Rock music in Serbia

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Serbian rock is the rock music scene of Serbia. During the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, while Serbia was a constituent republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian rock scene was a part of the SFR Yugoslav rock scene.

The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not an Eastern Bloc country, but a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and as such, it was far more open to the Western culture comparing to the other socialist countries. Rock and roll reached Yugoslavia via foreign radio stations, most notably Radio Luxemburg,^[1][2] and rock and roll records, brought in from the West.^[3] Rock and roll influences reached schlager singers, most notably Đorđe Marjanović, who released the first popular music solo album in Serbia, in 1959.^[4] The end of the 1950s featured the appearances of first rock and roll acts, and the 1960s featured many beat bands, such as Siluete and Elipse, which became enormously popular with the younger generations. Rock bands drew the public's attention to themselves, which was followed with the appearance of first rock music magazines, radio and TV shows.^[3][5]

Until the beginning of the 1970s, Serbian rock bands released only 7-inch singles and extended plays. Korni Grupa was the first Serbian rock act to release a full-length album, in 1972, and one of the first bands to move towards progressive rock. Progressive rock dominated the Serbian rock scene during the 1970s, with a part of bands incorporating elements of traditional music into their sound. At this period, bands like YU Grupa, Pop Mašina and Smak achieved large mainstream popularity and massive album sales. The end of the 1970s featured the appearance of the prominent hard rock band Riblja Čorba, and the emergence of the closely associated punk rock and new wave scenes. Pekinška Patka was the first Serbian punk rock band to release an album, in 1980. The new wave bands Šarlo Akrobata, Električni Orgazam and Idoli, which appeared on the influential compilation album Paket aranžman in 1980, were followed by many new wave acts. Around 1982, new wave scene declined and many acts moved towards more commercial sound. During the 1980s, pop rock acts, such as Đorđe Balašević and Bajaga i Instruktori, dominated the mainstream scene, but various other rock genres also emerged, and the alternative rock scene, with the acts such as Ekatarina Velika, Disciplina Kičme, and Rambo Amadeus, started to develop and gain mainstream popularity.

With the outbreak of the Yugoslav wars at the beginning of the 1990s, the former Yugoslav rock scene ceased to exist. During the 1990s, most of, both mainstream and underground, rock acts expressed their opposition towards the government of Slobodan Milošević, which caused their absence from most of the government-controlled media. Although several major mainstream acts managed to sustain their popularity (some of them, like Partibrejkers and Van Gogh, even increasing it), and a large underground and independent music scene developed. After the 1999 NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia and the arrival of the political changes during the 2000s, a new independent scene started to develop. The 2000s also featured the establishing of new connections between the former Yugoslav republics' scenes.