Accidental Celebrity? Constructing of Fame in Post-War Croatia

Accidental Celebrity? Constructing of Fame in Post-War Croatia

Abstract

Aim of this paper is to show different type of production of celebrity. Case of popular singer Marko Perković Thompson shows that unlike popularity in the west that is produced through the news about private life of popular persona, in Croatia avoiding of private life can lead to popularity. Reasons for such difference can be traced in symbolic split in the society presented in the oppositions such as: foreign/home, left/right, folk/elite, traditional/modern. To publicly stand for one of the parts always include some kind of transgression. Thompson as public sign constantly provokes such transgression and gains public appearance without effort of PR experts. In that way he became a sign around which different social discourses collide. As long as his private persona is hidden more interpretation is publicly produced.

Keywords: celebrity, nationalism, victimhood, transgression, tradition

After the war in the Balkans one musician appeared who, at the first glance,could hardly be labeled as celebrity. Although his CDs are sold even outside ofCroatia and he is the only singer in Croatia who can attract more then 20000 fansat the biggest soccer stadiums for concert, he is not conceived of as mediaproduct. His name is Marko Perković Thompson. Contrary to celebrities that usemedia attention in order to keep popularity, Thompson is in constant opposition to media. Media avoids his private life, paparazzi are not following him and wedon't know any juicy detail from his private life. Most of the time Thompson evenaccuses mainstreams media for avoiding his music in spite of his extremepopularity. If we employ definition and structure of celebrity as proposed byTurner(2004), Rojek (2004), or Cashmore (2006), we would be tempted to understandThompson as remnant of the old media production from late '60es or early '70es.And it would go well with the popular understanding of postsocialist world astransitional that slowly discover the media world of the advanced capitalist countries. But, of course, this would be wrong understanding of Thompson. If wejust take a look at the media products that survived on the market in Croatia we would easilyfind out that magazines and television shows that follow life of famousindividuals have no financial problems and their number is even rising.Moreover in Croatian language appeared a term "posvuduša" or in roughtranslation "everywherella"[1] depicting a female person that attends public eventsin constant pursuit for media attention; exactly covered by definition of Boorstin (2012)("well known for well knowness"). So even when there is a considerable knowledge and technology for celebrity production the most popular person inshow business in Croatia avoids it. Does it means that Croatian audience isdifferent from other and that they, apart of all theories about popular culture,have some genuine taste?

If we look at the music style Thompson produces weare faced with mixture of folk and power metal, and that kind of music iscertainly not the most popular one, although ethnic rhythms and Balkan orientalsounds are popular in hybrid style called turbo-folk. But there are no similarities between folk metal and turbo folk, even fans of metal music found themselves on theopposite side of life style and ideology from those enjoying turbo folk. DefinitelyThompson's fans are not attracted to him because of his music or talent butbecause of something outside of Thompson himself. And this unknown material is the same as the one we find in contemporary celebrity: we cannot grasp the direct reason for her/his popularity; we are just attracted to celebrity’s presence. In this text I will try to examine this elusive material in order to further understand not just Thompson but contemporary fascination with the celebrities.

Foundational myth

We have to begin with the story how Thompson became what he is today. Hewas a soldier in the last Balkan war in one small village Čavoglave where he,together with his friends, established a small military formation that defended village from attacks of JNA (Jugoslavenskanarodnaarmija -Yugoslav People’s Army) and armed volunteers. Before the war he was a waiterand amateur singer and songwriter, but he never performed on the stage. In 1991 during hisdays on the front line he composed a song Čavoglave Battalion and sang ittogether with his comrades. It is still unknown how song came to radio station inSplit but it instantly became a hit and soon Thompson was in Split togetherwith his comrades recording the song in the studio and shooting a video spot.According to one story Thompson by himself brought the recording to radio but, according to other, recording just spread across soldiers and then started to be part ofmusic repertoire in the pubs and bars in and around the town of Split. Then someone from radio Split heard it in one pub and decided to broadcast it. The second version is Thompson's and his fans believe it is a true version. Through his version of"foundational myth" he appeared as person who is not in the race for glory andfame, just ordinary guy like any other but who is able to transform the feelingsand opinions of the majority into music.

Both stories can be understood, in accordance with the previous researches of celebrity, as product of specific management of two identities that every popular person has, no matter if she/he is television, movie or music star (Turner2004; Marshall 1997;Cashmore 2006). One is represented in the media, and another is private one.And it is the second one that pops up as focus of the public interest. As all mentioned researchers agrees, one of the main task of celebrity industry is management of private persona. Privacy of the celebrity is organizedmedia product aiming to assure constant presence of celebrity in the media attention. But those two stories of Thompson’s beginning already shows that his management of media attention will not focus on his private life. His “official” version of the story will try to erase interest for his private realm thorough aligning his private with public appearance. Thompson represents himself as accidental celebrity.

Thus his fans do not perceive him as product ofmedia power or force of the production business, but of people genuine voice.It is significant that the storyof Thompson’s beginning became known and focus of the public interest in 2003 after Thompson already went through substantial musicand personal transformation. Before 2002 Thompson was just another singer. He recordedfour albums and experimented with different kind of music styles. At thebeginning he used styles already established in Croatian pop-music known forimporting and blending Greek rhythms, Mexican music and Italian popular music. Ashe did not make much of success, he experimented further with ethno styles and rock. One song The Wind from Dinara combining ethno musicwith nostalgic lyrics was a success, but not enough to enable him to have 50000funs ready to attend the show. His experiments with public representation did not harm his appearance afterwards. It could be even said that today his fans understand those times as product of Thompson’s youth and submission to producers’ advices and music industry.. Thus he appeared after changes as even more genuine and as a winner over the forces of celebrity industry. But it would be wrong to think that it is possible to attract constant attention just through social media (Facebook, Twitter and Youtube). Marshall (but Turner as well) points out that one of the key points of producing celebrity status is transgression. In movie industry transgression is necessary: “screen personality must be denaturalized into code of acting.” (Marshall 1997,106) In other words to open up to new possibilities and roles in the movies, stars expose and regulate their personal life in media as different from the one audience get to used to in the cinema. Mechanism works in two different steps. One is to excavate something about the private life of the star as an extraordinary event out of norm and the other step is to normalize the effect. Turner for example will emphasize this procedure as a way by which celebrity makes a connection with ordinary people. Through transgression she/he opens possibility for audience to restore social values and norms. They serve as object of gossip through which in everyday life people reassure their belonging to community, test their interpretation of normality and renegotiate them. In book Fantastic Creatures of Istria and Kvarner Boris Perić(2008) and I identified same function of the fantastic creatures invented in folklore. They served as sign of realm that exist outside of the symbolic order or as contingency of life that constantly threat “normal” existence. Stories about them serve as a way to patch inconsistencies of practices in everyday life.

One way of normalization of transgression would be denial of the event or giving new explanation to them (which is more often in the movie industry due to mentioned autonomous self ready to take a different acting role from the previous one). Another way is to enhance the quality of performance by the logic that personal problems (addiction, divorce) do not affect professionalism of the performer and, what will be of importance later in the text, give a sort of aura of authenticity of the performing act, and produce new meaning of the music and the lyrics for the audience. Third way of normalization is that of television host celebrity. Marshall points that there is no clear cut between television celebrity public and private persona. Normalization is produced by debating private events of television star in the media itself as part of the public narrative. All mentioned mechanisms are at work in case of Thompson but what is different is his version of transgression. It is not that private Marko Perković transgress anything, it is celebrity sign, Thompson, who does. And his transgression is of specific political sort. There are three key events that prepared place for Thompson’s new appearance.

Transgression and normalization through victimhood

Most important event was rising of Socialist Democrats back to power after dead of FranjoTuđman first Croatian president and the leader of Croatian DemocraticUnion in 2001. Although Socialists came to power through democratic election lot ofpeople interpreted this event as restoration of communism. Second was hisperformance during protest of the war veterans two years after mentioned elections. Veteransgathered in Split to demand protection for the generals who were accused forwar crimes, arrested and transferred to ICTY in The Hague. And the last one washis singing of fascist's song Jasenovac and GradiškaStaraon the concert in the town of Osijek. He sang extremelydisgusting song supporting Ustaša's genocide of Serbs in concentration campJasenovac during World War the II. At first he declined accusation claiming it was computer manipulated set up, but later he admitted it. Because of this song all mainstream mediaavoided him, he is still not part of any important national television show and hismusic is rarely broadcasted in the mainstream public media.

By publicly supportingUstaša movement, fascism and death camps he just emphasized controversies that were already circulating about his public appearance and his concert audience. News article on portal Index.hr that discovered his public singing of the song Jasenovac and GradiškaStarawas thus entitled: Thompson patriot or fascist?But instead of just abandoning him as a marginal singer suddenly the whole media space started to produce more and more talk shows, exclusive media coverage and expertise about the history of fascism in Croatia. Whole public debate was organized around topic that was, and still is, traumatic for the Croatian society. Part of Croatian society opposed communism through alignment to nationalism. For them communism was just another name for Serbian expansionism. Thus period between 1941 and 1945 they understand as last historical fight against threats to Croatian independence and democracy and Ustašas’ crimes against humanity from those times should be forgotten or waived. Another part of society in the same manner defends fragments of socialist heritage (fight against fascism, social security, industrialization) and is equally unprepared to admit atrocities and democratic deficiency that occurred in socialist time. Split between those two groups reflects in range of different social spaces. Thompson, although all the time one of the key examples in those public debates, never took part in them, he communicated to public only through occasional letters to his audience and press releases. Instead of giving explanation for his deeds, Thompson left others to debate about them. Consistently portraying himself as naïve anti-celebrity, without media presentation skills, he even starts concerts obviously nervous, as if he is not used to stage. Only later he relax, but still not completely.

In 2002 hepublished album entitled Alas My Peoplewhere he completely abandoned any love lyrics or experiments with the musicstyles. He remained heavily focused on the sound of ethno music especially fromhis region but dressed up in heavy metal. That kind of hybrid styleexisted on his former albums but not as a trademark. From that point on asCatherine Baker (2010) reasonably points he completely repressed his former careerand invent Thompson, as we know today. In those days appeared mentioned"foundational myth" that was a product of the specific position Thompson getin the public space, as a individual in constant struggle with the "forces of theevil" that are infiltrated in the institutions, media and politics. His way of normalizing transgression was to represent himself as a victim. And he used all mentioned models. Marshall’s explainedthat television starinscribe problems from private life to media in order to familiarize with audience. Thompson used same token to represent his celebrity sign as sign for everybody that feels restrained by the mainstream media discourse. Nobody knew anything about his private opinions and values[2]. The main song from the album might serve as a goodexplanation. In song he gave a picture of himself as just another victim in the history:

From the time of Christ

New faces, same scene

Devil’s forces put an effort

To diminish us

Antichrists and Freemasons

Communists, and others

Spreading their satanic chants

To defat us

Alas my people

To be a victim is one of the strongest components of identification in the Balkans. Recent ethnographic account of Michaela Schauble describe such collective identification in the area of Sinj, small town in Dalmatia hinterland (not very far from the Čavoglave, birth village of Thompson.) In her book she describes ritual held by the pit (jama) where some of the Ustaša soldiers were killed by the communist government immediately after the 2nd world war in 1945 without any prosecution. By adopting the interpretation of Jeffry Alexander in which he claims that facing own trauma often resulting in the refusing to recognize the trauma of the other she concludes that: “Such or similar dynamics of denial are to be found on various levels of private and public discourse in all parts of the former Yugoslavia” (Schauble 2014,152) This specific voluntary self-victimization is not invented recently. This kind of discourseappeared in 16th century and then was employed during the 19th century after Balkan get liberated from the Ottoman rule. Newly liberated societies represented themselves as antemuralichristianitatis as border lands that for centuries fought against Turks. Self portrayed as victims of the war that lasted for centuries they expected something in return. During socialist time, although official international politics of Yugoslavia was focused on Non-Aligned Movement all nationalist from member states of SFRJ (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) have understood themselves as fighters against communism and for the democracy. Thus in Croatia still exist numerous public figures, historians, writers and scientists[3] in constant effort to interpret fascist Ustaša movement from the Second World War as at least partly democratic movement and not as founders of fascist totalitarian state that actively participated in Holocaust, had racist legislation, and established death camps (see more in Rajković2011). In case of the song Alas My People Thompson situated himself as the fighter for democracy and patriot, not a fascistby strong invocation of the antemuralichristianitatis myth.But to be completely successful he introduced interpretation that media and politics are still controlled by communists and liberals who are against Croatian independency, tradition and Christianity. War veterans, became in his songs people who were betrayed by the politics and media. Instead of getting as much symbolical recognition as they supposedly deserve they faced lack of public interest and attention for their achievements[4]. And state administrative assistance in transferring them to ICTY served as a main proof of betrayal. In world that Thompson try to build in his songs such actions would be unimaginable. In that universe soldiers are victorious in defending their own country and due to that fact they cannot be guilty of anything.

Not just that he successfully familiarized with the audience, he also succeed in transferring his celebrity sign in different media and genres, such as political talk shows and news that normally has nothing to do with the pop and rock singers. According to Driessens (2012) celebritization works through three different processes democratization, diversification and migration. Taking his private life out of the picture Thompson as celebrity sign successfully migrated to different social fields, especially politics and religion. Around that sign different social forces established and gain possibility for articulation no matter weather they support or criticize Thompson. As celebrity he works as a form of sign through which any individual in society can represent herself/himself as member of the specific group that share common worldview.