Till Örebro universitet

This thesis sheds light on border crossings of popular music genres and proposes a novel approach to studying circulation of popular music across the globe. It propounds a critical discussion on the conventions and politics of knowledge production and dissemination within the scholarship that lies in the intersection of popular music studies, ethnomusicology and music sociology. The thesis points to the predominance of structure-driven and conjuncture-oriented approaches as well as issues of comprehension and representation within the scholarship, and it motivates an actor-oriented approach to account for transregional circulation of popular music genres. Through taking indie music in Istanbul as its case, the thesis develops an alternative approach called "genre transfer." It focuses on the emergence and development of indie music within the regional context of Istanbul from the 1990s to the 2010s. Apart from identifying the key agents and institutions that have been involved in the process of indie music's local legitimization, the thesis analyzes the agents' changing conditions, relations and strategies that have provided base to the transformation of their practices. In doing so, the thesis draws upon actor-oriented approaches of cultural transfer studies and remains informed by analytical and epistemological concerns laid out within the fields of relational sociology and sociology of knowledge.

This paper focuses on mostly representational socio-political activities of Turkish celebrities --with an emphasis on the musicians-- who have remained in Turkish President Erdogan’s (in)famous celebrity circles, and it intends to propound a conceptual discussion on their roles in the social normalization of deviance within the country during AKP’s autocratic regime which has grown in the last fifteen years. The paper questions and observes those celebrities’ motivations for and potential gains and losses from their highly mediated engagements with the state, and accordingly, it perceives these celebrity circles as illustrative to socio-politically influential groupings which I call emotional alliances. With reference to anthropological discussions on media and emotion, my argumentation is built upon Grossberg’s (1984, 1992) notion of affective alliances, Elias’s (1939) seminal work on the civilizing process and Berger and Luckmann’s (1966) stimulating discussions on the social construction of reality, albeit with some appropriative changes which are intended to serve for the empirical exploration. While Grossberg’s notion focuses on fans, my notion puts emphasis on celebrities. Besides, while looking upon celebrities’ alignments and their influence on the society, the notion’s relatively more dystopic perspective makes it agonize over processes of de-civilizing and objective (as both discursive and institutional) constructions of un-reality and delusion. Furthermore, the paper tries to handle the socially segregated conjuncture of the country through following thinking paths provided by Williams (1977) in his discussions on structures of feeling and dominant culture. Instead of blaming such alignments insensitively, the paper eventually observes that when joining the alliances, even the celebrities may admire or fear (the regime), and even their potential gains and losses may range from subvention to prosecution (by the regime). Within such social segregation which is reinforced by the cultural bio-politics of emotion that operate under Erdogan’s neoliberal autocracy, the celebrities’ above-mentioned position-takings make them encounter horns of a social dilemma: pro-Erdoganists’ embracement and anti-Erdoganists’ condemnation.

This paper aims to foster discussion on musicians’, labels', media's and fans' discursive concerns for inventing, mentioning and discrediting new sub-genres, and their ontological motivations for accepting and rejecting elaborated associations in processes of production, dissemination and consumption. Regarding the case of progressive rock, the loosely defined super-genre's influence on later generations is explored through observing new interpretations and the never-ending pursuit of autonomy and distinction. A simple illustrative two-fold research question gives the reader a clue about the motivation for interdisciplinary inception of the notion of relational omnivorousness as a sensitizing device for understanding such differentiations (e.g. between several sub-genres which have subsequently been associated with progressive rock): Why on earth we need terms like neo-prog, avant-prog, post-prog, indie-prog, post-rock, art rock, etc? What are the differences between them?

While the notion of relational omnivorousness is theoretically influenced by Fabbri's, Frith's, Negus's, Hesmondhalgh’s, Holt's and Taylor’s divergent approaches to music and genre conceptions, its mixed methodology is informed by the post-Bourdieusian research methods of cultural sociology (on analyzing music tastes) which have thoroughly been discussed by both the defenders and the critiques of the cultural omnivore thesis (mainly in the US and the UK). Besides, when making sense of the evolution of sub-genres and connecting armchair theorizing with empiricism comprehensively, the paper follows the relational thinking path of musicology which was propounded by Slobin and further developed by Born and Cook. A relational socio-musicological approach to genres, which was conceptualized by Lena, opens up the paper's horizon when looking into transhabitual fusions within different taste spheres, and flourishing traditions, articulations and position-takings. It is envisioned that epistemological dimensions of this discussion eventually relates back to audiences' horizons of expectations and horizons of change (Jauss) that they accumulate and experience when accepting (and distancing themselves from) new definitions aesthetically and attitudinally through even their further reliance upon shared representations (Berger & Luckmann) and stocks of knowledge (Schutz). Apart from all, concerning the issues of transnational circulation of knowledge and referencing, Grossberg’s and Straw’s seminal comments on sensibilities are being read along with Bourdieu’s mostly overlooked remarks on circulation of ideas in literary fields for the sake of taking affective and symbolic dimensions of the issue into consideration.

The ultimate aim for proposing such a notion is to fill some important gaps between cultural sociologists’ methodological handling of musical phenomena and musicologists’ theoretical review of cultural sociology material – in other words, to contribute to the scholarly bridge between two disciplines that mostly trivialize each other’s primary conceptual concerns due to unfortunate conventions of utilitarian referring, cherry picking, deficient transference and aberrant decoding.

Since Twin Peaks aired on ABC in the beginning of the 1990s, beside the critical and national acclaim it has reached in the US, it has managed to capture an international cult following. In the meantime, the soundtracks of the TV series and the following feature film, which were produced by David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti and composed by the latter, have experienced a similar reception process. Apart from the Grammy Award which was won by Badalamenti in 1991, the music of this idiosyncratic universe has separately attracted a somewhat distinctive attention among the fans. However, this attention would not stay limited within the confines of appreciation for some enthusiasts who would intend to carry their interest to the level of appropriation, and in the next period, echoes of Twin Peaks would begin to be heard in Europe as a new music sub-genre which would semi-popularly be known as dark jazz.

This paper aims to understand the influence of a TV production on the emergence and development of a new musical phenomenon. Approaching the issue with relational musicological concerns, the paper proposes to look at a specific journey that jazz has taken thanks to one of its encounters with the screen. This is a journey that can be considered not only as border-crossing, but also as passing through different taste spheres. Moreover, the paper reasons about possible methods for further research on dark jazz. Considering the fact that 2017 is the year in which a whole book dedicated to Twin Peaks’ music is published by Bloomsbury through its 33 1/3 series and the TV series makes a come-back, I believe this is an appropriate time to foster a scholarly discussion on musics that are considered as post-Twin Peaks in many aspects.

This paper’s main aim is to provide temporal/spatial answers to a specific question: “What happens when the ball is in the musicians’ court in a/an time/environment when/where everybody has to have an opinion?”

With reference to anthropological discussions on media and emotion and culture-related philosophical discussions on affect, the paper tells about the recently formed “emotional” and “affective” alliances among Turkey’s popular music artists with regard to the socio-political atmosphere. It tries to keep an account of the AKP era (2002-present) in which social and cultural segregation has gradually become more apparent in the society due to government policies and the ever-growing consciousness of the government critiques. In this period, even in the sphere of popular music, terms like “partisan artist” and “marginal/marginalized/alien artist” have claimed their places in Turkey’s current political conjuncture just as it has happened in many other sectors which have been in direct interaction with the public (like the media). Apart from questioning the motivations of the artists who take position in favor of the state and the dominant culture or on the side of the opposition and the counter culture discourses, the paper discusses about the observed outcomes and further potentials of such alliances and tries to make theoretical and practical deductions from them.

In her seminal work Club Cultures, to emphasize the significance of knowledge, taste and behavior for the accumulation of subcultural capital, Thornton (1995) suggests that “In knowing, owning and playing the music, DJs, in particular, are sometimes positioned as the masters of the scene….” (p. 28). Casting aside this specific example which is adduced by Thornton who keeps track of the passage from live music to recorded music in club cultures, how can we reconsider the experience and dissemination of musics (that shape subcultures) after more than twenty years of observing the emergence of new media and rapid development of new technologies?

This paper intends to foster discussion on these issues with border-crossing and up-to-date approaches and through agonizing over a fairly illustrative transnational question: “To what extent and through which processes, a Turkish fan becomes able to appreciate the music of Boards of Canada and what does she or he gains from it?” At first, on a scale that ranges from concert-going to YouTube-streaming, it proposes to understand subcultural musical experience through making differentiations between knowledge, taste and behavior. It naturally observes that since Adorno’s celebration of musical experience as a distinctive event and Benjamin’s denouncement of the loss of aura, many things have changed. Secondly, drawing upon the mid-European notion of cultural transfer and with reference to Will Straw’s arguments on the changing value of cultural commodities in different markets and populations, the paper makes a methodological proposition on analyzing the transfer and circulation of subcultural media and their reception and appropriation in transnational contexts. And finally, concerning the dissemination of music, the paper propounds that Thornton’s conception of niche media and micro media should be reconsidered along with the conventional shift to social media.

The methodological approaches of this paper are presented with the data that I have been collecting for my doctoral research on Turkey’s independent music scene and subculture.

Since the mid-1990s, in fandom and music subculture studies, Sarah Thornton’s theory of subcultural capital has dominated the research as a highly influential framework. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, Thornton suggests that people’s subcultural capital is built on their possession and knowledge of cultural commodities associated with a certain subculture. It helps them to differentiate themselves from members of other groups, and therefore, in their own perception, raises their status among the society. On the other hand, as Thornton (1995) herself emphasizes, her research is “more thoroughly [an analysis] of the cultural worlds of the white majority” in the UK (p. 20). This fact makes us encounter a problematic situation if we use Thornton’s theory directly as a framework when analyzing transcultural musical phenomena.

This paper is the second presentation of a paper series that I initiated last semester during the commencement of my doctoral work. The series propose to think on the possibilities of expanding Thornton’s theoretical framework to make it more valid and useful in transcultural dimensions of research via focusing on several aspects of transferred and appropriated phenomena. Each paper of the series is intended to bring out different layers of theoretical and practical discussions, and concordantly, to log my research’s process of generating a theory of subcultural transfer.

In this part, I question the issue of autonomous identity construction in Thornton’s and other post-Birmingham scholars’ approaches to the concept of subculture, and I take the problem of “expectations” to the foreground through drawing upon sociological and anthropological theories of collective identity, emotion and affect. By the word “expectations,” my paper specifically refers to the external necessities – which grow separately from the autonomy of the subcultural capital holder – for the accumulation of subcultural capital in certain conjunctures.

The ideas and arguments of this paper series are progressively derived from my ongoing research on Turkey’s indie music subculture.

Since the mid-1990s, Turkey has had its own independent music scene that has taken form especially in certain clubs and venues of Istanbul, and seemingly, a subculture has evolved around this scene. Although the bands of the scene have not generally been able to (or in many cases, have not intended to) reach international acclaim, among the Turkish society, they have found loyal fan bases. The aim of my doctoral research is to understand emergence and establishment processes and working dynamics of this scene from the points of view of both bands and fans.

Since 2002, an autocratic-like regime has grown in Turkey within the hegemony of AKP government, and the summer of 2013 saw huge anti-government protests around the country, especially in bigger cities like Istanbul. Concordantly, as my current research suggests, most of the indie musicians who flourished in this period took part in those protests one way or another, and since then, many of these musicians have not hesitated to share their opinions on Turkish politics in concerts, festivals or via their social media accounts.

This paper discusses about the protesting attitudes of these musicians whose music has almost nothing to do with politics. In concordance with the discussion, the paper looks at the historical development of indie music’s standing for and against politics in other countries, and proposes to look at the relationship between producing alternative art and having a protesting attitude, through a musical frame. In general, the paper tries to find answers to these questions;

-   How musicians whose music has nothing to do with politics gain political character?-   Is there any relationship between producing alternative music and having alternative political attitudes?-   To what degree, musicians’ musical identity is fed from their political attitudes in the case that their music has still nothing to do with politics?-   To what degree, musicians’ political attitudes are providing for their accumulation of subcultural capital?-   And more specifically, does being an independent musician necessitate having an alternative approach to politics?

Since the mid-1990s, in fandom and music subculture studies, Sarah Thornton’s theory of subcultural capital has dominated the research as a highly influential framework. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital, Thornton suggests that people’s subcultural capital is built on their possession and knowledge of cultural commodities associated with a certain subculture. It helps them to differentiate themselves from members of other groups, and therefore, in their own perception, raises their status among the society. On the other hand, as Thornton (1995) herself emphasizes, her research is “more thoroughly [an analysis] of the cultural worlds of the white majority” in the UK (p. 20). This fact makes us encounter a problematic situation if we use Thornton’s theory directly as a framework when analyzing transcultural music scenes. However, if we appropriate Thornton’s theory into such research as a framework through using it complementarily with theories of cultural transfer, transculturality, and reception, we may be able to open up new horizons in the research on unpopular music. The last two decades have brought valuable appropriations of these literary theories into musicological spheres, and as many scholars have suggested, there are much to do in this direction.

This paper proposes to think on the possibilities of extending Thornton’s theory to transcultural dimensions and generating a theory of subcultural transfer. It tells about recent developments in the use of above-mentioned theories in musicology and presents new theoretical ideas that have emerged from my ongoing research.

Sezen Aksu (a.k.a. Little Sparrow; in Turkish, Minik Serçe) has long been considered as the undisputed queen of Turkish popular music. In the 1970s, she became famous for being the first female Turkish singer to perform her “own” songs in public. Then, after two decades of securing her position in the music industry, in the 1990s, she reached the level of providing support of mentorship to emerging artists, and since then, she has widely been approved as a modern patron of popular music in Turkey. Of course, her patronage has been derived from her prolific authorship. In the last twenty five years, she has written a great deal of songs to be used by other musicians, and concordantly, those who have used Aksu’s songs in their albums caught critical media attention. Eventually, many successful musicians have built their careers on their collaborations with Minik Serçe, and the latter’s patronage has continued to be consolidated. So, should this story be evaluated at face value?

Drawing on the Weberian concept of cult of personality and with reference to Adorno’s writings on the fetish-character in music, this paper discusses about the established author(ity) of Sezen Aksu in Turkish popular music scene.