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The music of Croatia, like the country itself, has three
major influences: the influence of the Mediterranean especially
present in the coastal areas, of the Balkans especially in
the mountainous, continental parts, and of central Europe
in the central and northern parts of the country.
While both pop/rock and folk are rather popular in Croatia,
the folk/pop combinations fare the best.
Folk Music
The traditional music of Croatia is mostly associated with
the following:
Klapa
The klapa music is a form of a cappella singing. The word
klapa translates as "a group of people" and traces
its roots to litoral church singing. The motifs in general
celebrate love, wine (grapes), country (homeland) and sea.
Main elements of the music are harmony and melody, with rhythm
very rarely being very important.
A klapa group consists of a first tenor, a second tenor,
a baritone, and a bass. It is possibe to double all the voices
apart from the first tenor. Although klapa is a capella music,
on occasion it is possible to add a gentle guitar and a mandolin
(instrument similar in appearance and sound to tamburitzas).
Klapa tradition is still very much alive, with new songs
composed and festivals held. Many young people from Dalmatia
treasure klapa and sing it regularly when going out eating/drinking.
It is not unusual to hear amateura sing klapa music on the
streets in the evenings over some food and wine.
It is usually composed of up to a dozen male singers singing
very harmonic tunes. In recent times, female vocal groups
have been quite popular, but in general male and female groups
do not mix.
Tamburitza
Tamburitza (tamburica, diminutive of tambura) music is a form
of folk music that involves these and related string instruments.
It became increasingly popular in the 1800s, and small bands
began to form, paralleling similar developments in Russia,
Italy and the Ukraine.
The main themes of tamburitza songs are the common themes
of love and happy village life. Tamburitza music is primarily
associated with the northern, Pannonian part of the country.
It is sometimes said that the first sextet of tambura players
was formed by Pajo Kolaric of Osijek in 1847.
Traditional tamburitza ensembles are still commonplace, but
more professional groups have formed in the last few decades.
These include Zlatni dukati and Ex Pannonia, the first such
groups, Zdenac, Slavonske lole, Berde Band and the modernized
rock and roll-influenced Gazde.
Gusle
The gusle music is played on this traditional string instrument.
It is primarily rooted in the Croatian epic poetry with emphasis
on important historical or patriotic events. It is the traditional
instrument of inland Dalmatia and of Herzegovina, the part
of Bosnia and Herzegovina with predominant Croatian population.
Gusle players are known for glorifying outlaws such as hajduks
or uskoks of the long gone Turkish reign or exalting the recent
heroes of the Croatian War of Independence. Andrija Kacic
Miošic, a famous 18th century author, had also composed
verses in form of the traditional folk poetry (deseterac,
ten verses). His book Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskog became
Croatian folk Bible which inspired numerous gusle players
ever since.
As for contemporary gusle players in Croatia, one person
that particularly stands out is Mile Krajina. Krajina is a
prolific folk poet and gusle player who gained cult status
among some Conservative groups. There are also several other
prominent Croatian gusle players who often perform at various
folk-festivals throughout Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Although some fans of tamburitza claim that the tambura is
the most commonly used ethnic instrument in the United States,
the first sound recordings of the Croatian instruments on
the American soil were in fact those of gusle and mišnica
performed by Peter Boro in California in 1939.
Other folk traditions
The folk music of Zagorje, an area north of Zagreb, is known
for polka and waltz music similar to the neighboring Slovenia
and Austria.
The folk music of Medimurje, a small but distinct region
in northernmost Croatia, with its melancholic and soothing
tunes became the most popular form of folk to be used in the
modern ethno pop-rock songs.
In Istria and Kvarner, native instruments like sopila, curla
and diple make a distinctive regional sound. It is diatonic
in nature following the unique Istrian scale.
Events
The Slavonian town Požega hosts a known folk music festival,
Zlatne žice Slavonije (Golden strings of Slavonia), which
has prompted musicians to compose new songs with far-reaching
influences, recently including American bluegrass.
The towns of Vinkovci and Ðakovo, also in Slavonia, host
yearly folklore festivals (Vinkovacke jeseni and Ðakovacki
vezovi) where folk music is also listened to as part of the
tradition.
Popular Music
Pop
The pop music of Croatia generally resembles the canzone music
of Italy, while including elements of the native traditional
music. Croatian record companies produce a lot of material
each year, if only to populate the numerous music festivals.
Of special note is the Split festival which usually produces
the best summer hits.
Seasoned pop singers in Croatia include: Mišo Kovac,
Ivo Robic, Vice Vukov, Arsen Dedic, Zdenka Vuckovic, Darko
Domjan, Tereza Kesovija, Gabi Novak, Ivica Šerfezi, Oliver
Dragojevic, Tomislav Ivcic, Doris Dragovic, and many others.
In more recent times, younger performers such as Severina,
Gibonni, Marko Perkovic/Thompson, Toni Cetinski, Divas, E.N.I.,
Lvky and many others have captured the attention of the pop
audience. Each of them has successfully blended various influences
into their distinct music style. For example, Thompson's songs
include traditional epic themes from the Dinaric regions;
Severina threads between canzone and an oriental sound.
Croatian pop music is fairly often listened to in Slovenia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro due to the
union of Yugoslavia that existed until the 1990s. Conversely,
Bosnian singers like Kemal Monteno and Dino Merlin and Serbian
Ðorde Balaševic have a large audience in Croatia,
as well as many others. Turbo folk, while being frowned upon
by establishment and despised by majority of music critics
and social commentators, was popular among large sections
of Croatian youth, only to become somewhat more accepted in
recent years.
Croatia is a regular contestant on the Eurovision Song Contest.
Back in Yugoslavia, Croatian pop group Riva won the contest
in 1989. Some of the other Croatians who performed on the
ESC include Danijel Popovic, Put, Boris Novkovic and Claudia
Beni.
Rock
The rock bands in Croatia include Parni Valjak, Crvena Jabuka,
Prljavo Kazalište, Film, Atomsko Sklonište, Leteci
Odred and others. They originated in the 1970s and 1980s,
and are more vanilla compared to some rock bands. Of some
note is also the Sarajevo school of pop rock which influenced
many of these bands, and which also included singers like
Željko Bebek who later worked in Croatia.
Some of the newer, more "hard" rockers include
Azra, Majke or Urban & 4. The rock bands LET3 and KUD
Idijoti are also prominent, not so much for their music but
for their interesting and often controversial performances
and stunts.
Beginning in the late 1980s, folk-rock groups also sprouted
across Croatia. The first is said to be Vještice, who
combined Medimurje folk music with rock and set the stage
for artists like Legen, Lidija Bajuk and Dunja Knebl.
Dance
Dance music in Croatia was an offspring of the local pop music
and more Western influences. It developed during the late
1980s and early 1990s, picking up on the trends such as euro
disco and eurodance. It also spawned a wave of electronic
music artists, mostly house, techno and trance.
The singer Vanna rose to prominence through the dance trio
E.T., and the music of Vesna Pisarovic has a fair bit of dance
beat.
Although E.T. still operates, they've changed singers several
times and lost in popularity. The band Colonia is perhaps
the only one that rode the dance wave of the '90s and is still
popular.
Lately, dance groups such as Karma or Kira Jordan have made
international successes while not being particularly popular
in Croatia.
Rap
The 1990s were marked by the emergence of Croatian rap music.
The Ugly Leaders released the first ever Croatian Hip-Hop
album, and gained a strong following in an around Rijeka.
In 1991, the Croatian Liberation Front released two widely
popular protest singles. The first rap band to gain widespread
and lasting acclaim was The Beat Fleet (TBF) from Split, whose
members took inspiration from harsh economic and social condititions
of war-torn Dalmatia, not that different from American inner
cities. Their act was followed by multitude of artists and
groups in Zagreb, taking inspiration from American gangsta
rap. The Zagreb rappers Bolesna Braca (also called Sick Rhyme
Sayazz) and Tram 11 became particularly popular, and to an
extent also the duo Stoka & Nered.
The Croatian rap gained much from the fact Edo Maajka signed
on to a label in Zagreb. Recently a rapper known as Shorty
gained a lot of popularity by having songs with strong regional
flavour of his native Vinkovci. The Zagreb band Elemental
also burst into the scene featuring one of the few Croatian
female rappers.
Other
The tendency to combine different elements also has a long
presence in more classical music: the opera Ero s onoga svijeta,
written by Jakov Gotovac in the 1930s, blended the traditional
music of the Dinaric peoples into a scholarly form and achieved
great success.
The Zagreb surf rock band The Bambi Molesters gained international
fame, while being relatively unknown back home in Croatia.
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