New Wave Music in Yugoslavia - Overview

Overview

The Non-Aligned socialist Yugoslavia was never part of the Eastern Bloc and it was open to western influences (the West to some extent even supported Yugoslavia as a "buffer zone" to the Warsaw Pact). The New Wave scene in Yugoslavia emerged in the late 1970s and had a significant impact on the Yugoslav culture. The Yugoslav rock scene in general, including the freshly arrived New Wave music, was socially accepted, well developed and covered in the media. New Wave was especially advocated by the magazines Polet from Zagreb and Džuboks from Belgrade, as well as the TV show Rokenroler, which was famous for its artistic music videos.

This anti-establishment movement was even supported, although moderately, by the Communist authorities, particularly by the Communist youth organisation which often organized concerts, festivals, parties, exhibitions, and other cultural events. The lyrics that were criticizing and satirizing the flaws of the Yugoslav socialism were considered by the authorities as a "useful and friendly critique" and were often tolerated with certain cases of censorship. Especially the Zagreb-based cult band Azra, which is known for its political and social criticism in their songs. The Yugoslav New Wave scene also cooperated with various conceptual or artistic movements related to Pop-Art, Avant-garde etc.

Important artists of Yugoslav New Wave were: Azra, Šarlo Akrobata, Idoli (famous for their song "Maljčiki" and its respective video in which they ridiculed the soviet soc-realism), Pankrti (first punk band in Yu), Prljavo Kazalište (started as a punk unit; the title of their second album Crno bijeli svijet which means "black and white world" holds a reference to the Two Tone movement), Električni orgazam (punk at the beginning, they moved towards post-punk and psychedelia later and were described as "The Punk Doors"), Slađana Milošević, Haustor (mostly reggae, ska and similar influences, but with a more poetic and intellectual approach compared to some danceable bands), Buldožer, Laboratorija zvuka, Film (one of the first Yugoslav New Wave groups), Lačni Franz and many others.
Some of them genuinely started as New Wave bands, while others previously adhered other styles (for example the members of Azra were previously into a somewhat hippie style prior to becoming a New Wave band).

With the decreasing popularity of 1970s hard rock and progressive rock among the youths after the expansion of punk and New Wave, even the cult rock band Bijelo Dugme decided to change its rural folkish hard rock style and jump on to the New Wave bandwagon. They adopted the Two Tone style for a short period of time while it was fashionable on their album Doživjeti stotu which featured the ska theme "Ha, ha, ha". The refrain lyrics were used as a title for the compilation album Svi marš na ples!.

Cult symbols of the Yugoslav New Wave era are the compilation albums Paket aranžman, Novi Punk Val, Artistička Radna Akcija and especially the movie Dečko koji obećava.