ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the convergence of two powerful expressive discourses, sports and popular music, as they relate to the continuing formation of national consciousness during Bulgaria's immediate post-state-socialist period. It finds that the new songs aided the mythologization of Bulgarian soccer to promote an ideology of international dominance and hence, a more positive national image during a period of extreme domestic civil strife. The chapter discloses the shattering economic, social and psychological impact of democratic reform through 1996, and how the Bulgarian public and its leaders employed popular culture as a coping mechanism directed at regaining a positive national outlook and unified sense of national consciousness. It argues that an analysis of sport and music in mid-1990s Bulgaria reveals how the transition away from state socialism affected governmental policy as well as the lives of everyday citizens. The chapter focuses on the 1994 World Cup tournament.
