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Abstract
The subject of this paper is the relationship between politics and popular culture with a particular focus on the relationship between the politics of the New Right and arabesk music in Turkey in the 1980s. This issue is approached from a socio-historical perspective concentrating not only on the process of social transformation that occurred in the 1980s and the 1990s, but also on the history of the emergence and transformation of modern government and the arabesk music genre in Turkey. Arabesk emerged in the 1960s as the music of the popular masses despite various official measures aimed at inhibiting its expansion. In spite of this historical background, today there is a growing suspicion and belief that arabesk lost its protest character either through its articulation with the New Right's hegemonic project or by becoming a part of recently expanded consumption culture in Turkey. It is true that the 1980s was a transitional period led by the New Right and this has had important effects on popular culture in general and on arabesk music in particular. But does it mean that arabesk died? This paper deals with this question and studies new socio-cultural dynamics that emerged in the 1980s and the 1990s within the context of arabesk music in Turkey. It argues that all the changes that occurred in this period are forcing us to think in a new matrix of relations (economic, political and cultural), within which arabesk is multiplied or fragmented into new subgenres and audience groups. We must also articulate more complex questions than those dichotomic ones such as ‘if arabesk is dead or alive’, if we like to understand new cultural trends underlying our present world and the political potential that they hold for us.
Notes
1. Relying on the theoretically informed methodological assumptions that are explained below, the paper is based on partly the field research conducted in 1996 in Turkey – as part of my Ph.D. thesis, Politics and Popular Culture: A Case Study on the Relationship between the Rise of the New Right, Football and Arabesk in the 1980s in Turkey (Yarar Citation2000) – and also new readings and analysis on the recent developments in the field. Hence, I have expanded my analysis on arabesk music to the 1990s and developed new arguments and comments on its changing social meaning(s) and political significance. I have also had a chance to rethink its relation to the New Right with respect to present conditions. In line with all these (including some theoretical renovations), I have expanded the data collected from various sources (i.e., unstructured interviews with 25 strategic informants such as arabesk singers, lyricists, directors of music companies and music producers; examination of primary sources – articles, books, autobiographies and research reports; review of some daily and weekly magazines and newspapers; analyses of official documents from government programmes; documentary reports from libraries of various institutions; and lyrics of arabesk songs) in 1996 with the analysis of new albums of singers who are mentioned in the article (now the total number of analysed albums and songs is 15 for albums and 170 for songs).
2. There are other authors who followed Mardin's approach while using a set of new concepts in explaining the period of transformation from the Ottoman period to the Turkish Republic (see for instance Aktar Citation1985, Buğra Citation1995, Heper Citation1985, İnsel Citation1990).
3. Here, Wagner's approach is relied on the principles of Giddens’ theory of structuration, and mainly his conception of structure/institution. Starting from a concept of ‘duality of structure’ (the dialectic relationship between structure and agency), he conceives of structures/institutions as simultaneously enabling and constraining human action (Wagner Citation1994, p.16).
4. Here I use Althusser's concept of ideology through which men constitute imaginary relation to ‘the real conditions of their existence’ (Althusser Citation1977, p. 167). See also Hall (1985).
5. Here the term ‘formation’ implies the simultaneous existence of both moments of continuity and change.
6. Escobar maintains that modernization provides a context not only for the dominant (L)anguage, but also for different ‘languages’. Modernization discourse, in this sense, can be seen as ‘a place of encounter’ of different languages, identities, regimes of representation (Escobar Citation1995). For Mignolo, the configuration of spatial differentiations and boundaries (as in the case of discourses of Occidentalism or Orientalism) is the substance also for the emergence of local histories ‘within’ the modern world system (e.g., the local histories of the ‘metropolitan centres’, the local histories of Europe, etc.) and the local histories of its margins (e.g., the Andes under colonial rule, the independence of Latin America, etc.) Along with this line of argument, Mignolo goes on with describing ‘global designs’. These designs are brewed in the local histories of the metropolitan countries and are implemented, exported, and enacted differently in particular places (Mignolo Citation2000, pp. 64–65).
7. On the basis of Edward Shills’ argument that ‘tradition refers to the coexistence of past and present and it is whatever is persistent or recurrent through transmission’, Everyman and Jamison underline positive (constructive) and negative (constraining) impacts of tradition on the behaviour of social actors (Everyman and Jamison Citation1998, p. 27).
8. For instance, the declining power of the Ottoman Empire in parallel with the process of semi-colonialization and the emergence of new national movements in the nineteenth century, and the Turkish war of independence (1919–1922) against the invasion of its last territorial remains (the hinterland of the Anatolian region) by the Western military allies.
9. For instance, the semi-colonialized economic structure, the strong state tradition and the weak national bourgeoisie (Mardin Citation1971, Citation1972, Boratav, 1988).
10. Saribay summarizes the conditions that persuaded the RPP's leadership to democratize the regime as follows: ‘One was the favourable change in the international environment following the victory of the democratic regimes in the Second World War. Another was the long tradition of Westernization which also implied democratization. A third factor was the social unrest due to wartime shortages and profiteering’ (Sarıbay Citation1991, p. 119) However all these did not favour the RPP since the domestic problems, which derived from reactions of the popular masses against the Kemalist regime and were accelerated by the economic depression in the 1940s.
11. In the Ottoman era, the main distinction in the music field was that between traditional folk music and classical Turkish art music. While the latter was regarded as an art form, the former, which encompasses regional differences, was devalued by the Ottoman elites as the music of rural peasants. Oransay divides the classical Turkish art music in to two categories as religious and non-religious. They, in turn, split into several subgenres (Oransay Citation1985, p. 1496). For the details of various music traditions in the period of the Ottoman Empire and their transformation under the impact of modernization see (Oransay Citation1985, p. 1496, Öztuna Citation1987, pp. 66–67, Dergil Citation1994, p. 31, Aksoy Citation1985, Güngör Citation1990, Behar Citation1988, Tekelioğlu Citation1997).
12. To associate Islam – in its ‘decayed’ and ‘stagnant’ form in the last, at least, ten centuries of the Empire – with Arabs is one of the most apparent features of the nationalist discourse of the radical modernists. As Bora states, here ‘Arab identity’, which was associated with the Ottoman past, functions as an image of the ‘other’ (Bora Citation1998, p. 42).
13. According to Tura this Arabic music diffused into the folk music tradition of rural areas such as the south-east Anatolian region (Tura Citation1985, p. 1512).
14. Egyptian films and radio were essential parts of the cinematic and musical experiences of people both in rural and urban areas in Turkey by the 1940s. According to official data, in the twelve years between 1936 and 1948, 130 Egyptian films were shown in Turkey (Stokes 1992, p. 94).
15. The main representative of popular Turkish art music was Zeki Müren, who became the biggest star of his time and remained so until he died in 1997. Whereas the class of migrant nouveaux riches saw their aspirations represented in the popularized Turkish art music then typified by Zeki Müren, the tastes of the settled bourgeoisie were captivated by the revived ‘Şarki’ style of Munir Nurettin Selçuk (a previous form of popularized Turkish art music) and the tango of Fehmi Ege (Stokes Citation1992, p. 125).
16. For a history of Turkish Light Music, see Kahyaoglu (Citation1994), Karakayali (Citation1995), Selçuk (Citation1982), Şenyapılı (Citation1981) and Ok (Citation1994).
17. This word, meaning ‘Arabic’, was used critically by the urban intelligentsia to label the music in a negative way.
18. Here I base my arguments not only on my own analysis of the lyrics and narratives of arabesk songs, but also on that by Özbek. In her 1991 book, Özbek focuses on Gencebay's arabesk.
19. On such issues Martin Stokes, an ethno-musicologist, provides detailed analysis in his book, The Arabesk Debate (1992).
20. Further examples can be given of ‘God’ as the symbol of ultimate authority for many religious scholars. In arabesk songs, as opposed to texts of orthodox religious scholars, God appears as somebody to get support from or to complain about things to. This secular mode of understanding God goes back to the Tasavvuf tradition. Also, as Meral Özbek states, the religious aspect of arabesk songs should be comprehended as the sediment of, or the heir to, folk-religion (Özbek 1991, p. 195).
21. For a detailed analysis of the New Right in Turkey see Eralp et al. (Citation1993), Özkazanç (Citation1996, Citation1999), Tünay (Citation1993), Yalman (Citation1997) and Yarar (Citation2000).
22. Calcini explains that as the diminishment of the role of traditional promoters of cultural activity (states, the agricultural sector of the oligarchy, and social movements) and the rise of that of organisms linked to the expanding modes of capitalist development (financial insitutitons, cultural foundations, and chains of art galleries related to finance capital or high-tech industries) (Calcini Citation1992, p. 33).
23. From details of Calcini's analysis of the division of labour between private enterprises and the state see (Calcini Citation1992, pp. 34–35).
24. See the article by I. Selçuk (Citation1988), titled ‘Televizyonda Arabesk’ (Arabesk on Television).
25. See ‘Arabesk Başkanlik katinda’, Müzik Magazin, no. 17, April 1988. See also ‘Allah Allah Bu Nasil “Vaka”’, Nokta, 14 August 1988.
26. ‘Allah Allah'li ANAP Propagandasi’, Hürriyet, 14 August 1988.
27. This shows the prevailing approach to arabesk by the New Right and its leading party, the MP. It was based on a double discourse of both criticism and continuity with music experts and sociologists, who believe that this music is pushing people to extreme pessimism and apathy by evoking and exploiting people's sad feelings.
28. Direct translation is ‘arabesk with no pain’. But the Turkish term, aci, which refers to ‘pain’, also has the connotation of hot or chilly, and this is known to refer to the eating habits of rural people mainly from south-eastern Turkey, the main area from which many people migrated to the western region in the 1980s. Also arabesk has continuously been accused of being fatalistic and pessimistic, like the people (migrants) who listen to it. Therefore, the term ‘acisiz arabesk’ can be translated as ‘happy arabesk’. Stokes's translation is ‘arabesk with the aci (pain) and keder (grief) removed’.
29. The first example of this reformed arabesk under the state initiative was a song entitled ‘Sevenler Kiskanir’ (Those Who Are in Love Are Jealous) sung by Hakki Bulut and composed by the Western style Light Music composer Esin Engin. This experiment brought Hakki Bulut substantial publicity and a TRT performance in a rather controversial place called ‘Atatürk Kültür Merkezi’ (the Atatürk Culture Centre) in Istanbul, but the result was a commercial failure (Stokes Citation1992, p. 113).
30. Many arabesk singers’ names were among the 700 selected singers on the list. Despite the initial negative reaction, the project was eventually accepted (‘Arabeskçiye Sanatçi Karti’, Cumhuriyet, 27 June 1987).
31. Despite all these regulations, rampant cassette piracy (which had encouraged the growth of arabesk in the 1970s) continued to be the main means of distribution of the recording industry. In 1995 it constituted 20 per cent of production.
32. Civil organizations such as MESAM and MÜYAP represented this lobby within the music industry, and forced the government to change the old regulations. MESAM was established in 1987 and MÜYAP in 1986 [see the bulletin published by MÜYAP (Citation1996)]. An important occasion in which music production issues were discussed was the first Music Congress in 1988. One hundred and twenty-two people from various music disciplines were invited to give papers or participate (‘Sanatçilarin Sesi “Gür’ Çikti”‘, Müzik Magazin, no. 17, April 1988; also see a series of articles by Fehmi Keçeci: ‘Müzik Kongresi'nin yoklari ...’, Müzik Magazin, no. 27, July 1988; ‘1. Müzik Kongresi'nin Ardindan’, Müzik Magazin, no. 29, July 1988).
33. See the unpublished interview with E. Saritaş by Melis Tufur (1995).
34. For example, Orhan Gencebay was composer, lyricist, director, player and singer of his own song tracks produced in the 1970s. He also established his own recording company, Kervan Plakçilik, in 1974. But in the 1980s the process of music production underwent many important changes.
35. Yeniyüzyil, 9 October 1996.
36. See interviews with Şahin Özer (28 September 1996, Istanbul) and Muhtesem (23 September 1996).
37. In the bulletin published by MÜYAP (Citation1996).
38. Recording companies do not specialize to a high degree, but produce a range of material. Since the conditions of studio production do not differ markedly from one genre to another, the end products resemble one another greatly (Stokes Citation1992, p. 4). This is the case despite an increasing number of divisions that have emerged in arabesk music and an increasing complexity of divisions of labour in the processes of production and distribution. Flexibility of these divisions diminishes the need for a singer to have an expanded knowledge of various genres. For example, if a singer is good enough in one particular genre, all s/he needs to do is be able to sing that genre in an arabesk style. See also the interviews with Ali Tekin Türe and Gönül Şen (28 September 1996, Istanbul) and Adnan Şenses (3 October 1996, Istanbul).
39. See also the interview with Adnan Şenses where he makes a distinction between music for the market (he means arabesk music) and music as art (he means Turkish art music), and argues that he has to do both in order to survive, in order to keep his name popular, while performing his art.
40. For the concept of music formation or arabesk formation see Grossberg (Citation1997).
41. My analysis will be limited to some examples of arabesk subgenres representing these trends, due to the lack of ethnographic research exploring the general arabesk field and on all the distinct audience groups and arabesk forms.
42. In the 1980s and the 1990s we witnessed the birth of another arabesk star. The politicians converted his song ‘Allah Allah’ into a jingle for their election campaign, and new bourgeoisie danced to it at their parties. This was Ibrahim Tatlises who started his music life as a folk music singer in the 1980s and became the king of arabesk in the 1990s.
43. Tatlises represents a reactionary and narcissistic image and model for the popular classes. In an interview, he describes the driving motivation in his art as having been oppressed: ‘Someone who has not been oppressed cannot give any direction to art. It is a necessary condition. Being oppressed brings out ambition and power. This ambition later turns into enjoyment’ (Tatlises Citation1987). This contrasts with Gencebay who describes the main principle in his life philosophy as ‘humanitarianism’ (Gencebay Citation1985, p. 5).
44. In the music market, some musicians, with the same sentimentality and nostalgia towards the hay days of the socialist movement, produced a new form of music called özgün (authentic) music. Within this there were overlapping subgenres, including more Westernized and non-arabesk forms of özgün music produced by various music groups and singers such as Ezginin Günlügü and Akdeniz Akdeniz, Zülfü Livaneli and Fatih Kisaparmak.