Zlatko Gall (born December 1, 1954) is a

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n journalist, commentator and rock critic. Gall was born in

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, enter ...

, and he graduated in art history and archeology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

. Gall worked as a journalist in ''

Slobodna Dalmacija (, where "Free" is an adjective) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split. History was first issued on 17 June 1943 by Tito's Partisans in an abandoned stone barn on Mosor, a mountain near Split, while the city was occupied by the I ...

'' from 1979 to 1995. After working for ''Tjednik'' and '' Feral Tribune'' weeklies, he returned to ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' in 2001. Zlatko Gall is known as an advocate for

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

as an expression of urban culture and liberal values. He sees rock music as the antithesis of turbo folk which was associated with rural culture,

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

values, extreme

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

and

right-wing politics Right-wing politics is the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position b ...

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. He often criticises pop and rock musicians who add elements of folk and turbo folk to their repertoire in order to make their music more accessible to the public. For example, in ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' he famously wrote an article lambasting the Ivan Zajc theatre in Rijeka for the decision to hire popular musician and advocate of turbo folk Severina Vučković for a production of the popular musical ''Karolina Riječka'' in 2003. He is one of the most respected rock critic in modern Croatia, and the author of "Rock encyclopedia".

References

Further reading