New Yugoslavism in Contemporary Popular Music in Slovenia

Abstract

To speak about socialist Yugoslavia in the present-day Slovenia governed by nationalist and neo-liberal ideologies is controversial because of both terms, socialist and Yugoslavia. Judging exclusively by dominant discourses and from afar, one could get the impression that everything about Slovenia’s transition is clear, binary and evolutionary: Slovenia eventually gained independence and escaped the Balkan quagmire; it turned its thousand-year-old dream into reality by becoming part of Europe — where it always belonged.¹ By contrast, the former political system was simply a bloody dictatorship, Yugoslavia was exploiting the Slovenes, its leaders were tyrants, the Partisan fighters’ struggle during World War II was nothing less than the Bolshevik revolution, and other south Slavic nations are seen through the prism of the stock Balkan stereotypes. Put briefly, it seems that everything related to the term “Yugo” suggests an unstoppable civilizational decline and moral disaster. These obstinate ideological constructs could lead one to conclude that the less the Slovenes have to do with their Yugoslav and socialist past, the better for them. And yet, a closer look suggests a much more complex situation.