From Collective Resistance to Individualised Consumption: Socially Engaged Music in Post-Yugoslav Croatia

The article examines how socially engaged music in postYugoslav Croatia has been reshaped by platformisation and post-socialist disillusionment. Drawing on constructivist grounded theory analysis of 28 semi-structured interviews with musicians and audience members (2022–2023), the author traces shifts in production practices, thematic content, social functions, and listening contexts. While digital infrastructures expand access and visibility, participants describe intensified competition for attention, algorithmic gatekeeping, and market metrics that fragment publics and encourage shorter formats and increasingly visual modes of presentation and circulation. The findings show that while engagement persists, it occurs under conditions that make collective resonance harder to sustain.