Hardcore Ljubljana: Punk in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, 1983-1986

Pitt, Jack (2019) Hardcore Ljubljana: Punk in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, 1983-1986. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the Ljubljana hardcore punk scene between 1983 and 1986. Utilising a combination of interviews with central participants and analysis of physical and musical artefacts, it contributes to wider understandings of alternative culture following the death of Tito, and during the pivotal final decade of Yugoslavia. The hardcore scene operated as an incendiary and somewhat utopian counterculture, and was created and maintained by young people as a component of the Ljubljana alternative cultural underground. Encompassing more than politics, incoherent rebellion or music alone, the scene facilitated instinctive reactions to local experiences, incorporated domestic specificities and provided opportunities for communication with like-minded people on a domestic and international basis. Studies of punk in Yugoslavia have tended to focus upon the significance of the popular first wave scene of the late 1970s, culminating in discussions of the short lived wave of stigmatisation that occurred at the beginning of the 1980s. This thesis documents how Ljubljana's counterculture was informed by these dynamics, but also grew to transcend them. In doing so, it outlines how punk survived, mutated and spread throughout the world. The Ljubljana hardcore scene drew upon musical and countercultural forms that were consciously internationalist, but were inspired by elements of western culture. However, they also utilised punk to address domestic realities and made direct contributions to the contemporary international punk scene. This thesis affords specific focus to the issues of sexuality and gender within Ljubljana hardcore, and investigates elements of compatibility with the influential New Social Movements that were also emerging in Ljubljana. Whilst relatively small, and largely confined to underground environments, Ljubljana hardcore left a tangible and enduring legacy, and provides a prism through which the values of it's young participants can be understood.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of History
Depositing User:	Users 9280 not found.
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2019 15:26
Last Modified:	01 Apr 2019 15:26
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/70423
DOI:

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