Prelims

Half Title Page

POPULAR MUSIC IN CONTEMPORARY BULGARIA

Series Page

Emerald Studies in Alternativity and Marginalization

Series Editors: Samantha Holland, Leeds Beckett University, UK and Karl Spracklen, Leeds Beckett University, UK

There is growing interest in work on transgression, liminality, and sub-cultural capital within cultural studies, sociology, and the social sciences more broadly. However, there is a lack of understanding of the problem of alternativity: what it means to be alternative in culture and society in modernity. What ‘alternative’ looks like is often left unexplored. The alternative is either assumed un-problematically, or stands in for some other form of social and cultural exclusion.

Alternativity delineates those spaces, scenes, sub-cultures, objects and practices in modern society that are actively designed to be counter or resistive to mainstream popular culture. Alternativity is associated with marginalization, both actively pursued by individuals, and imposed on individuals and sub-cultures. Alternativity was originally represented and constructed through acts of transgression and through shared sub-cultural capital. In contemporary society, alternative music scenes such as heavy metal, goth and punk have spread around the world; and alternative fashions and embodiment practices are now adopted by footballers and fashion models. The nature of alternativity as a communicative lifeworld is now questioned in an age of globalisation and hyper-commodification.

This book series provides a stimulus to new research and new theorizing on alternativity and marginalization. It provides a focus for scholars interested in sociological and cultural research that expands our understanding of the ontological status of spaces, scenes, sub-cultures, objects and practices defined as alternative, liminal or transgressive. In turn, the book series enables scholars to theorize about the status of the alternative in contemporary culture and society.

Titles in this series

Amanda DiGioia, Childbirth and Parenting in Horror Texts: The Marginalized and the Monstrous

Karl Spracklen and Beverley Spracklen, The Evolution of Goth Culture: The Origins and Deeds of the New Goths

Samantha Holland and Karl Spracklen (eds), Subcultures, Bodies and Spaces: Essays on Alternativity and Marginalization

Stephen Brown and Marie-Cécile Cervellon, Revolutionary Nostalgia: Neo-Burlesque, Retromania and Social Change

Title Page

POPULAR MUSIC IN CONTEMPORARY BULGARIA: AT THE CROSSROADS

BY

ASYA DRAGANOVA

Birmingham City University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

Copyright © 2019 Asya Draganova. Published under an exclusive licence.

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No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78743-697-8 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-696-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-963-4 (Epub)

Dedication

I dedicate this book – my first monograph – to my incredibly inspirational rock’n’roll father Chavdar Draganov and to my special, artistic, and caring mother Svetlana Bogdanova. Thank you both for the encouragement, support, love, and devotion which have enabled my creative and professional practices, ambitions, and confidence.

Acknowledgements

I thank Professor Shane Blackman for all the years of helping me develop my research and writing capacities, for being a friend, a teacher, a supervisor, and a collaborator. I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to Professor Andy Bennett, Professor Ágnes Gulyás, Professor Bill Osgerby, Dr Peter Webb, Professor Paul Long, Professor Nicholas Gebhardt, Professor Karl Spracklen, and Professor Paul Atkinson for their productive feedback. Thank you for the inspirational friendship and conversations to the unforgettable Goran Stefanovski.

I would like to express special gratitude to Canterbury Christ Church University, especially the School of Media, Art and Design and the Graduate School, where I carried out the research this book is based on: my PhD, which was fully supported by a University scholarship. Thank you also to my supportive colleagues at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research and the School of Media at Birmingham City University. It has also been a pleasure to work with publisher Emerald, and I would particularly like to thank Philippa Grand, who has actively encouraged my work on this manuscript.

I am grateful to my friends and family who have been very patient with me, always nurturing confidence and inspiration. Thank you to Mihai Grozavescu for the warmth and support. Special thanks also to my closest friends Zlatina Dimitrova, Michelle Meade, Mark Burford, Matthew Trearty, Angela Lloyd, Elina Simanovits, Nadezhda Buhova, Rositsa Gardjeliyska, Miroslav Veselinov, Mengyao Jiang, and Bogdan Alexe.

Special thanks to all those who helped me establish contacts in the ethnographic field and who took part in my research!