Radio Belgrade in the process of creating symbolic boundaries: The example of the folk music program between the Two World Wars (1929-1940)

Abstract

This article deals with the process of creation of symbolic boundaries in the context of designing the folk music programs at Radio Belgrade since its foundation until the beginning of World War Two. A detailed insight into the musical contents aired on Radio Belgrade, the texts on folk music published in the radio weekly magazine (Radio Belgrade), and the preserved memoirs, with an emphasis on their broader socio-cultural and socio-political significance, has enabled me to single out the factors and mechanisms that played a key role in defining the boundaries of folk music. I will analyse the work of different editorial teams before World War Two; at the same time, I will consider the tastes and cultural preferences of the subscribers and listeners of the Radio Belgrade programs. By means of crossing out specific aesthetic, political and economical positions of radio editors and experts who designed the folk music program with the expectations of listeners and, to an extent, performers of folk music, I will attempt to explain how the process of symbolical demarcation of folk music as a separate entity, different from art and popular music, took place; but also, how the folk music broadcast on the radio related to the Serbian folk musical practices.

U ovom radu razmatraćemo proces kreiranja simboličkih granica u kontekstu oblikovanja programa narodne muzike na Radio Beogradu od njegovog osnivanja do početka Drugog svetskog rata. Detaljnim uvidom u muzički sadržaj emitovan na Radio Beogradu, a potom i u tekstove o narodnoj muzici objavljene u radijskom nedeljniku (Radio Beograd), te u postojeću memoarsku građu, pokušaćemo da izdvojimo činioce i mehanizme koji su imali ključnu ulogu prilikom definisanja granica narodne muzike, ukazujući na njihov širi sociokulturni i sociopolitički značaj. Tom prilikom analiziraćemo delanje različitih uredničkih timova do Drugog svetskog rata, a ujedno ćemo se osvrnuti i na kulturne preferencije pretplatnika i slušalaca Radio Beograda. Ukrštajući specifične estetske, političke i ekonomske pozicije radijskih urednika i stručnjaka koji su učestvovali u stvaranju programa narodne muzike sa pozicijama slušalaca i, delimično, izvođača, pokušaćemo da istaknemo kako se odvijao proces simboličkog razgraničenja narodne muzike kao posebnog entiteta, distinktivnog u odnosu na visoumetničku i popularnu (komercijalnu) muzičku praksu, i ujedno, na specifičan način postavljenog u odnosu na folklornu.