Between October 14 and 16, 2019, Rajko Muršič gave a short block of lectures on Affective and Political Dimensions of Yugoslav Popular Music. The lectures were organised in the frame of the joint degree programme Creole: Cultural Differences and Transnational Processes at the Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bern (Universität Bern, Philosophisch-historische Fakultät, Institut für Socialanthropologie).
The course presented selected chapters in anthropology of popular music (and culture) in Yugoslavia from the perspective of its affective and political aspects, almost 30 years after its dissolution. The lectures incorporated short historical presentations of early jazz in Yugoslavia and Slovenia, development of its after-war pop (schlager style), Yugoslav rock from the 1960s and 1970s, as well as some examples of ethno-pop. Lectures as well presented live popular music venues in the region from the 1940s until the present, and discussed various social, political, cultural and aesthetic dimensions of popular music (incl. authenticity and its class dimensions).
The lecturer specifically accentuated the development of popular music from the perspective of its margins. Music examples reflected transformation of everyday life in the area.