Ethno Rock Serbia Forum

The Etno Rock Serbia forum is dedicated to exploring and presenting the intersection between traditional Serbian folk music and the contemporary pop-rock scene. The idea behind the project is to show how folkloric elements – melody, rhythm, vocal style, and instruments – have entered popular music over the decades, creating a unique sound that has become an integral part of Serbia’s cultural identity.

The project brings together ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, musicians, composers, and researchers who analyze this phenomenon from different perspectives. Through lectures, discussions, and public programs, Etno Rock Serbia opens up questions of authenticity, tradition, contemporary expression, and the ways in which the traditional and the popular intertwine.

The goal of the project is to document and present to a wider audience the processes through which Serbian traditional music has influenced rock and pop creativity, as well as to encourage a renewed understanding of these connections within a contemporary cultural context. Within the project, the museum space becomes a place where tradition and modernity meet, where music is viewed as part of a living and ever-changing heritage.

Program

Day 1 – 17. april

Speakers:

PhD Aleksandra Pavićević – ethnologist and anthropologist, senior research fellow at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, member of the group “Moba”

Bilja Krstić – singer and composer, founder of the ensemble “Bistrik,” former member of the groups “Suncokret” and “Rani mraz”

PhD Mladen Marković – ethnomusicologist, assistant professor at the Department of Ethnomusicology, Faculty of Music

Moderator: Miloš Zarić, curator at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade

Day 2 – 18. april

Speakers:

PhD Marija Ajduk – ethnologist and anthropologist

Ljubomir Ljuba Ninković – member of the group “S vremena na vreme,” founder of the group “Zlatopis,” and one of the pioneers in introducing traditional ethno elements into domestic pop-rock music

PhD Vesna Mikić – musicologist and founder of the Center for Popular Music Research

Moderator: Miroslav Cvetković “Cvele” – rock musician and founder of the Rock Museum