‘The Song Has Kept Us’: Soundscape of Belgrade during the NATO Bombing

Abstract

Abstract In this article I explore the sonic and music practices in the experience of the NATO bombing of Belgrade, focusing particularly on their role in the governmental apparatuses both of the NATO forces and of Miloševic’s regime. Drawing on affect studies, I discuss sound and music not only as text, but as sheer intensity, as a vibrational body and force. I argue that the sonic element of the experience of NATO bombing proved important as it provided the surface area, the somatic layer of the war machine, on which the apparatuses of governance could operate and effectuate the production of meaning.