Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11851/8306
Title: Rereading Turkey's recent history through the lens of rock music: how rock has lost its socio-political edge in neoliberal times
Authors: Öngür, Hakan Övünç
Develi, Tevfik Orkun
Keywords: rock music
Turkish politics
cultural production
history
opposition
neoliberalism
Populism
Politics
Publisher: Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd
Abstract: In presenting the historical development of rock music in Turkey from the early 1960s to the present within a socio-political framework, this study provides (1) a rereading of Turkish politico-economic changes and (2) a correlative cultural critique of rock musicianship and songwriting in the neoliberal age. Two related hypotheses are tested through a content analysis of 67 rock acts, 426 releases and 3452 songs from 1963 to 2019. First, it is argued that as Turkey moved from import substitution industrialisation between 1960 and 1980 to 1980s neoliberalism, the content of rock music lyrics changed from being overtly socio-political to having no relation to such matters or to adopting implicit and indirect language in mentioning them. Second, it is proposed that this lyrical unresponsiveness to social matters grew so powerfully as part of the neoliberal economic rationale that it put individuation, self-realisation and market demands ahead of other forms of social relations. So, today's rock artists are unequipped to respond through their lyrics to grand events, such as the Gezi Park protests of 2013, the failed coup attempt of 2016, or a two-year state of emergency, terrorism and femicide, in contrast to the rock music of the 1960s and 1970s.
URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2021.1994385
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11851/8306
ISSN: 0143-6597
1360-2241
Appears in Collections:Scopus İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / Scopus Indexed Publications Collection
Siyaset Bilimi ve Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü / Department of Political Science and International Relations
WoS İndeksli Yayınlar Koleksiyonu / WoS Indexed Publications Collection

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