The Appearance of Concept Albums in Yugoslav Popular Music: Kamen na kamen - Long Play Records

Појава концепт албума у популарној музици Југославије: ЛП плоче Камен на камен

Abstract

It is commonly understood that a concept album is “a studio album where all musical or lyrical ideas contribute to a single overall theme or unifed story” (Shuker 2002: 5). In this paper this term will be used to denote an album containing extra-musical themes and not simply collections of compositions defned only by genre or theme. In order for an album to belong to this category, it must have taken a thematic unity realized by the common content (thematically) of its compositions and common musical means. Although the beginnings of such creative trends can be traced from 1940, the 1960s and 1970s brought the most influential releases of this kind, especially The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), which has had a great impact on many authors. As far as is known, the topic of concept albums in Yugoslavia has not yet been elaborated, so this article seems to be the frst dedicated to this subject. It seems that in Yugoslavia there had been albums with elements of concept released before the appearance of the Kamen na kamen group album in 1973, entitled LP-60993 (Zagreb: Jugoton). The author of the album was Nikola Borota Radovan. After that, a double LP by the same ensemble and songwriter appeared in 1975 entitled OOUR/AVNOJ (RTV Ljubljana), with even more clearly expressed characteristics of concept. The aim of this article is to show that the thematic and conceptual elements of these editions are frmly connected to those of the concept album. These LPs were formed within the following thematic and contextual frames: 1) Borota`s general inclination towards folklore tradition(s) as a permanent source of inspiration, 2) models among the greatest popular music works that influenced his writing projects, primarily The Beatles’ concept albums, and 3) social, economic and political circumstances in Yugoslavia at the time when these albums appeared. Even if it is not strictly a concept album in the full sense, the album LP- 60993 might be regarded as the frst album with elements of concept published by a Yugoslav author, according to all the criteria and analyzed results. The elements that show a clear connection to the concept are as follows: leading subject(s)/idea(s) that demand(s) the order of compositions, organization of musical elements and motives on macro- and micro-levels (to produce formal and thematic unity), elements of narrative and musical/sound symbols, including elements of musique concrète.