| Summary: | It is commonly understood that a concept album is “a studio album where all
musical or lyrical ideas contribute to a single overall theme or unified
story” (Shuker 2002: 5). In this paper this term will be used to denote an
album containing extra-musical themes and not simply collections of
compositions defined only by genre or theme. In order for an album to belong
to this category, it must have taken a thematic unity realized by the common
content (thematically) of its compositions and common musical means. Although
the beginnings of such creative trends can be traced from 1940, the 1960s and
1970s brought the most influential releases of this kind, especially The
Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), which has had a
great impact on many authors. As far as is known, the topic of concept albums
in Yugoslavia has not yet been elaborated, so this article seems to be the
first dedicated to this subject. It seems that in Yugoslavia there had been
albums with elements of concept released before the appearance of the Kamen
na kamen group album in 1973, entitled LP-60993 (Zagreb: Jugoton). The author
of the album was Nikola Borota Radovan. After that, a double LP by the same
ensemble and songwriter appeared in 1975 entitled OOUR/AVNOJ (RTV Ljubljana),
with even more clearly expressed characteristics of concept. The aim of this
article is to show that the thematic and conceptual elements of these
editions are firmly connected to those of the concept album. These LPs were
formed within the following thematic and contextual frames: 1) Borota`s
general inclination towards folklore tradition(s) as a permanent source of
inspiration, 2) models among the greatest popular music works that influenced
his writing projects, primarily The Beatles’ concept albums, and 3) social,
economic and political circumstances in Yugoslavia at the time when these
albums appeared. Even if it is not strictly a concept album in the full
sense, the album LP- 60993 might be regarded as the first album with elements
of concept published by a Yugoslav author, according to all the criteria and
analyzed results. The elements that show a clear connection to the concept
are as follows: leading subject(s)/idea(s) that demand(s) the order of
compositions, organization of musical elements and motives on macro- and
micro-levels (to produce formal and thematic unity), elements of narrative
and musical/sound symbols, including elements of musique concrète.
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