Full Description
Since the early twentieth century, "balkanization" has signified the often militant fracturing of territories, states, or groups along ethnic, religious, and linguistic divides. Yet the remarkable similarities found among contemporary Balkan popular music reveal the region as the site of a thriving creative dialogue and interchange. The eclectic interweaving of stylistic features evidenced by Albanian commercial folk music, Anatolian pop, Bosnian sevdah-rock, Bulgarian pop-folk, Greek ethniki mousike, Romanian muzica orientala, Serbian turbo folk, and Turkish arabesk, to name a few, points to an emergent regional popular culture circuit extending from southeastern Europe through Greece and Turkey. While this circuit is predicated upon older cultural confluences from a shared Ottoman heritage, it also has taken shape in active counterpoint with a variety of regional political discourses. Containing eleven ethnographic case studies, Balkan Popular Culture and the Ottoman Ecumene: Music, Image, and Regional Political Discourse examines the interplay between the musicians and popular music styles of the Balkan states during the late 1990s.These case studies, each written by an established regional expert, encompass a geographical scope that includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Serbia, and Montenegro. The book is accompanied by a VCD that contains a photo gallery, sound files, and music video excerpts.
Contents
Part 1 Illustrations Part 2 Contents of CD-ROM Part 3 Series Foreword Part 4 Preface and Acknowledgments Part 5 Prelude Chapter 6 1. "Oh, Those Turks!" Music, Politics, and Interculturality in the Balkans and Beyond Part 7 Part I Post-1989 Culture Industries and Their Nationalist Icons Chapter 8 2. Bosnian and Serbian Popular Music in the 1990s: Divergent Paths, Conflicting Meanings, and Shared Sentiments Chapter 9 3.Musica Orientala: Identity and Popular Culture in Postcommumist Romania Chapter 10 4. BularianChalga on Video: Oriental Stereotypes, Mafia Exoticism, and Politics Chapter 11 5. Regional Voices in a National Soundscape: Balkan Music and Dance in Greece Part 12 Part II Beyond Nation: Regionalisms in a Cosmopolitan Frame Chapter 13 6. Ottoman Echoes. Byzantine Frescoes, and Musical Instruments in the Balkans Chapter 14 7. Bulgarian Ethnopop along the OldVia Militaris: Ottomanism, Orientalism, or Balkan Cosmopolitanism? Chapter 15 8. "The Criminals of Albanian Music": Albanian Commercial Folk Music and Issues of Identity since 1990 Chapter 16 9. Shedding Light on the Balkans: Sezen Aksu's Anatolian Pop Chapter 17 10. Trafficking in the Exotic with "Gypsy" Music: Balkan Roma, Cosmopolitanism, and "World Music" Festivals Part 18 Postlude Chapter 19 11. Balkan Boundaries and How to Cross Them: A Postlude Part 20 References Part 21 Discography Part 22 Filmography and Videography Part 23 Index Part 24 About the Editor and Contributors
