This is a very related article illustrating the trash of Turbofolk creation.

http://www.sarajevo-x.com/showtime/tv/cnn-turbofolk-je-smece-od-muzike/120113053

Just posting here for future reference. Included video is a must-see and provides good additional context to what I have written about here.

Internetculture and a do-it-yourself attitude is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s aspiring musicians. More and more people release their music online, across the whole world. And one single user never had more access than now to good music. I think commercialization of music has one big enemy and that’s the open source mentality of more and more people who grow up in this age of internet and free information (and music). So we (good music lovers) have at least that

@World of Sevdah, you shouldn’t talk about stopping rap (actually hiphop). You should say ‘how can we stop bad hiphop?’. Bad commercialized music is seen in every musical genre. To proof there’s good hiphop, here’s one of my favorite artists (rapper of Atmosphere) doing a song acoustic live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P2Xwej_xjM&feature=related

This is music by people who listen to good music themselves, across multiple genres. I see with people around me, the ones who love music put in effort to find more good music, no matter the genre. The simpletons who only know turbofolk, or pop (it’s all the same crap really) don’t.

love, Mirel

The argument here is similar to arguments music ‘purists’ use to discredit new forms/fusions of music. Take the advent of early jazz music before improvisation was integral to the music. Some early jazz musicians looked down upon the “new” improvisational styles of jazz music that began to emerge, which coincidentally enough IS what many listeners today consider jazz to be. Now I’m not arguing that turbo folk or its likes are a new form of sevdah. But to argue that turbo folk depreciates the value of sevdah, even to the average listener, is a strech in my opinion. Especially when you mention things like:

“Turbo folk musical scales are structured in such a way as to induce somewhat a paranoid mental state in a listener, catalysing use of alcohol and smoking of cigarettes along with increased levels of promiscuity amongst men and women, influenced by sexual images within the music and videos of most turbo folk songs.”

AND “the Turbo Folk conspiracy.” OR “Turbo folk – the curse of the modern Balkans”

Since when have the construction of musical scales been able to control/induce certain states in people? This sounds like a rant from my father when I first began to listen to rock/metal/electronic music. (Sevdah would have been my first music for many years). You do make a relevant point here to music, but I don’t see its connection to sevdah. I could easily replace turbo folk with american pop music in the above sentence but I wouldn’t argue that american pop music is destroying traditional american roots music or that it is necessarily related to the heritage of america.

I think the main argument you play across here is related to the fear of a loss of cultural heritage, which is a strong issue especially because of the assimilation of Bosnian youth to new cultures.

I am not attempting to diminish the importance of sevdah, but I think a better analysis of this topic would benefit readers of this site without turning them away. (This article and other text on this site seem to be a little hostile towards music outside of sevdah.) No one wants to listen to an angry musician (not that you are!) ranting about how no one cares about their form of music and how commercial music is no good because it is written by big companies for money. I don’t believe ANY traditional music anywhere will become mainstream again, given the growing globalization (or should I say americanization) of music. But I do truly appreciate this site and your strong will to preserve sevdah in its true form. Any response will be welcome! Thank you again