- Jugoton
Jugoton was the largest
record label and chainrecord store in the formerSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia based inZagreb ,Socialist Republic of Croatia . After thebreakup of Yugoslavia the company continued to work in independentRepublic of Croatia under the nameCroatia Records .History
Jugoton was formed in 1947. It's notable for releasing some of the most important former
Yugoslav pop and rock records including some albums ofBijelo Dugme ,Azra ,Električni Orgazam ,Idoli ,Haustor and certainLeb i Sol albums, as well as the influential compilation albumPaket Aranžman . Jugoton signed most of the eminent ex-Yugoslav artists, and also released some of the most important international pop and rock stars for the domestic market including the albums byThe Beatles ,Elvis Presley ,Rolling Stones , Madonna,U2 ,David Bowie ,Eurythmics ,Kate Bush ,Public Image Limited ,Kraftwerk , Queen,Deep Purple ,Pink Floyd , Iron Maiden and others. As well, the company owned a widespread network of record shops across SFR Yugoslavia.Many artists that represented
Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest were signed with Jugoton including theEurovision Song Contest 1989 winners Riva.After the process of
dissolution of Yugoslavia began, the name of the company becameCroatia Records in 1990.Competition
Other
major label s in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were:PGP-RTB (later renamed toPGP-RTS ) fromBelgrade ; Suzy from Zagreb;Diskoton fromSarajevo ;ZKP RTLJ fromLjubljana and others.Yugonostalgia
Jugoton, as an important part of the former Yugoslav culture is one of the subjects of
Yugonostalgia .The former Jugoton's record shop located in the main
Shopping Mall inSkopje ("Gradski Trgovski Centar"),Republic of Macedonia still operates under the same name managed by the Macedonian record label Lithium Records [ [http://www.jugoton.com.mk/eindex.htm Jugoton Shop Official Website]
[http://www.lithiumrecords.com.mk Lithium Records Official Website] ]An example of different kind is the
online radio andweb tv station called "Jugoton" which operates in the Yugoslavdiaspora inVienna ,Austria . [ [http://www.jugoton.com "Jugoton" Radio] sr icon de icon] It plays music from theformer Yugoslavia , but also from all the contemporary ex-Yugoslav countries, including pop, rock and folk. However it is completely unrelated to the actual Jugoton, and not all the Yugoslav artists represented in its program were really signed for that record company.Yugoton
Jugoton was especially popular among the youths behind the
Iron Curtain who couldn't travel to western countries and rarely had access to western music. One of the solutions to obtaining western music was to go shopping in Socialist Yugoslavia which was not anEastern Bloc country, but a member of theNon-Aligned Movement largely opened to western influences. Thus the Yugoslav records gained acult status in Eastern Europe and became a sort of symbol of the western popular culture. As a tribute to Jugoton, an album calledYugoton [ [http://www.sonymusic.pl Sony BMG Poland] ] was released inPoland in 2001 by ZIC-ZAC Music Company andBMG Poland. It contains cover versions of popular ex-Yugoslav acts such asElektrični Orgazam , Idoli,Bajaga i Instruktori , Haustor,Prljavo Kazalište andParni Valjak . The songs were performed in Polish by the local artists:Katarzyna Nosowska ,Paweł Kukiz ,Olaf Deriglasoff ,Ryszard „Tymon” Tymański and others. The front cover of theCD features the Polish artists together with their guestsVlada Divljan of Idoli, andDarko Rundek of Haustor.Another reference to Yugoslav records and Jugoton can be found in the film
Sonnenallee (which takes place in the formerEast Germany ), in the scene with the recordsmuggler .References
ee also
*
SFR Yugoslav Pop and Rock scene
*List of record labels External links
* [http://www.crorec.hr/ Croatia Records - Official site]
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