"Throwing Stones at the System": Rock Music in Serbia during the 1990s

Abstract

During the 1990s rock music in Serbia metamorphosed from urban entertainment to the underground opposition and a weapon of resistance to the Slobodan Milosevic regime. This article will provide an analysis of several rock songs (“Karamba Karambita” by Rambo Amadeus, “Sistem” by Darkwood Dub, “Zanimljiva Geografija” by Dza ili Bu, and “Sejn” by Eyesburn) that critically addressed political discourse, key political events, figures, and social injustices in 1990s Serbia to reveal the variety of ways in which the use of metaphors and symbols in music functioned as a powerful political critique. The purpose of this article is to provide examples which will illuminate the role of music as “a kind of cognitive praxis” and a “collective learning process” (Eyerman and Jamison 1998) during times of political unrest.