To Örebro University

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.