Description
My dissertation results from a larger four-year collaborative project conducted at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, Croatia, and funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. The project focused on the first three domestic record companies. The term “domestic” implies the historical context in which Zagreb – the companies’ headquarters – was nested within larger political entities: two Yugoslavia and the Independent State of Croatia. These political contexts influenced the record production to include music from various ethnic groups existing across the states mentioned above, which today comprise Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. The research covers a three-decade period between 1926 and 1959, during which observed companies – Edison Bell Penkala, Elektroton, and Jugoton – produced so-called shellac or 78 RPM records. Specifically, the thesis examines both the domestic and international markets in which these companies operated, aiming to determine their position relative to foreign labels and their impact on consumers, society (including diasporic communities), and everyday musical life, including detecting their contemporary echoes. It also explores the companies’ business strategies, illustrating that these were shaped not only by economic but also by broader political, social, and cultural factors that shape the market per anthropological definitions. With its reverse chronological and cyclic concept, the study takes a non-linear approach, so rather than emphasizing chronological developments, it focuses on various market aspects, such as operations in monopolistic and oligopolistic markets, production, advertising, expansion, and key collaborations, among which the most significant turned out to be radio, consequently analyzed in detail. With its specific research focus (market in the past), methodology (predominantly archive work), and interdisciplinary theoretical framework, the dissertation contributes to the fields of economic and historical ethnomusicology.
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