Soundtrack of Dissent: Sonic Practices in the 2024/25 Serbian Protests

Nikola Vasilijević

doi:10.2298/FID2601077V

Authors

Nikola Vasilijević Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2601077V

Keywords:

silence, music, sound, sound weapon, mimesis

Abstract

On November 1, 2024, the collapse of the Novi Sad Railway Station canopy resulted in the death of 16 people. This event catalysed a wave of public outrage which transformed into what is arguably the largest student-led protest movement in Serbia’s history. Starting with 15-minute commemorative silent vigils enacted during traffic blockades, the sonic practices of the protests gradually grew in variety and scope across urban and digital spaces—ranging from public musical performances, posts on social media and performance interruptions. Apart from violent obstructions by government supporters, the alleged deployment of a military-grade sound weapon cemented sound as a political instrument in both its metaphorical and physically harmful manifestations. This paper argues that sonic practices, ranging from orchestrated silences to street-level musical performances and viral soundtracks, were crucial to the articulation of the 2024/25 protest movement. While the musical “soundtrack” of protests often draws from already existing pop-cultural material, their immediate sonic identity emerges through performative action and its rapid reproduction by supporters. The goal of the paper is to explore how aesthetic and affective expression via sound functioned as both an organizing and a destabilizing political force. The sonically shaped propensity for public gatherings during the 2024/25 protests is, the paper argues, instead of being an explicit political articulation, embedded in performative assembly and affective mimesis. To examine this, the paper will examine the sound practices of protests and attempt to identify mechanisms of political expression via silence, music and their obstructions.

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