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Celebrating the revolutionary anniversaries in the Radio Belgrade music programme (1946–1963)

The new holiday calendar, based on the revolutionary tradition of the World War II, was established as an integral part of the overall transformation of the Yugoslav society and culture in the postwar years. As the priviliged field for the new authorities’ intention to control and govern the whole public life of the country, radio was one of the most powerful ways by which the symbolics of the holiday celebrations could reach the population. In this essay I shall explore one specific interaction between these two powerful social forces: the ways in which the Radio Belgrade contributed to commemorations of revolutionary anniversaries in the examined period. I shall pay attention to one specific aspect of these celebrations which originates from the broadest theoretical foundation for interpreting celebrations, namely the difference between the profane and the sacred. In this case the mentioned difference is transposed onto the level of the usual (or the everyday) programme politics and overall programme of the Radio Belgrade, on the one hand, and the station’s the specific ‘music holiday behaviour’, on the other.
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