Popular music in Yugoslavia
One of the first stars in the former Socialist Yugoslavia and one of its first internationally acclaimed artists, was the traditional pop singer Ivo Robić from Croatia, who emerged in the Yugoslav music scene in the late 1940s.
In the early 1960s, after seeing a promising young act from England performing at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg, Robić convinced Kaempfert, who was Polydor's agent, to help those youngsters in their career.
Many young people started to play this new "electric music", as they called it, naming themselves "električari", but one of the first who rose to prominence was the guitarist Mile Lojpur from Belgrade (born in Zrenjanin in 1930).
The Yugoslav production was the first staged in a Socialist state, and it was highly praised by the Hair's original authors Gerome Ragni and James Rado, who were travelling from one country to another to watch each of the performances.
The specific Dalmatian pop sound featuring local folk elements performed at festivals held along the touristy Adriatic coast was very popular and some of its most notable exponents were Oliver Dragojević and Mišo Kovač.
In that period, some of the greatest Yugoslav stadium rock bands emerged: YU grupa, Time, Smak, Parni valjak, Atomsko Sklonište, Leb i Sol, Teška industrija and Galija.
Similarly to the disco movie Saturday Night Fever, Zdravko Čolić became a sort of "Yugoslav John Travolta" dancing in stadiums across the country, dressed in a tight white suit and the then-fashionable bell-bottoms.
This era also brought in a one-hit wonder called Mirzino Jato, labeled by the media as kitschy euro disco band obviously influenced by Boney M., who were quite popular in Yugoslavia, especially after their only male member Bobby Farrell married a girl from Skopje's predominantly Romani inhabited municipality Šuto Orizari.
One of the best known dance songs in this period was also the Dado Topić's opening track of the 1979 film Nacionalna klasa starring Dragan Nikolić as Floyd, the fanatic car racer.
The eminent heavy metal group Divlje Jagode from Bihać, led by guitarist Sead "Zele" Lipovača started a short-lasting international career in 1987 under the name Wild Strawberries.
Other notable hard rock and heavy metal bands include Generacija 5, Rok Mašina, Kerber and Griva from Serbia; Atomsko sklonište, Osmi Putnik (whose frontman Zlatan Stipišić Gibonni, later started a successful pop music career) and Crna Udovica (later changed their name to Big Blue) from Croatia; Pomaranča from Slovenia, and others.
Many eminent foreign punk bands played concerts around former Yugoslavia including: The Ruts, Siouxsie and the Banshees, U.K. Subs, Angelic Upstarts, The Exploited and The Anti-Nowhere League.
Important bands of the Yugoslav new wave are: Prljavo kazalište, Novi fosili, Šarlo Akrobata, Idoli, Azra, Električni orgazam, Haustor, Film, Laboratorija Zvuka, Lačni Franz, Cilindar, Gjurmet and many others.
Mandić's controversial image in the show, created by the conceptual artist Kosta Bunuševac, raised quite a public furor due to the singer's cross-dressing and aggressive makeup.
The cover of the single "Neka ti se dese prave stvari" / "Ne zovi to ljubavlju" by the Belgrade-based group Data featured the then popular Commodore 64.
Some of projects that came from the New Primitives were the band Zabranjeno Pušenje, the Top lista nadrealista TV and radio show, the legendary group Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, Bombaj Štampa and others.
Its creators include Elvis J. Kurtović, dr. Nele Karajlić, mr. Sejo Sexon, Bombaj Stampa (featuring actor/director Branko Đurić — Đuro), Boris Šiber, Zenit Đozić from the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Koševo.
There are comparisons between Monty Python's Flying Circus show and New Primitives methods, as they share the form of short sketches and utilize absurdity as means to illicit laughs from the audience.
The group included Oliver Mandić, Željko Bebek, Marina Perazić, Momčilo Bajagić, Aki Rahimovski, Husein Hasanefendić, Slađana Milošević, Jura Stublić, Dado Topić, Massimo Savić, Zdravko Čolić, Izolda Barudžija, Snežana Mišković, Alen Islamović, Sead Lipovača, Dejan Cukić, Doris Dragović, Anja Rupel, Srđan Šaper, Vladimir Divljan, Peđa D' Boy, Zoran Predin and other eminent musicians.
Bora Đorđević and Goran Bregović, leaders of Riblja Čorba and Bijelo Dugme were not credited on the record's back cover, however they appeared in a TV performance of the song.
Sarajevo was also the home of the authentic punk-influenced subculture known as the New Primitives, which developed in the early 1980s and was brought into the mainstream by artists such as Zabranjeno Pušenje, Elvis J. Kurtović & His Meteors, Bombaj Štampa and the radio and TV comedy show Top lista nadrealista.
He was a former vocalist of the punk rock group Radost Evrope, ironically named after the international children's music festival Joy of Europe held annually in Belgrade.
Toni often stirred controversy in his interviews and frequently attacked other musicians, like Ekaterina Velika and such, whom he considered pseudointellectuals who alienated themselves from the "street", where, according to him, the real rock music should emerge from.
On the other hand, the group Đavoli from Split led by Nenad "Neno" Belan were a softer retro-rock 'n' roll act, they released several summer hits and also twist or surf music influenced tracks.
In 1992, the serbian rock supergroup Rimtutituki featuring members of Partibrejkers, Ekatarina Velika and Električni Orgazam released an anti-militarist song, and after the authorities forbade them to promote it with a live show, they performed on a trailer towed by a truck through the streets of Belgrade.
Although generally seen as an emotional anti-war song pointed against the Serbian nationalism written by Jura Stublić from the Croatian group Film, at the time of its appearance it caused different reactions.
Bora Đorđević, who had a cult status in the Serbian rock scene as a frontman of Riblja Čorba, soon "replied" with the controversial song "E moj druže Zagrebački" ("Hey my Zagreb comrade"), a cynical parody featuring nationalist messages.
The latter based itself in Belgrade and received international exposure under the name No Smoking Orchestra led by Nele Karajlić, also featuring the movie director Emir Kusturica.
Newly established folk singer Zehra Bajraktarević's career was met with the harshness of siege of Sarajevo, nonetheless she continued to produce albums despite the conditions of the war.
Many of the former pop and rock stars re-emerged and toured the former Yugoslav countries: Bijelo Dugme, Leb i Sol, Crvena Jabuka, Plavi Orkestar, Massimo Savić (formerly of Dorian Gray) and Boris Novković (formerly of the group Boris i Noćna Straža), while Anja Rupel, formerly of Videosex, recorded a duet with Toše Proeski, a young Macedonian pop singer who became respected in all the former Yugoslav countries.
