5 Video Clips from Serbia: Beyond the Law

Playlist

What we have been trained for many years to approve as acceptable in our global video culture, is violence. Films, games, music videos too. What’s been portrayed most often is the violence that goes hand in hand with criminal behavior and serves as a way of acquiring immense wealth and respected status in a society. This could be seen as a default script of any music video or film.

While we can trace the influence and inspiration in American hip-hop culture to many of the music videos in Serbia, since the 1990s onwards, they are becoming very popular nowadays in the trap music scene that is mostly aimed at younger audiences. Relativization of violence and crime go deep into the roots of urban culture in this geographic area, and therefore it was interesting to observe how throughout different music genres and periods, this subject has been treated by the artists. To be on the other side of the law comes as empowerment to some and as a revolt to others.

Artist: Sunshine
Track: Kokane (Serbia, 1997)
Label: Metropolis Records

Belgrade’s band Sunshine released this great hit in 1997. The song features their original and recognizable style, a mix of hip hop and hard rock. The title itself has a small twist to avoid literal and quite obvious allusion to the subject of the song – cocaine. Lyrics and small intervention in the music video itself, create the usual, well-known script of a powerful narco-boss who enjoys common material pleasures – fancy cars, money, houses around the world and who is untouchable to the authorities and beyond the law. The song demonstrates the ultimate power of the cocaine dealer through energetic, bad-ass music style.

Artist: Ila feat Vule
Track: Sam svoj gazda (Serbia, 2007)
Label: Take It Or Leave It Records

This hip hop duo established themselves in the 1990s and by 2000s they reached significant commercial success, touching upon mainstream with a few of the hits. The lyrics of this song portrait a tough guy who’s «his own boss» (song title). He has power, he is untouchable, he has bodyguards, cars, girls, lives in a villa with expensive stuff inside such as jacuzzi, Sony TV, surveillance etc. Plaster lions on the house facade that the lyrics mention, in Serbia very often symbolize lower working class that got rich by working hard abroad. They were characteristic in the 1990s.

Artist: Repetitor
Track: Ako Te Ikada (Serbia, 2016)

This music video is a track from the third album by Serbian garage-post punk noise rock trio Repetitor. Unlike other music videos in this playlist, this one stands out as it takes a completely different approach. Instead of building a fictional story about a (male) character who is beyond the law, members of this band face the delinquents directly in the Belgrade District Prison where the video was shot. They made a concert for the inmates, during rehabilitation through art programme, organized by Prison treatment service. In this video, band members sort of identify with the prisoners, deleting the strict boundaries between them as they are inside of the prison gates, playing for the prison audience just like at any other concert venue, acting relaxed among the crowd. The song lyrics imply physical violence caused by the jealousy in (or after) a love affair. In terms of music, in their own words, the band expresses a burst of rage, fear, violence, pain, and anxiety.

Artist: Jelena Karleuša feat Teča
Track: Krimi rad (Serbia, 2012)
Label: City Records

Serbian turbo-folk star Karleuša brings the female character into the well-known scenario. Male and female singers are modern Bonnie and Clyde. Murders, drugs, guns, cash, travels, and first class flights – both of them are dominant and superior, untouchable. The song is a «re-do», of «Criminel» by TLF.

Artist: Coby and Mili
Track:Južni vetar gas (Serbia, 2018)
Label: Bassivity Digital

Cash, cars, guns, alcohol, and a Serbian flag. Default scenario that’s been a predominant pattern in the majority of today’s Serbian trap music (maybe minus the flag), especially that one related to the label Bassivity Digital. This video is related to a film and series about a local criminal from Belgrade who is a car thief. Being depicted in a positive light, the mentioned lifestyle is probably aimed to inspire younger audiences who make most of the crowd at concerts of this kind of music. These kinds of music videos could be seen as an encouragement for younger people to embrace even more the materialistic culture and hyper-consumerist habits.

Biography

Svetlana Maraš (1985) is composer and sound artist from Serbia. She works at the intersection of experimental music, sound art and new media. Maraš has presented her work internationally, at venues, festivals and events such as CTM (Berlin), Ars Electronica (Linz), House of Electronic Arts (Basel), Espace Multimedia Gantner (Bourogne), Onassis Cultural Centre (Athens), Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade), Ausland (Berlin), Izlog Suvremenog Zvuka (Zagreb), ICMC (New York), International Rostrum of Composers (Wroclaw), ISEA (Dubai) and many other places. She is the head of Radio Belgrade’s Electronic Studio. Follow her on SoundCloud and on her Website.

Published on July 15, 2021

Last updated on August 18, 2021

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Autonomous Art of Uncertain Life in Yogyakarta

Podcast

by Wok the Rock,

Gunawan Maryanto

This podcast reveals the current situation and condition of art in Yogyakarta by tracing artistic works and cultural actions from the early days of the national awakening to contemporary times. A series of statements, poems, plays, songs, and conversations that talk about identity, collective work, the art ecosystem, the position of art in society, to its imagination in the future are presented through live performances in the recording studio by Wok the Rock, Gunawan Maryanto (Alm.), and Ramberto Agozhalie.

This podcast was recorded in May 2021 and released in December 2021 to commemorate Gunawan Maryanto who left us suddenly on October 6, 2021. Hopefully, he and his work will always inspire and become a reference for the emergence of new and progressive initiatives in Indonesia and beyond.

Download transcript including translations of the parts in Indonesian here.

Indonesian Version

<br />

Podcast ini mengungkap situasi dan kondisi seni di Yogyakarta di masa kini dengan menelusuri karya seni dan aksi budaya di awal masa kebangkitan nasional hingga masa kontemporer. Serangkaian pernyataan, puisi, drama, lagu, dan percakapan yang membicarakan identitas, kerja kolektif, ekosistem seni, posisi seni dalam masyarakat, hingga imajinasinya di masa depan ditampilkan melalui pertunjukan langsung di studio rekaman oleh Wok the Rock, Gunawan Maryanto (Alm.), dan Ramberto Agozalie. Rekaman berlangsung pada bulan Mei 2021.

Podcast ini dirilis untuk mengenang kepergian Gunawan Maryanto yang telah lebih dahulu meninggalkan kita secara mendadak pada tanggal 6 Oktober 2021. Semoga beliau beserta karyanya selalu memberikan inspirasi dan menjadi acuan bagi munculnya inisiatif-inisiatif baru dan progresif.

The Artists

Wok the Rock, Ramberto Agozalie, and Gunawan Maryanto during the recording session to this podcast (from left to right; photo: Fajar Riyanto).

A podcast by Wok the Rock and Gunawan Maryanto
Additional Drums by Ramberto Agozalie

Wok the Rock is an artist who uses various disciplines of art, culture, and collective organising as a tool for the development of creativity and new thinking with a popular and experimental approach. He is involved in various arts and cultural initiatives such as MES 56, Yes No Wave Music, Indonesia Netaudio Forum, and is currently the co-curator of Nusasonic, a platform for sounds and music in Southeast Asia and Europe. Lives and works in Yogyakarta.

Wok the Rock adalah seniman yang menggunakan berbagai macam disiplin seni, budaya dan pengelolaan kolektif sebagai alat untuk pengembangan kreativitas dan pemikiran baru dengan pendekatan populer dan eksperimentatif. Ia terlibat di berbagai macam inisiatif seni dan budaya seperti MES 56, Yes No Wave Music, Indonesia Netaudio Forum, dan saat ini adalah ko-kurator Nusasonic. Tinggal dan bekerja di Yogyakarta.

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Gunawan Maryanto was an actor, writer, and theater director. He served as Artistic Director of Teater Garasi/Garasi Performance Institute and Indonesian Dramatic Reading Festival. He is widely known as the main actor in the film Solo, Solitute, playing the poet-activist Widji Thukul and as an actor in the film The Science of Fictions for which he won the Citra award for best actor at the Indonesian Film Festival. For Gunawan, openness was an important capital in today’s art and required the ability to continue to learn and work with artists from various art disciplines. Maryanto suddenly left us on October 6, 2021.

Gunawan Maryanto adalah aktor, penulis, sutradara teater. Ia menjabat Direktur Artistik Teater Garasi/Garasi Performance Institute dan Indonesian Dramatic Reading Festival. Ia dikenal luas sebagai aktor utama dalam film Istirahatlah Kata-Kata yang memerankan tokoh penyair-aktivis Widji Thukul dan sebagai aktor dalam film The Science of Fictions di mana ia meraih piala Citra sebagai aktor terbaik dalam Festival Film Indonesia. Bagi Gunawan, keterbukaan adalah modal penting dalam berkesenian di masa sekarang dan diperlukannya kemampuan untuk terus belajar dan bekerja dengan seniman-seniman dari berbagai disiplin seni.

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Ramberto Agozalie is a percussionist who plays music ranging from pop, metal, to experimental. Together with ZOO, he has worked on four concept albums and performed at various music festivals in Indonesia, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and several other European countries. Currently he is also actively involved in the experimental band Setabuhan.

Ramberto Agozalie adalah perkusionis yang memainkan musik mulai dari pop, metal, hingga eksperimental. Bersama ZOO, Ia telah menggarap 4 album-konsep dan tampil di berbagai festival musik di Indonesia, Australia, Jerman, Belanda, dan beberapa negara di Eropa lainnya. Saat ini ia juga aktif tergabung dalam band eksperimental Setabuhan.

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Photo Series from the Rehearsals

Playlists

Explore two playlists of songs and artists from Yogyakarta, curated by Wok the Rock.

Credits

All vocals by Wok the Rock and Gunawan Maryanto, except guitar voice from «30 Tahun Pengangguran» by Vandy Rizaldi
Script written by Wok the Rock and Gunawan Maryanto except «The Mobility of the Vagabond Cosmopolitan Artist and Our Cultural Strategy» by Brigitta Isabella, «Yogyakarta» by KLA Project, «30 Tahun Pengangguran» by DOM 65, «Jogja» and «Hati Jogja» by Joko Pinurbo, «Mempertimbangkan Tradisi» by WS Rendra

Recorded by Dhedhi Harmanto and Yossy Herman at Reds Music Studio, Yogyakarta
Mixing and Mastering by Yossy Herman at Lohjinawi Studio, Yogyakarta
Video directed by Arief Budiman
Video camera by Aditya Krisnawan
Video editing by Arief Budiman
Photography by Fajar Riyanto

Biography

Wok the Rock is an artist who uses various disciplines of art, culture, and collective organising as a tool for the development of creativity and new thinking with a popular and experimental approach. He is involved in various arts and cultural initiatives such as MES 56, Yes No Wave Music, Indonesia Netaudio Forum, and is currently the co-curator of Nusasonic, a platform for sounds and music in Southeast Asia and Europe. Lives and works in Yogyakarta. Follow him on SoundCloud, and Instagram.

Biography

Gunawan Maryanto was an actor, writer, and theater director. He served as Artistic Director of Teater Garasi/Garasi Performance Institute and Indonesian Dramatic Reading Festival. He is widely known as the main actor in the film Solo, Solitute, playing the poet-activist Widji Thukul and as an actor in the film The Science of Fictions for which he won the Citra award for best actor at the Indonesian Film Festival. For Gunawan, openness was an important capital in today’s art and required the ability to continue to learn and work with artists from various art disciplines. Maryanto suddenly left us on October 6, 2021.

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Gisela Swaragita: «A Mere Face in the Crowd» (Norient)

Published on February 14, 2022

Last updated on May 06, 2022

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Digitally Famous and Real Life Broke

Short Essay

by Angie Balata

In Egypt, the high amount of digitalization has not translated into monetization for most musicians. This is not just because most families live at or below the poverty line. So what does this mean for the future of local artists? From the Norient book Seismographic Sounds (see and order here).

Go! Save the Hostages! (GSTH) are a post-rock-meets-experimental-meets-electronica group who have managed to become one of Egypt’s most interesting indie projects without having played a single live gig. Their songs on SoundCloud get anywhere from ten thousand to seventy thousand plays depending on the track - a large enough impact when you factor in that their music is generally considered niche and is built around instruments rather than words. In a country where most of the music industry is monopolized by commercial labels, GSTH use social media sites like SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Last.fm as an alternative way to link with others and promote their music.

Nour Khan, another online-to-offline hit in Egypt, boasts plays from the low tens of thousands to somewhere nearing two million and she’s using nothing but an email and a SoundCloud account. Neither Nour Khan nor GSTH have actually made any real money from their music, a situation not unusual in Egypt, which begs the question: why has Egypt not made the leap from digitalization to monetization?

Online and Unable to Pay

In Egypt, the natural transition from Internet access to increased use of social media and moneymaking in the digital world has not been an easy one. Egypt has been one of the fastest growing internet-using countries in the Arab region, with an increase from 450,000 users in 2000 to approximately 46 million users, or 53.2 percent of its nearly 90 million population in 2014 (see Internet World Stats). On the social media side, Egypt has been very active, boasting, for example, twelve million Facebook users in 2013. And, while a variety of social media sites are being used, most users are online for social reasons like chatting and connecting with others. Thus, the high Internet usage in the country has not translated into monetization.

Two of the main obstacles are the median level of yearly earnings and the inability to purchase online. In general, the financial and social structures in Egypt are not conducive to online buying. Specifically, the average household income is 2,187 US dollars per year (see country report «Egypt from MasterCard»), which barely covers the necessary expenses, including food, shelter, education, and health. With average family sizes of at least five people, most families in Egypt live at or below the poverty line. For online purchasing and an e-commerce economy, a variety of elements need to be present:

1) a credit card, which most Egyptians can’t afford to have because most don’t have bank accounts. According to MasterCard, the credit card circulation within Egypt is at approximately one percent;
2) a secure online payment system like PayPal, which only began operating in Egypt in May 2015;
3) a secure mailing option for physical purchases, which exist in Egypt, but not at affordable prices;
4) better distribution platforms supporting locally produced music that focuses on local audiences;
5) publishing and distribution companies based locally who can focus regionally and internationally to promote music products and protect artist rights;
6) a general public awareness to support the legal purchase of music rather than illegally obtain it through piracy.

From Piracy to Live Shows

Of all these elements, none exist, which both makes e-commerce very low in Egypt and results in two key trends. First, Egypt is plagued with music piracy due to both a lack of purchasing ability and to the high costs of products necessary to music-making. For example, the software piracy rate in Egypt in 2011 was at 61 percent or 172 million US dollars in unlicensed software (see «Special Report on Copyright Protection and Enforcement» of the International Intellectual Property Alliance IIPA, 2013).

Even when musicians have enough to produce albums, money is made from the physical copies sold in stores; generally once the new music is made available it is often quickly uploaded online through P2P sharing sites and pirated. This leads to the second key trend in Egypt: namely, that most musicians are dependent on live shows and, to a smaller extent, international touring for income. Unfortunately, of the approximate two hundred bands in Egypt, less than fifteen percent will be able to live off of shows and less than five percent will ever get the opportunity to travel outside of Egypt.

The conclusion to the cycle is that for most musicians in Egypt, the digital world is not a place to make money; instead, they will upload music for free online in hopes of building a large enough audience base to get offers for live shows and, possibly, touring offers. Without the proper infrastructure for a local industry supporting the alternative music scene, the majority of musicians will only ever have a voluntary presence in the digital sphere, as event managers and cultural programmers chase the same fifteen percent of the local Egyptian music scene. On the other hand, the digital world did allow the rest of us access to music produced by great musicians like GSTH and Nour Khan – albeit unpaid access and unsupported product.

This text was published first in the second Norient book Seismographic Sounds.

Biography

Angie Balata is a manager at VIBE Studio in Cairo, one of the largest studios serving the independent music scene in the Middle East. When she’s not at the studio, she’s writing about music for various magazines.

Published on November 06, 2018

Last updated on April 11, 2024

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Digitization

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Seismographic Sounds

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