This paper aims to analyse the role of alternative music in Slovenia in the 1980s, on the eve of the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the 1970s, Slovenia was the cradle of the Yugoslav punk and new wave movements. During the second half of the 1980s, alongside the Kosovo question and the rise of Slobodan Milošević, the Alpine country also played a key role in the crisis that would lead to the dissolution of the federation, due to its differences with Belgrade. Musically, this was expressed through the work of various groups and collectives who, despite belonging to different genres, captured the fears, feelings and anger of Slovenians, as well as the changes in the country, during that difficult period, which culminated in the entry of federal tanks into Slovenia in June 1991.