Last night's insomnia pointed at something that I was not aware of:
a) That literature about music (and not just classical but any genre) that was so rare and exclusively
translated decades ago when I was growing up, is now small but quite visible part of
any bookshop in Croatia
b) Among obligatory translated biographies of international pop & rock stars who are considered
"cool" a the moment, we actually have some young, talented people with something
interesting to say like Anđelo Jurkas , who writes about popular music passionately, knowingly and
inspired.
c) Names of musicians & bands mentioned here, who author considered worth mentioning and
according to him (and countless interviews) were very important and influential I am
mostly unfamiliar with
d) CD with music that accompany this interesting book (all those "stars" of angry, young music) is not
appealing to me at all and I find it only mildly interesting in places
e) That 18 years that passed since I left Croatia had left me not only disconnected with popular music in
Croatia(it seems I missed 1990s completely) but marked my music taste and
personal growth into another directions, where I explored music by myself, by some eccentric spurs
of the moment and definitely following my own aesthetics that completely ignored
anything that was angry,aggressive or "cool" - even back than I thought that world is ugly and brutal
enough without purposely searching for aggressive music
f) That I passionately love all things retro and don't find current music very much original or inspiring
(with few exceptions) and even if all points at my ageing, it has always been the case
of subjective taste and I am pleased with it
Actually I bought this book not knowing anything about the author (who seems to have been noticed for his writings) under false understanding that this will be about rock music, where in fact book collects all kind of music popular trough Ex Yu, from gypsy artists to trashy turbo-folk icons, from ubiquitous MOR pop stars to rock bands adored by teenage girls or "cool crowd". Book was wrapped in a cellophane and impossible to actually check before the purchase (probably because of CD that could easily fall out) but once I checked the chapters inside I read it with biggest interest.Each artist gets one particular, selected album where Jurkas writes accompanying essay (very good,I must say), artists own words about it and selected opinions about it from different perspectives of public names who loved/hated it. As I mentioned, many of these names are completely unknown to me - not only 1990s artists but quite a few from previous decades I never found interesting enough (strange how some music went above my head completely) - so CD was actually a good idea and gave me some idea who these people are. The whole concept of the book was quite brilliant, I think that conversation with author might be very interesting though I would probably be intimidated to talk to someone so completely into completely different kind of music, but maybe I am wrong - we both would agree that music is either good or bad, depending on one's own perception and feeling. All the production, management and production, all the cellophane and beautiful photo covers have actually nothing to do with the real listening experience and response that comes out of it.
For many years I have been doing my own little excursions into Jazz, Blues and Classical genre (not to mention guilty pleasure of collecting "kitch" 1960s ancient old pop festivals that still bring me lot of pleasure) + sideways and byways into anything recorded before 1940s, so naturally when I read about all these obscure punk rock musicians from frankly small provincial places, I am quite amazed with diversity of it all and how much it echoed with listeners. Political provocateurs, shock value, trend hopping, crooners and screamers, its all here in some micro cosmos and more I think about it, more I start to understand that all that anger perhaps has less to do with war that raged in Ex Yu during 1990s (as I believed earlier, though it must have some effect on musicians and young populations) and was just a mirror of far bigger, global picture - these people would very probably find some ways to express their inner turmoil no matter where they lived.
Jurkas writes almost lovingly (and very informatively) about all of them, no matter what genre and cleverly covers almost every aspect of "popular music" be it neglected intellectual troubadour, angry rock band or one-hit-wonder. About 50% of them I never even heard of and there is quite big percentage of artists who might have been "cult" but not in my world, however I love this kind of writing and find the author very talented, inspiring and interesting despite differences in our music tastes. Hat off to a talent. I must find more from him. Five stars, definitely.
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