EPT
So the bulgarian mainstream music - what kind of animal is that. Just like the k-pop, in Bulgaria there is a term for the mass music as well - its called Pop-Folk or on a street language - Chalga. The origins of this type of music, can be found deep in my countries culture and folklore, but its one of those things, that comes out from something great, just to go horribly wrong. In other words the Pop-Folk in Bulgaria is an evolution of the music, that was typical for my country and for the Balkans in general for over the last...say 200 years.
An example for good working evolution in this music genre is Goran Bregovic - if you are not familiar with him, fear not. Youtube some stuff by him - he did the soundtracks for the most of the Emir Kusturica's movies, like Arizona Dream, starring Johnny Depp. But even the soundtrack of Borat was full of "not too bad songs" that represent my idea. But anyway. The Pop-Folk is nothing like that. Till 1988 Bulgaria was a communistic country, and during the time of communism, this kind of music was banned. It was illegal to make or sell music in this genre, so it was hard to find records, although even by that time, there already was a good developed underground scene, and one way or another people knew about this music.
But after the second coming of the democracy and the capitalism, the Pop-Folk exploded and quickly developed itself to the music of the masses. In the post communistic years the government was struggling to build up a working economy, therefore the vast majority of the population was relatively poor. Of course, as you most likely know, this time of financial environment leaves a lot of holes for illegal business and activities. There were a lot of people that abused the lack of control, and became very rich. The process was not only to be observed in Bulgaria, but in most of the countries that belonged to the socialistic block. But because getting rich was the problem of the day, most of the lyrics in the bulgarian main stream music by that time was exclusively about cash - US dollars, German Marks, Benz, Bmw and of course sex, but that came a bit later.
So in the beginning the audience of this music was not very large - it was beloved mainly by the underground world and by the early to mid 90's the Pop-Folk was the symbol of the mafia.
here is an example about the music was made by that time. I doubt you will have the will to listen to the song till the end, having censer might by better, but in essence the guy is singing about opening a shop for Adidas shoes, getting rich and eventually buying a BMW. As retarded as it looks, most of the Bulgarians, including me, are not taking the first efforts in this music genre seriously - we just make fun of the videos and the lyrics.
The Pop-Folk music abomination as we know it today came around 1997. Bulgaria's economy totally collapsed, many people lost all their lifetime savings because of bankrupted banks or financial pyramids. But by that time, the Pop- Folk totally changed its approach and finally managed to become the ultimate mass culture thing in Bulgaria. A new producer decided to make a music company, that was going to promote exclusively young girls, trying to break through in the music business. But how to grab the attention of the poor folk, how to sell to them the new product. Easy enough, ever since the time of the roman empire, what the simple man needed was something to eat and entertaining. So this, music company gave the folk exactly that:
![[image loading]](http://images.ibox.bg/2008/01/24/39957/519x389.jpg)
The voice was not important, the quality of the music - еven less. What was important, were the big fake tits the blond hair, and the lyrics about love and sex. Finally the soft spot was founded and suddenly a horde of sexy babes with big boobs made it big time. To make things even more obviously related to the porn industry, the new singers were known only by their little name - like Maria, Camellia and etc. In the last few years however the music is trying to free it self from its folklore origins and sound - it become much more focused on techno beats, which made it conquer the discos as well, it become the post popular club music. Some typical balkan sounds and instruments are still there however.
Since...say 2000 or so the Pop Folk totally dominates the bulgarian music scene. Its everywhere. It went very deep in the culture and everyday life, because it has no target audience - almost everybody in Bulgaria loves or least can listen to Pop-Folk.
As a mainstream, the Pop-Folk affects the fashion, but the thing that really concerns me is that the brand new Pop-Folk generation is just kicking in- a whole bunch of 12 to 14 y.o kids which are totally under the influence of this music genre. This are getting more or less dangerously out of proportion, because genuinely, the Pop-Folk is a simple music - for simple people, having simple needs. But the music industry in Bulgaria is already almost entirely focus on it, there are a lot of money in it - the old stars got old, just to be replaced by a new 21 y.o. babe with bigger boobs and blonder hair.
I hate this music, I'm always trying to accept what is different to me, but in that case I feel the different, more or less like an alien. It just feels like my whole country is Pop-Folk. Everything is so... wrong. Right now I study in Germany and I think I'm fitting the calm and civilized environment perfectly. Yes, the Bulgarian music is full of passion, it really represents the nature of the Bulgaria people, but it just went too far. It corrupted too deep. I want to see the Pop-Folk as music genre, as a trend, as something that will go by, but it just wont - Pop-Folk is the way of life in Bulgaria.
I wish we had the Wonder Girls
