Artistic phenomena and the events on the music scene rather early in the 60s created a climate which made Sarajevo become distinguishable on the Yugoslav music scene - particularly in the area of pop and rock music. The central venue of such events was FIS, and the most important band was Indexi. At the beginning of the 70s pop and rock scene was booming, and groups and performers appeared one after another.
The band Bijelo dugme published its first album in 1974 and immediately gained attention of the Yugoslav public. Hence, the group had become the forerunner of subgenre later called "Shepherd's rock". Bijelo dugme was the first Yugoslav band to organize big concerts (Concert at "Hajduk česma") filling up concert halls and stadiums.
Their public performances introduced a number of novelties into our musical space. While for some people music represented art and joy, Bijelo dugme understood it as a business. In addition to Goran Bregović's shaping of such approach- creation of an image of the group can also be attributed to Dragan S. Stefanović, the author of the cover of their first record.
Most reputable world specialists of that time included this cover amongst 100 best covers in the history of rock music. Dragan Stefanović was the first to introduce advertising into our media space - creation of an image - brand. This, by far, surpassed that time understanding of designers and their role in visualization of an ultimate reation.
New Primitivism
While the official social and cultural institutions and their staff were busy with preparation for the XIV WOG in Sarajevo at the beginning of the 80s, the underground scene in Sarajevo got its "five minutes" in public and media space, and in the aftermath of the Olympics formed a new cultural brand - New Primitivism. It was, at the same time, a musical subgenre and subcultural movement focused on "little people" - a crowd from Sarajevo. It was a local jargon of Sarajevo's mahalas characterised by humour and sarcasm. The first protagonists of this new phenomenon were the group Elvis J. Kurtovich&Meteors - their first album "Myths and Legends about King Elvis" was published by RTL Company in Ljubljana in February 1984, as well as the group "Zabranjeno pušenje".
The groups to follow soon were "Crvena jabuka", "Bombaj štampa"and "Plavi orkestar". The programme Primus whose editor and broadcaster was Boro Kontić since 1981, broadcast "The Top List of Surrealists" Top lista nadrealista") every Saturday. Zlatko Arslanagić, Dražen Ričl, Nenad Janković, Zenit Đozić and Boris Šiber took part in this programme. Soon The Top List of Surrealists radio programme was replaced by the TV programme and won over the entire Yugoslav media space. This programme had become a subcultural brand of its own kind. Numerous features that "the Surrealists" focused on became almost oracular and predicted events soon to ensue.