Jugoton

Jugoton was the largest record label and chain record store in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia based in Zagreb, Socialist Republic of Croatia. After the breakup of Yugoslavia the company continued to work in independent Republic of Croatia under the name Croatia 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 of Bijelo Dugme, Azra, Električni Orgazam, Idoli, Haustor and certain Leb i Sol albums, as well as the influential compilation album Paket 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 by The 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 the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 winners Riva.

After the process of dissolution of Yugoslavia began, the name of the company became Croatia Records in 1990.

Competition

Other major labels in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were:
PGP-RTB (later renamed to PGP-RTS) from Belgrade ; Suzy from Zagreb; Diskoton from Sarajevo; ZKP RTLJ from Ljubljana 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 in Skopje ("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 and web tv station called "Jugoton" which operates in the Yugoslav diaspora in Vienna, Austria. [ [http://www.jugoton.com "Jugoton" Radio] sr icon de icon] It plays music from the former 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 an Eastern Bloc country, but a member of the Non-Aligned Movement largely opened to western influences. Thus the Yugoslav records gained a cult status in Eastern Europe and became a sort of symbol of the western popular culture. As a tribute to Jugoton, an album called Yugoton [ [http://www.sonymusic.pl Sony BMG Poland] ] was released in Poland in 2001 by ZIC-ZAC Music Company and BMG Poland. It contains cover versions of popular ex-Yugoslav acts such as Električni Orgazam, Idoli, Bajaga i Instruktori, Haustor, Prljavo Kazalište and Parni 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 the CD features the Polish artists together with their guests Vlada Divljan of Idoli, and Darko Rundek of Haustor.

Another reference to Yugoslav records and Jugoton can be found in the film Sonnenallee (which takes place in the former East Germany), in the scene with the record smuggler.

References

ee also

*SFR Yugoslav Pop and Rock scene
*List of record labels

External links

* [http://www.crorec.hr/ Croatia Records - Official site]