Popular music as an anticipation, “framing” and construction of generational memory of the 1968 students’ protest in Yugoslavia

Abstract

By focusing on the role of music within a certain political event - in this case, the students’ protests in Yugoslavia in June 1968 - I connect the sociology of music with the sociology of social movements as defined by American writers Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison. Moreover, I suggest further research based on the sociology of generations. I insist on the cultural basis of social movements, as argued by these Yale-educated sociologists. Contrary to the typically onesided or negative evaluation on the consequences of the 1968 protests on the further development of Yugoslav society, I discuss the importance of this crucial year on the history of Yugoslav rock music and the students’ lifestyle. I argue that the entertainment institutions in Yugoslavia, including rock’n’roll, pop and jazz music, as well as the amateur folklore societies, were crucial for the selfidentification of the protagonists of the 1960s student protests, and not only the students’ political choices. Music anticipated and accompanied the 1968 protests, and later helped in constructing the memories on these protests. Music is singled out as the object of study based on the analysis of a vast body of archival material and the participants’ testimonies, in which the music could be observed as the only constant parameter in the process of constructing collective memory to the 1960s in Yugoslavia and the 1968 events. I discuss music in the context of social movements for the sake of analyzing the multiplicity of music’s meanings for various social groups. Music is seen outside of institutional frameworks. Bearing in mind the lack of literature that deals comprehensively with the lifestyle of the youth at that time, including their musical preferences, I used various secondary sources