Representations of Home and Longing for Home in the Processes of the Nationalization of Slovenian Folk-Pop Music

The nationalization of music is more intense in those musical genres that the nation recognizes as traditional. Experts, performers, creators, cultural policy, consumers, and mass media play an important role in this context. Home and homeland are dominant markers of national belonging in their representational image. However, in the contemporary context of migration, the notion of home has also acquired new conceptual frameworks. Based on the findings of contemporary home studies in the milieu of migration, the article compares them with its representations in Slovenian folk-pop music, where home, homeland, Slovenia, longing, mountain, Slovenian places, and mother appear as dominant markers of the national.
Keywords: home, homeland, nationalization, migrations, Slovenian folk-pop music

Music began to be more closely associated with the ideology of nationalism from the mid-19th century onwards. The nationalization of music was reflected in the dominance of specific musical traditions and genres over others and by emphasizing the national characteristics of a particular nation. National anthems are the most illustrative example of the latter. Although music in itself does not have a semantic (national) meaning, its connotations are conferred by the social and cultural system in which it is embedded. Therefore, music is not inherently national(istic), but the recipients, experts, performers, creators, cultural policy, and mass media must recognize it as such.
Home and longing for it are dominant markers of national belonging in their representational image—including music. However, in the contemporary context of migration and transnationalism, the notion of home has also acquired new conceptual frameworks. The article proceeds from the findings of contemporary home studies in the milieu of migration. It compares them with its representations in Slovenian folk-pop music, where home, homeland, Slovenia, longing, mountains, Slovenian places, and mother appear as dominant markers of the national.
Methodologically, the article is based on the content and textual analysis of the compositions of the three most commonly heard (according to the Slovenian Public Opinion 2021/1 survey) Slovenian folk-pop ensembles—Modrijani, the Avsenik Brothers, and the Lojze Slak Ensemble—demonstrating that their texts with frequent use of stereotypes mainly strive for concreteness and familiarity and are very conservative from this point of view. They are also conservative in the sense of perceiving home as one and only, incarnated in the exposed (and other) markers that align with traditional concepts of home, usually meaning both the family environment and the homeland in the singular form and assuming the nation as the primary starting point for living regardless of an individual’s potential migration experience.