Folk and Its Progeny: The Transformation of Popular Folk Music in Serbia from Its Inception to the Present
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/GEI2502239BKeywords:
popular folk music, anthropology of music, neo-folk, turbo-folk, contemporary folk formsAbstract
Popular folk music encompasses a wide spectrum of musical practices associated with the “broad popular masses.” In addition to reflecting diverse historical, economic, political, social, and cultural conditions, it also functions as a powerful marker of identity, playing a key role in the construction of cultural belonging. The emergence of local popular folk music can be traced back to the mid- 20th century, shaped by intensified intercultural exchange, the development of musical technologies, the professionalization and stylization of traditional folk forms, as well as the institutionalization of the popular music industry. Within broader socio-political frameworks, this complex musical form has been deeply embedded in political “struggles” and negotiations over the articulation of an optimal national identity. The trajectory of popular folk music — from neo-folk and turbo-folk to contemporary folk forms such as pop-folk, trapfolk, and folk-drill — reflects a historically contingent and contextually specific transformation shaped by a range of interrelated factors: a) technological shifts — from gramophones and radio to digital platforms and artificial intelligence, b) epistemological shifts — from modernist to postmodernist paradigm, and c) broader social, cultural, economic, and political transformations (socialism, post-socialist transition, neoliberalism). These factors serve as the analytical backbone of the paper and as key contextual and conceptual nodes in an effort to offer a brief and modest reconstruction of the historical trajectory and transformation of this complex and dynamic phenomenon.
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