Revival without Nostalgia: The ‘Dizel’ Movement, Serbian 1990s Cultural Trauma and Globalised Youth Cultures

Abstract

Global culture uses revival, among other things, as one of its means of production; the 1970s were marked by a revival of 1950s popular music, 1960s popular culture was paraphrased in the 1980s, the 1990s were largely inspired by the 1970s and the first decade of the millennium experienced a comeback of the 1980s. Following that, as the logic of revival in popular culture dictates, the 2010s has seen a revival of the 1990s. While the global market found another well of profit in this revival, the trend has created a lot of controversy in Serbia, where the 1990s brings with it not only the popular culture from the decade but also a strong political implication. The last decade of the twentieth century in Serbia witnessed Slobodan Milosevic’s government, wars, isolation, international discredit and hyperinflation. These preconditions, together with a great level of corruption and the collapse of the economic system, opened the space for an overall criminalisation of Serbian society.