Yugoslavian Disco. Digging into an excluded musical culture of late socialism

This special issue explores different aspects of the yet uncanonised disco culture that thrived in Yugoslavia from the late 1970s until the early 1980s. Yugoslav disco culture points to the many issues and dilemmas at the heart of late socialism: With funk pioneers and Estrada emulators, gender transgressors and male chauvinists, affluent clubbers and Roma dancers, mainstream promoters and hostile critics, disco resists the polarizing definitions of conformist or progressive, official or subcultural, repression or dissent. Operating within gray zones, it highlights the inadequacy of the outdated binary matrix typically used for the interpretation of popular culture under socialism.

Magdalena Fürnkranz is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Popular Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Her recent research has focused on performativity, gender and intersectionality in pop and rock music, Austrian music scenes, and gender/identity in jazz.