacklisted as a result of the Marshal episode. While not banned outright, their songs were taken off radio playlists, their access to television was restricted, and more than 30 of their already booked concerts in early 1985 ended up getting canceled due to pressure from above that manifested itself through sudden introduction of administrative obstacles such as denying permits for the venues on the day of the show and so on.
Throughout January 1985, the new primitives experienced multiple bizarre manifestations of this sudden anti-Zabranjeno Pušenje hysteria in Sarajevo.
Each January, during winter school break, TV Sarajevo's daytime schedule consisted of various kids' shows reruns, and one such show happened to feature the band's hit song "Zenica Blues". Not being aware of that, the technician running the control room
A control room or operations room is a central space where a large physical facility or physically dispersed service can be monitored and controlled. It is often part of a larger command center.
Overview
A control room's purpose is produc ...
that day let the show air by mistake. Since Zabranjeno Pušenje were essentially banned from the station, TV Sarajevo executives found it sufficiently necessary to apologize for the oversight later that day in the station's central daily newscast ''Dnevnik 2'' and also to issue temporary suspensions both to the technician as well as to the executive in charge.
By association, the hysteria also spread to ''Top lista nadrealista'' activities. While promoting their freshly released comedy album
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
(released by Diskoton on audio cassette, containing the best-of compilation of 'Top lista nadrealista' radio segment) in Sarajevo, there was such a stigma attached to the group's activity in the city that not a single journalists was brave enough to show up at the promotional press event at Muzikalije record store in Štrosmajerova Street, fearing that being seen there would be interpreted as a public show of support for beleaguered Karajlić and the rest of his mates.
Due to all the problems and hassle suddenly associated with organizing a Zabranjeno Pušenje gig, local promoters began avoiding the band despite clear demand for their concerts. Finding itself increasingly isolated in addition to seeing its commercial momentum slip away, the band decided to invest all its energy into organizing a single high-profile gig that would hopefully as much as anything serve as a statement of encouragement for all potential promoters not to shy away from the band. Still, despite selling out Hala Pionir
Hala may refer to:
People
* Hala (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name)
* David Hala (born 1989), Australian Rugby League player
* Hāla (fl. 20-24), Indian king of the Satavahana dyn ...
in Belgrade on Saturday, 16 February 1985 with more than 7,000 people in attendance, the concert didn't have the desired media effect and the band's downward slide continued with gigs now completely dried up.
Facing insurmountable obstacles, the group gave in temporarily, deciding to lay low for some time while some of the members went back to making ''Top lista nadrealista'' on Radio Sarajevo. However, in March 1985, the authorities put an end to that too, removing the segment for good from the radio schedule.
Just as the career of one New Primitivism band, Zabranjeno Pušenje, was suddenly spiraling downhill, another band from the same milieu, Plavi Orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
, was getting big.
Other bands that at one time or another identified with New Primitives include: Bombaj Štampa
Bombaj Štampa ( en, Bombay Press) is a Bosnian pop-rock group from Sarajevo dating formed in 1982. It, together with Zabranjeno Pušenje and Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, participated in creating a new movement known as New Primitivism in Ex ...
, Plavi Orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
, Dinar
The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread.
The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin of ...
and Crvena Jabuka
Crvena jabuka () is a pop rock band formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1985. Since then they had great success and are still very popular. They were a part of the New primitives movement that started during the 80s.
Biography
The ...
, although they quickly moved on to more commercial and communicative forms of expression.
1984–1985: Muharem takes over Plavi Orkestar, ''Soldatski bal'' hits it big
Though the torch of New Primitivism had primarily been carried by Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors and Zabranjeno Pušenje, other bands were also associated with the movement.
After splitting with Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors following the lackluster reception of their debut album, crafty manager Malkolm Muharem switched over to another local Sarajevo outfit—Plavi Orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
—a band that had also been gigging on the city's student club scene for some time already and was now looking to take the next step by recording and releasing a studio album. Though also starting out as a garage/punk rock group that often crossed paths with Pušenje and EJK (Orkestar's bassist Ćera I even played on Pušenje's demo recordings before joining Orkestar while the bands also often held club gigs together), over time, especially after achieving stable lineup of Loša, Pava, Ćera I, and Ćera II in early summer 1983, Plavi Orkestar moved to more conventional forms of expression within Yugoslav general cultural context. In practice, that meant essentially abandoning punk in favour of pop and openly flirting with Yugoslav commercial folk in their sound. Though opening doors for them commercially, this practice somewhat placed them on the fringes of New Primitivism. Compared to the two main new primitive outfits, their stage appearance was far more orderly and their lyrics were less cerebral.
Nevertheless, Muharem saw a new opportunity with the four fresh-faced lads each of whom just turned 20 having recently returned to the city from their respective year-long mandatory army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
services. In addition to crossing paths with them at various gigs over the preceding few years while he managed Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors, Muharem had already shared a few instances of brief business collaboration with the Plavi Orkestar youngsters such as helping them, in September 1983, arrange demo
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
recording sessions at Enco Lesić's Druga Maca studio in Belgrade right before they went away to serve their respective mandatory army stints. In fall 1984 when Muharem officially took the band under his wing, it barely existed with its main creative duo—frontman Saša Lošić
Saša Lošić "Loša" (; born 19 July 1964) is a Bosnian recording artist. He initially rose to prominence as the lead vocalist of the Bosnian-based music act Plavi orkestar, which is one of the most popular music bands of the former Yugoslav Pop ...
and guitarist —not on speaking terms and Pava not participating in any band-related activities. Not deterred, Muharem took their 1983 demos over to Jugoton's chief executive , pitching him another new primitive band by presenting Plavi Orkestar's sound and image as camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
. By his own admission, Muharem also used the tremendous success of Zabrenjeno Pušenje's ''Das ist Walter'' album as his main selling point with Škarica who reportedly needed further convincing as he made the band record more demos. Through personal connections like Prljavo Kazalište's , Muharem got Parni Valjak
Parni Valjak (; "steamroller") is a Croatian and former Yugoslav rock band. They were one of the top acts of the former Yugoslav rock scene, and one of the top rock bands in Croatia.
Biography
Parni Valjak was founded in 1975 in Zagreb. Unl ...
's to agree to record a few more demos with the Plavi Orkestar youngsters, which brought Pavičić back into the fold and by January 1985 all four were off to Zagreb to record in SIM studio
SIM Studio (also known as Studio Smolec) is a Croatian recording studio owned by Vladimir Smolec and Tomo in der Mühlen founded in the 1980s in Zagreb. Productions of SIM studio sold in tens of millions LPs of all the most influential Yugoslav ...
. Subsequently, these new demos also managed to secure a pre-contract with Jugoton.
The album named ''Soldatski bal
''Soldatski bal'' (translation: ''The Soldiers' Ball'') is the first studio album by the Yugoslav band Plavi orkestar, released in 1985. With over 500,000 copies sold, it is the best-selling debut album in Yugoslavia and its successor states.
...
'' came out in February 1985 and instantly created a sensation all over Yugoslavia, placing the young band among the most successful Yugoslav rock acts like Bijelo Dugme and Riblja Čorba
Riblja Čorba ( sr-Cyrl, Рибља Чорба, pronounced ; translation: lit. ''Fish Stew'') is a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band formed in Belgrade in 1978. The band was one of the most popular and most influential acts of the Yugoslav ...
. Muharem essentially stayed true to the promotional techniques he previously implemented with Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors—print media and soundbites—though the sarcastic bravado of EJK&HM was now replaced with Plavi Orkestar's dreamy boyish charm. However, this time it had a tremendous commercial effect as the band embarked on a Yugoslavia-wide tour in late summer 1985 with scenes of thousands of screaming and fainting teenage girls repeated in town after town. Named 'Bolje biti pijan nego star' (Better Drunk than Old) after the band's hit track, the tour included 140 concerts in sports arenas and other large venues throughout the country. Muharem additionally hired journalist-turned-filmmaker Goran Gajić to shoot a tour documentary thus reuniting with him two years after Gajić wrote a glowing summer 1983 piece on Elvis J. Kurtović in ''Start''. Furthermore, Gajić directed a video for Plavi Orkestar's hit track "Kad mi kažeš, paša" featuring actresses Tanja Bošković
Tanja Bošković ( sr-Cyrl, Тања Бошковић; born 27 June 1953) is a Serbian actress. She has performed in more than forty films since 1974.
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boskovic, Tanja
Serbian ...
, Sonja Savić
Sonja Savić ( sr-Cyrl, Соња Савић; 15 September 1961 – 23 September 2008) was a Serbian actress, famous for her husky voice and series of impressive roles in some of the more memorable 1980s Yugoslav films. Sonja appeared in Miroslav ...
, journalist , and TV personality Suzana Mančić. The album ended up selling 550,000 copies. Though with unexpected and sudden success the band's sensibility quickly transformed even more into folkish pop as they almost morphed into a sugary boy band
A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...
, many media outlets still presented them as a new primitive group, giving the movement unprecedented promotion in Yugoslavia during the first half of 1985.
1985–1986: Ričl leaves Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors to form Crvena Jabuka, gets big immediately
After parting ways with their manager Malkolm Muharem in mid-1984 following the disappointing commercial performance of their debut album ''Mitovi i legende o Kralju Elvisu'', Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors kept soldiering on with the same lineup, releasing another record—1985's ''Da Bog da crk'o rok'n'rol''—that similarly failed to connect with the general audience.
Their June 1985 appearance at YU Rock Misija
YU Rock Misija (known in English as YU Rock Mission) was the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's contribution to Bob Geldof's Band Aid campaign, which culminated with the Live Aid concert. It consisted of recording the "Za milion godina" ...
at the Marakana
The Rajko Mitić Stadium ( sr, / , ), previously known as Red Star Stadium ( sr, / ), also known as Marakana ( sr-Cyrl, Маракана), is a multi-use stadium in Belgrade, Serbia which has been the home ground of Red Star Belgrade since ...
stadium in Belgrade effectively turned out to be the band's swan song
The swan song ( grc, κύκνειον ᾆσμα; la, carmen cygni) is a metaphorical phrase for a final gesture, effort, or performance given just before death or retirement. The phrase refers to an ancient belief that swans sing a beautiful so ...
. Guitarist Dražen Ričl—who had since May 1985 already been musically reconnecting with Zlaja Arslanagić, his old Ozbiljno Pitanje bandmate and ''Top lista nadrealista'' co-protagonist—officially left Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors after the YU Rock Misija performance. The rest of the members—vocalist Rizo Petranović, drummer Radomir "Hare" Gavrilović, bassist Nermin "Fićo" Dedić, and keyboardist Zoran "Poka" Degan—also followed suit as the band essentially ceased to exist.
Though Ričl and Arslanagić had been in touch throughout the years since their 1982 Ozbiljno Pitanje split, the two reconvened in summer 1985 to form a new band they would eventually name Crvena Jabuka
Crvena jabuka () is a pop rock band formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1985. Since then they had great success and are still very popular. They were a part of the New primitives movement that started during the 80s.
Biography
The ...
. Since both the twenty-three-year-old Ričl and twenty-four-year-old Arslanagić had already achieved a measure of prominence via ''Top lista nadrealista'', their summer 1985 gathering for a musical project generated press even before the new band released any songs. Press comparisons and parallels to Plavi Orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
, another Sarajevo band whose young members came up through New Primitivism before moving on to a more commercial sound and blowing up on the Yugoslav music scene, were especially frequent. The press narrative of Crvena Jabuka following in the footsteps of Plavi Orkestar's creative and business model especially intensified when the new band signed with Jugoton towards the end of 1985. The album recording sessions in SIM studio
SIM Studio (also known as Studio Smolec) is a Croatian recording studio owned by Vladimir Smolec and Tomo in der Mühlen founded in the 1980s in Zagreb. Productions of SIM studio sold in tens of millions LPs of all the most influential Yugoslav ...
in Zagreb were also closely followed by the Yugoslav music press including even television coverage.
In late March 1986, Crvena Jabuka's eponymous debut album got released and immediately went on to great commercial success. Though employing some of the localized aesthetics of New Primitivism, the album is a broad Yugoslav commercial record designed to reach as many youths as possible with a sound ranging between melodic power pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ch ...
and pop rock
Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre with an emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than rock music. Originating in the late 1950s as an alternative to normal rock and roll, earl ...
. Still, many critics and observers kept connecting Crvena Jabuka with New Primitivism despite even Ričl and Arslanagić distancing their new band from the movement while doing promotional press for the album.
1987: Official demise
New Primitivism got disbanded in 1987 in a mock ceremony attended by most of its founders and prominent figures. Shot at Sarajevo's Academy of Performing Arts (ASU) in form of a television comedy sketch for TV Sarajevo, ''The Official New Primitivism Disbandment'' was framed as a Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ) congress with delegates taking turns to speak at the podium. Named the 7th Extraordinary New Primitivism Congress, it concluded that the movement is to be disbanded immediately by its members with the mantra "better us o do it
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), pl ...
than somebody else".
Reaction and reception
1983
The initial wider Yugoslav media reaction to the movement wasn't positive. During New Primitivism's nascent stage, following a summer 1983 double-bill concert by Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors and Plavi Orkestar at Belgrade's SKC, a blurb
A blurb is a short promotional piece accompanying a piece of creative work. It may be written by the author or publisher or quote praise from others. Blurbs were originally printed on the back or rear dust jacket of a book, and are now also fou ...
appeared in the high-circulation ''Politika
''Politika'' ( sr-Cyrl, Политика; ''Politics'') is a Serbian daily newspaper, published in Belgrade. Founded in 1904 by Vladislav F. Ribnikar, it is the oldest daily newspaper still in circulation in the Balkans.
Publishing and owners ...
'' daily reviewing the show, but also discussing the movement in general. In his negative review, rock critic Ljuba Trifunović places New Primitivsm in the same context with commercial folk
Folk or Folks may refer to:
Sociology
*Nation
*People
* Folklore
** Folk art
** Folk dance
** Folk hero
** Folk music
*** Folk metal
*** Folk punk
*** Folk rock
** Folk religion
* Folk taxonomy
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Folk Plus or Fol ...
singer Lepa Brena
Fahreta Živojinović (; ; born 20 October 1960), known by her stage name Lepa Brena (), is a folk singer, actress, and businesswoman. She is the best-selling female recording artist from the former Yugoslavia.
Lepa Brena grew up in Brčko, Bosni ...
's then-current flirtation with rock sound (which he pejoratively terms " naïve rock"), expressing disappointment that "both appeared precisely when we began to think Yugoslav rock
Popular music in Yugoslavia includes the pop and rock music of the former SFR Yugoslavia, including all their genres and subgenres. The scene included the constituent republics: SR Slovenia, SR Croatia, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Montenegr ...
finally became immune to such diseases due to new wave effectively washing away the so-called ' shepherd rock' and all of its derivatives". Seeing New Primitivsm in continuity with several past offerings from the Sarajevo musical scene such as composer Nikola Borota Radovan
Nikola () is a given name which, like Nicholas, is a version of the Greek ''Nikolaos'' (Νικόλαος). It is common as a masculine given name in the South Slavic countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Monteneg ...
's opus, Jutro, early Bijelo Dugme
Bijelo Dugme (trans. ''White Button'') was a Yugoslav rock band, formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1974. Bijelo Dugme is widely considered to have been the most popular band ever to exist in the former Socialist Federal Republic ...
, and Milić Vukašinović
Milić Vukašinović ( sr-cyr, Милић Вукашиновић; born 9 March 1950) is a Yugoslav musician, the founder of the hard rock band Vatreni Poljubac as well as one-time drummer of the famous Yugoslav rock bands Bijelo Dugme and Indexi. ...
's collaboration with Hanka Paldum
Hanka Paldum (born 28 April 1956) is a Bosnian sevdalinka singer and founder of the record label Sarajevo Disk. She is regarded as one of the best female sevdah performers of the 20th century and is popular in her home country of Bosnia as well ...
, Trifunović feels the adjective "new" to be entirely superfluous in the movement's name: "Elvis J. Kurtovich & His Meteors and Plavi Orkestar are representatives of this renewed and stripped-down primitivsm, and even if some inconsequential differences do exist when comparing the two bands' interpretative dilettantism (with EJK&HM coming out on top), what's really depressing is their absolute creative pathos
Pathos (, ; plural: ''pathea'' or ''pathê''; , for "suffering" or "experience") appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a term used most often in rhetoric (in which it is c ...
embodied in the creed 'let's be ourselves'—primitive Balkanoids".
Though initially mostly negatively reviewed by the Yugoslav rock critics, the movement did receive an unexpected compliment from Yugoslavia's most successful and famous rock musician Goran Bregović
Goran Bregović (born 22 March 1950) is a recording artist from Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the most internationally known modern musicians and composers of the Slavic-speaking countries in the Balkans, and is one of the few former Yugo ...
, himself often mercilessly lampooned by the new primitives. During fall 1983, in a televised interview for TV Sarajevo's rock music show ''Rock oko'', he referred to New Primitivism as "the only authentic Yugoslav answer to punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
".
1984
As the movement got more profiled in late 1983 and especially throughout 1984—with the emergence of Zabranjeno Pušenje's debut album and start of ''Top lista nadrealista'' on television—it began getting better notices in Yugoslav media.
In July 1984, rock critic Darko Glavan wrote a detailed opinion piece on New Primitivism in general as well as EJK&HM and Zabranjeno Pušenje specifically. Expressing mild approval, he outlines his personal acceptance of the movement: "If someone likes them, I'm not going to dissuade them, however, if someone doesn't like them, I'm not going to attempt convincing them otherwise". Furthermore, while noting new primitives are deserving of the media attention they had been receiving, he wonders whether the amount of publicity has become excessive because "they are terrific as an added flavourful spice to a developed and varied rock scene, but can hardly function as the dominant trend". Focusing on EJK&HM, he labels them "Bosnia's answer to Sha Na Na
Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll doo-wop group. Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs, it simultaneously revived and parodied the music and the New York street culture of the 1950s. After g ...
", before proclaiming them an acceptable form of entertainment for the general masses and a welcome break from incoherent art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...
pretentiousness. Though further expressing skepticism whether this is still enough for a conventional rock career, citing EJK&HM's "unwillingness to freshen up their repetitive jokes and yucks" as a concern for their long term career prospects. Glavan is more upbeat about Pušenje, finding them to be "more musical, more talented, and in the context of an LP, simply stronger than EJK&HM". Comparing Pušenje to The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
in addition to extolling their artistic ambition that "saves them from becoming one-dimensional caricatures and additionally invokes locally flavoured stylized neorealism of Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica ( sr-cyrl, Емир Кустурица; born 24 November 1954) is a Serbian film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and musician. He also has French citizenship.http://www.serbia.com/emir-kusturica-artist-builder-and-anti-glo ...
's '' Sjećaš li se Doli Bel?''", Glavan feels that, despite occasionally failing to properly articulate their inventiveness, the band has a fresh voice and a couple of great tracks off their debut album.
1985
New Primitivism received a lot more press attention throughout early 1985 as the so-called "Marshal affair" raged in the country's media following Zabranjeno Pušenje frontman Nele Karajlić's supposed insulting pun about the death of Marshal Tito at the band's late November 1984 concert in Rijeka.
As part of his January 1985 article on the various aspects of Zabranjeno Pušenje's "Marshal affair" while the scandal was still unfolding and its outcome was very much in flux, rock critic Zlatko Gall
Zlatko Gall (born December 1, 1954) is a Croatian journalist, commentator and rock critic.
Gall was born in Split, and he graduated in art history and archeology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb. Gall wo ...
included his observations about the band specifically and New Primitivism in general. Writing through the lens of the ongoing political scandal being litigated in the Yugoslav media and the court of public opinion, he summarizes the philosophy of New Primitivism's public activity as "possessing clear anti-intellectual
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, and science as impractical, politically mo ...
traits, including glorification of the streetwise local noble savage
A noble savage is a literary stock character who embodies the concept of the indigene, outsider, wild human, an "other" who has not been "corrupted" by civilization, and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness. Besides appearing in man ...
via humour that plays to the cheap seats and as such straddles the thin line between allusion
Allusion is a figure of speech, in which an object or circumstance from unrelated context is referred to covertly or indirectly. It is left to the audience to make the direct connection. Where the connection is directly and explicitly stated (as ...
on one side and vulgarity
Vulgarity is the quality of being common, coarse, or unrefined. This judgement may refer to language, visual art, social class, or social climbers. John Bayley claims the term can never be self-referential, because to be aware of vulgarity is to d ...
and repugnance on the other". Gall continues by opining that Zabranjeno Pušenje's debut album ''Das ist Walter'' "mostly lands on the right side of that line despite the band's crudeness and various deficiencies that they managed to turn into an advantage" before lauding it further, just like Glavan did six months earlier, for "successfully evoking and re-creating the atmosphere of Kusturica's ''Sjećaš li se Doli Bel?''", which Gall sees as a "film that in addition to stirring up nostalgia also awakened the consciousness of young Sarajevans about their own (new primitive) identity". The journalist concludes that Zabranjeno Pušenje thus set the stage for a career such as Buldožer
Buldožer (meaning " bulldozer"), was a Yugoslav-Slovenian progressive rock band from the 1970s and 1980s. They were one of the first bands in communist Yugoslavia that could be considered Avant-prog, and forefathers of the Yugoslav new wave ...
's, but that its enormous success "facilitated by the euphoria around the new primitive ''Top lista nadrealista''" over the past year "often pushed the band to the wrong side of the vulgarity line during their live shows at which point it's only a small step to the distasteful remark and the unsuccessful joke about an American amplifier".
Against the backdrop of the "Marshall affair" shifting into a higher gear that saw Zabranjeno Pušenje and New Primitivism essentially proscribed from public activity in various parts of Yugoslavia—with a plethora of canceled Zabranjeno Pušenje gigs, radio playlist bans for their songs, removal of ''Top lista nadrealista'' from the Sarajevo radio and television, a legal case being opened against Karajlić, etc.—film critic and columnist Bogdan Tirnanić wrote a long-form piece in March 1985 criticizing Yugoslavia's top-down cultural policies using the phenomenon of New Primitivism as an example. Observing the movement being snuffed out on political grounds and removed from sight immediately after it had been afforded enormous media attention, Tirnanić offers personal support to the beleaguered new primitives by stating he "believes young Karajlić's version of events that what they actually meant was really just the damn amplifier". The writer then posits that "even though it will at some future point in time be completely irrelevant whether these kids had blurted out what's being ascribed to them, none of it affects the essence of the matter because even if this public investigation centered around what Karajlić meant by his Rijeka on-stage quip hadn't been launched the way it had been, as a third-hand ''one-guy-told-me-so'' account, the whole new primitive thing was always going to be bitterly dealt with in one way or another". Before expounding on this claim, Tirnanić steps back to offer his views on the creative merits of New Primitivism, proclaiming it "without a doubt one of the biggest media and cultural attractions of 1984 that appeared as a local subcultural philosophy in reaction to the early 1980s Belgrade, Zagreb, and Ljubljana respective rock'n'roll milieus once those cities' punk and new wave scenes began to diminish" and summing it up as a "unique and simple program that outright eliminates the danger of ever becoming, even unconsciously or by chance, an epigone of a global trend due to affirming the distinctive cultural content originating from an authentic natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
—''homo balcanicus''—with its wide range of socio-folkloric
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fro ...
characteristics: from pulling a '' čakija'' to optional personal hygiene
Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
". Tirnanić continues by remarking that "it's not always easy to tell whether dr. Nele Karajlić and Elvis J. Kurtović are skewering the characters they narrate about, lampooning them with an ironic campy
Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aes ...
distance or they genuinely hoist them up to be admired as unique individuals thoroughly cleansed of any traces of civilization outside of the Balkan experience". The writer feels that "which of the two attitudes the new primitive performers end up taking towards their characters seems to vary from situation to situation while they're probably wishing they could have it both ways at the same time" though adding that "they generally do play it with ironic distance more often than straight, but mostly out of necessity in order to make their fairly thin material, in terms of duration and quantity, last a little longer". Tirnanić then turns his attention specifically to the movement's most popular offerings: ''Top lists nadrealista'' and Zabranjeno Pušenje's ''Das ist Walter''. When it comes to ''Top lists nadrealistas 1984 series, though considering it a "welcome breath of fresh air on stale Yugoslav television", the writer also feels that "its socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
-camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
style is some twenty years too late after 's early 1960s plays in and Komarac cabaret".
Legacy
New Primitivism as a sub-cultural movement retained prominence well after its official 1987 demise.
Sarajevo-born-and-raised novelist Miljenko Jergović
Miljenko Jergović (born 28 May 1966) is a prominent Bosnian writer.
Biography
Born in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia to Croatian parents, Jergović received his M.A. in literature from the Sarajevo University. While at high ...
referenced New Primitivism on many occasions in his literary output as a newspaper columnist, bringing it up fondly and in a positive light. His praise for the movement's protagonists covers a wide range: from applauding their contributions to Sarajevan civic pride to admiring the storytelling
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...
techniques and use of language in their songs and comedy sketches. In the early 1990s, he summarized New Primitivism as "a general cultural emancipatory movement that was supposed to rid the Bosnians of their eternal inferiority complex
In psychology, an inferiority complex is an intense personal feeling of inadequacy, often resulting in the belief that one is in some way deficient, or inferior, to others.
According to Alfred Adler, a feeling of inferiority may be brought ab ...
towards Zagreb and Belgrade". In a 2014 column, he explained it as "a gesture of self-irony, which served as a way for the city of Sarajevo to get out of its cultural cocoon and, for a short time at least, become the cultural capital of Yugoslavia" before adding that it also brought "a mockery of the regime and a complete carnivalization of everyday life while threading a fantastic ability to tell a 'small story' as well as provide tribute and homage through storytelling". Writing in 2017 about the language, style, and metaphorical associations used by the new primitives, Jergović saw all of it as "part of an artificial Sarajevan čaršija
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...
code these guys invented for the purpose of telling their stories and writing their songs, the same code that would eventually find its way to the city's streets and even into its intellectual salons—bullshit chambers of the new Sarajevan cultural and literary elite". Jergović furthermore exclaimed in the same piece that "the language in the early ''Top lista nadrealista'' and initial Zabranjeno Pušenje's and EJK&HM's albums had no bearing in reality as no one in the city of Sarajevo actually spoke that way", explaining it all as "a persiflage of sorts, a knowing self-mockery that assumed all kinds of embellishment". He concluded by saying that "what began as a persiflage soon ended up as a widely-accepted standard n Yugoslaviaso much so that because of these few uniquely talented and humorous individuals, the gift of humour became a collective one in the sense that if the stereotype that Gypsies
The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...
are good at singing and playing instruments is true, and if all Black people
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
know how to dance and hold rhythm then everyone in Bosnia must be able to tell a joke and entertain a crowd".
In his scathing 1993 rebuke of the movement, Muhidin Džanko, a professor at the University of Sarajevo
The University of Sarajevo ( Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian: ''Univerzitet u Sarajevu'' / Sveučilište u Sarajevu / Универзитет у Сарајеву) is a public university located in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the larges ...
's Faculty of Philosophy, labeled New Primitivism an "exceptionally anti-Islamic movement" that "thanks to the charisma of its protagonists, managed to directly obstruct and even eliminate the national feelings of the Bosnian Muslim youth, majority of whom are proud members of the 'new primitive nation'". He furthermore saw the poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry.
History
The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" an ...
of New Primitivism to be rooted in its specific language containing "supposed speech patterns and parlance of the Sarajevo čaršija
A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, such as in the W ...
and mahala
is an Arabic word variously translated as district, quarter, ward, or "neighborhood" in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations.
History
Historically, mahallas were autonomous social in ...
s", before rejecting it as a "cheap trick meant to lampoon the traditional verbal expression of Sarajevo Muslims and degrade their Oriental
The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the ...
lexicology
Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that analyzes the lexicon of a specific language. A word is the smallest meaningful unit of a language that can stand on its own, and is made up of small components called morphemes and even smaller element ...
".
Zoran "Cane" Kostić, the Partibrejkers
Partibrejkers (Serbian Cyrillic: Партибрејкерс, transliteration for: ''Partybreakers'') is a Serbian rock band from Belgrade, as well as one of the most acclaimed acts of the Yugoslav rock scene.
The band was formed in 1982 and rele ...
frontman, wasn't a fan of New Primitivism; he mentioned it in passing during a 1997 interview while looking back on his band's early years and specifically recalling Plavi Orkestar
Plavi orkestar () is a Bosnian and former Yugoslavian pop rock band from Sarajevo. The band was formed in 1983 by Saša Lošić, who is the lead singer and songwriter of the group. The band has remained popular with seven albums and more than ...
's and Crvena Jabuka
Crvena jabuka () is a pop rock band formed in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1985. Since then they had great success and are still very popular. They were a part of the New primitives movement that started during the 80s.
Biography
The ...
's mid-1980s Yugoslavia-wide commercial success that had its springboard in Belgrade: "During the mid-1980s, the music scene in the city started popping again a bit and new bands began taking off. But, it was a bad trip. Bosnians (Plavi Orkestar and Crvena Jabuka) entered Belgrade sometime around 1986 right after these raucous new primitive guys set the stage for them. They were their Trojan Horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
s. I never got into that new primitive thing precisely because I saw something else in it. I mean, in the end, their dumb schtick made it possible for a band like to conquer Belgrade".
Speaking in ''Druga strana rock'n'rolla'', a HRT-financed 2011 documentary by Silvio Mirošničenko about censorship on the Yugoslav music scene in the 1970s and 1980s, rock critic Darko Glavan summarized his view of the political and ideological aspects of New Primitivism: "It's a fact that they were intentionally oliticallyprovocative, but they were also very careful to always signal their harmlessness to the ommunistsystem. Yes, they were 'naughty' here and there with humorously provocative statements, but ultimately they believed in the system. I never detected a radical rejection of the system with them like I did with Štulić or young Houra".
To many, New Primitivism gained added relevance in the context of the breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
. Books like 2013's ''Shake, Rattle and Roll: Yugoslav Rock Music and the Poetics of Social Critique'' written by Dalibor Mišina, assistant professor of sociology at Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, grad ...
, devote a significant portion to the study of New Primitivism's overall significance in the last decade of SFR Yugoslavia's existence, arguing that the country could've survived had it adopted values propagated by New Primitivism and similar genres as its new cultural model.
While mentioning New Primitivism in passing in a 2018 column about the folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...
band Nervozni Poštar
Nervozni poštar ("Nervous Postman") is a Bosnian folk rock
Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S ...
, novelist Muharem Bazdulj likened the movement to a "mischievous kid who loves to test the patience of his parents, his teachers, and his school principal, but is not quite willing to go as far as doing something that would actually risk getting expelled from the school" before concluding that "just like the Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
ended up in Rococo
Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...
so did New Primitivism end up in Nervozni Poštar" because "Nervozni Poštar appeared at a time when the esthetic of New Primitivism practically became the ruling one in the Yugoslav public sphere and when fear of the cultural elite's disapproval was no longer present even in that form where it turns you on that the cultural elite finds you abhorrent".
See also
* Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors
*Zabranjeno Pušenje
Zabranjeno pušenje () is a Bosnian rock band formed in Sarajevo in 1980. The group's musical style primarily consists of a distinctive garage rock sound with folk influences, often featuring innovative production and complex storytelling. Curre ...
*''Top lista nadrealista
''Top lista nadrealista'' ("The Top List of the Surrealists", sometimes "The Surrealists' Chart Toppers")—also known as ''TLN'' or ''Nadrealisti'' ("Surrealists")—is a Yugoslav sketch comedy and variety television show. Produced by TV Sar ...
''
*SFR Yugoslav pop and rock scene
SFR (; ''Société française du radiotéléphone'', ) is a French telecommunications company.
As of December 2015, it had 21.9 million customers in Metropolitan France for mobile services, and provided 6.35 million households with high-spee ...
*Punk rock in Yugoslavia
*New wave music in Yugoslavia
References
{{Music of Southeastern Europe (the Balkans)
New Primitivism,
Bosnia and Herzegovina culture
Yugoslav music
Culture in Sarajevo
Art movements
Rock music