“The soundtrack of their lives”: The Music of Crno-bijeli svijet

Ana Đorđević

doi:10.25038/am.v0i17.267

Abstract

Crno-bijeli svijet [Black-White World, HRT, 2015–] is an on-going Croatian television series set in the early 1980s depicting the then-current pop music scene in Zagreb. The storyline follows several characters whose lives are intertwined by complex family relations, while also following the beginnings of new wave/punk rock bands and artists, and their influence on the Yugoslav youth who almost religiously listened to their music, like some of the series’ characters do. The role of music in television series is a complicated question that caught the attention of film music scholars in recent years. The significance – and, at the same time, the complexity – that music produces or can produce, as the bearer of cultural, social and/or political meanings in television series brings its own set of difficulties in setting out possible frameworks of research. In the case of Crno-bijeli svijet that is even more challenging considering that it revolves around popular music that is actively involved in, not just the series soundtrack, but several aspects of different narrative elements. Jon Burlingame calls the music of American television “The soundtrack of our lives”, and I find this quote is appropriate for this occasion as well. The quote summarizes and expresses the creators’ personal note that is evident in the use of music in this television series and myriad ways music is connected to other narrative and extra-narrative elements, and in a way, grasps the complicity of the problem I will address.  Article received: March 31, 2018; Article accepted: May 10, 2018; Published online: October 15, 2018; Original scholarly paper  How to cite this article: Đorđević, Ana. “'The soundtrack of their lives': The Music of Crno-bijeli svijet." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 17 (2018): 25−36. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i17.267

Highlights

The role of music in television series is a complicated question that caught the attention of film music scholars in recent years
Jon Burlingame calls the music of American television “The soundtrack of our lives”, and I find this quote is appropriate for this occasion as well
For filmmakers popular music “serves as a common reference point” because it is “a very handy marker of time and place, it carries a built-in resonance [...] with film’s larger patterns of signification and intertextual association.”3 Music in this series works in similar ways throughout each of the episodes as a solid reference point and common ground for the audience to connect and identify with, but it sets the mood for the time and the place of its story, and within that story provides viewers with a wide range of audio associations that connect different elements of the portrayed socio-cultural context

Summary

About the series

Crno-bijeli svijet is an on-going Croatian television series set in Zagreb in the early 1980s It describes in a dramatic and humorous way the everyday life of an extended family through three generations, whose stories are intertwined by complex family relations and influenced by urban culture and Zagreb’s music scene. The other part is set at the household of Ksenija’s ex-husband and the father of her sons, Jura, his wife Jagoda and her daughter, high school senior, named Una. Kipo is an aspiring journalist at Studentski list [Student paper], and works closely with his best friend, Đermano Kurtela (called Žungul), the paper’s photographer. This somewhat reflects on his daughter, Ksenija, she is not very open about her political views Her ex-husband Jura, on the other hand, is openly politically active both as manager in one of Croatia’s top state companies and as a member of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. His position becomes more politically complex throughout the second season, when he is approached by the Yugoslav State Security Service (UDBA) to be their informant during the state’s petrol crisis

Complexity of the series

The music and musical references

Conclusion