Turbotronic: Case Study of Lenhart Tapes and Mirjana Raić

Abstract

Turbotronic has been a trend in the Serbian popular music since 2010, when Lenhart had his first performance at Improstor in Novi Sad. Continuing with his work, an entire circle of audience has been created around Lenhart, as well as other artists who deal with a certain kind of improvisation of music. This direction gets the name Turbotronic, somehow unplanned, according to the same name reportage of the Vice Portal. Nowadays Turbotronic includes several different groups dealing with the mixing of various music genres - from rap, through pop, to turbo-folk. However, Lenhart Tapes is a founder and a key figure in turbotronic. Lenhart is a musician who deals with the mixing of various audio content from an audio cassette tape. Since 2014, Lenhart has begun cooperating with Mirjana Raić, who joins him primarily by singing traditional music in his compositions. So far, Lenhart and Mirjana recorded around ten songs and had several joint appearances.

In this paper I have several goals. Primarily, I will present the development and key features of Turbotronic as an alternative music genre. Then, my further analysis will be directed to mentioned individuals - Vladimir Lenhart (Lenhart Tapes) and Mirjana Raić. Through the concepts of musical biography, musical legacy, improvisation and construction of socio-cultural otherness with music, which I will consider primarily thoroughly, my key goal is to decode the message that these artists send to the wider audience through their music. The paper is based on the data derived from interviews I conducted with Lenhart and Mirjana on several occasions, but also on personal observation and participation in their rehearsals and concerts.