Abstract
Zubak explores the emergence of Yugoslav disc jockeys from the late 1960s, examining the complexities of translating this pop-cultural profession into a new socialist environment. The chapter shows how this specific context with its limited supply of commodities pushed club DJs to develop more diverse skills than their western counterparts. Zubak traces a variety of roles performed by Yugoslav DJs, from early pioneers and mediators of pop culture to proto-entrepreneurs who paved the way for private businesses in the state-run economy. He identifies them as emblematic figures of late socialism who embodied central features of the period, such as the rise of consumerism, increasing westernization, the influx of market socialism and gradual ideological relaxation.
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Notes
- 1.
While beyond the scope of this essay, equally unexplored is radio disc jockeys’ impact on the growth of the medium which presents the second stream in the scholarship on disc jockeys (Shuker 1998: 101).
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- 3.
I wish to express my appreciation to the former disc jockeys and club owners who shared with me their experiences and testimonies which are at the core of this text. These include (in alphabetical order): Slavin Balen, Ciril Cerar, Duško Cvetojević, Miroslav Gregurek, Janoš Kern, Zoran Modli, Gordan Novak, Vladimir Satarić, Mirko Sobota, Domagoj Veršić, Željko Vodušek. I am especially indebted to Domagoj Veršić, Mirko Sobota, Dušan Cvetojević and Zoran Modli who kindly offered their own private collections. I also wish to express my gratitude to the director and the writer of the documentary film ‘Half a Century of Disco’, namely Zvonimir Rumboldt and Toni Faver, who allowed me access to their research. Finally, the writing of this chapter was helped by the Croatian Science Foundation’s project ‘Croatia in the 20th century: Modernization in the context of pluralism and monism.’
- 4.
In his excellent book on Rijeka’s early rock scene Velid Đekić identifies the city’s youth club Husar which opened in 1957 and was run by the newly founded Association of Popular Music Enthusiasts, as the first Yugoslav discotheque. Again the question of unclear definitions and taxonomy is crucial here since the club had many but not all the defining elements of the discotheque. Still, Đekić’s book is exceptional as it is the only local monograph that devotes significant attention to disc jockeys and acknowledges their place in the birth of the city’s rock scene. (Đekić 2013: 38–49; 350–359).
- 5.
Having been involved in the forming of Gusar, Veršić spent the next summer at an improvised discotheque in a small seaside state hotel. Later that autumn he began working in Arkada, arguably the most exclusive Yugoslav discotheque of the time. Located near Split, Arkada was owned by the local Gastarbeiter whose brother was part of Yugoslav’s economic establishment and secured the needed support. Veršić eventually moved to Zagreb where he finished his short but eventful disc jockey career. There he worked in a few clubs under the auspices of the city’s cultural youth organization which was an important provider of disc jockey gigs, managing as much as six clubs. While these youth union clubs usually closed at 11 or midnight, private night bars or summer discotheques typically had longer working hours and more affluent guests who would arrive by car (author’s interview with Veršić).
- 6.
Modli was somewhat of an exception in this respect. Early Yugoslav club disc jockeys rarely worked in radio, which was still conservative to a large extent. Unorthodox progress was noticed at the time by one of the first Zagreb disc jockeys Ranko Antonić: ‘Whereas abroad disc jockeys are linked to radio and famous disc jockeys such as Tony Prince, Jimmy Saville or John Peel only occasionally played at clubs, here it was the reverse. We began in the clubs, defending the profession and proving its worth.’ Only the second generation of disc jockeys from the late 1970s and early 1980s, firmly embraced radio, seeing in it another way of promotion (‘Afirmacija jedne profesije’ 1970: 18).
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Zubak, M. (2016). The Birth of Socialist Disc Jockey: Between Music Guru, DIY Ethos and Market Socialism. In: Mazierska, E. (eds) Popular Music in Eastern Europe. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59273-6_10
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