War memory and musical tradition: commemorating Croatia’s Homeland War through popular music and rap in Eastern Slavonia

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Description/Abstract

From the outbreak of the Homeland War (1991-95) in Croatia to the present day, popular music has been used as a means to commemorate the upheaval and sacrifice of Croatia’s war against the Yugoslav National Army and the Serb militia. This paper focuses on the musical commemoration of a particular region, eastern Slavonia, which was not fully integrated into the Croatian state until three years after the official end of the war. The narrative, vocabulary and symbols established during the immediate wartime phase have persisted into the present day when war memory has become inflected by post-war developments such as the indictment of Croatian Army officers for war crimes.