French Pop Music Remakes in Turkey
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French pop music remakes in Turkey A cognitive semiotic inquiry into cultural transfer Azize Güneş Supervisor: Göran Sonesson Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University MA in Languages and Literature, Cognitive Semiotics SPVR01 Languages and Linguistics: Degree Project – Master’s (Two years) Thesis, 30 credits May 2017 Abstract In this thesis, the importation, transformation and distribution of French popular music in Turkey during the 20th century have been investigated as a case study of cultural transfer. By using theories and methods within a cognitive semiotic framework, this study provides an overview of the phenomenon of French pop music remakes in Turkey by accounting for the initial situation of communication of remade pop music through recorded materials, and by providing an analysis of the changes made to the songs when transformed from French to Turkish, as well as the linguistic meanings that were made available to the Turkish public in this process. Meaning making procedures in connection to pop music have been considered by analyzing components of pop music, the cognitive capacities of human beings to understand pop music, and procedures of cultural communication enabling the integration of new artefacts in a culture. According to the results of this thesis, 160 Turkish language remakes of songs originally performed in French have been produced and distributed in Turkey between 1961- 1991. The most concentrated period of production occurred during a 10-year period between 1967-1977, with a considerable peak in 1968-1969. Of the songs produced during the peak of 1968-1969, 25% account for the original French song lyrics either as “song translations” or “adaptations” of their original French versions, transferring linguistic meanings to the Turkish target culture. A thematic analysis shows that the linguistic meanings transferred from French songs to Turkish remakes in 1968-1969 are ideas related to love, difficulties associated with love, the passing of time, memories, remembering, forgetting, nostalgia, relationships, infidelity, dependence, separation, reconciliation, and morality. Conceptualized as models of reality made available for the Turkish listener, these linguistic meanings provide options for understanding, acting in and narrating social life and the self. The meanings transferred to Turkey through the distribution of French pop music remakes are placed within a larger historical and cultural context of import and translation of Western artefacts in Turkey during the 20th century. Keywords: Popular music, song remakes, song adaptation, song translation, Turkey, Turkish pop music, French pop music, cultural transfer, cognitive semiotics, cultural communication, westernization 2 Acknowledgements This thesis has been an important vehicle in my search for methods and conceptual tools to identify and investigate meanings circulating in human culture, and a first step into getting to know my own role as a researcher within the humanities. I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Göran Sonesson for being supportive, encouraging and very patient in this endeavor. Furthermore, I am very grateful to my teachers at the Languages and Linguistics Master’s Program at Lund University for their wide knowledge and support, and especially to Jordan Zlatev for his contagious passion for research and pedagogical insight. I would also like to thank my classmates who have truly made Lund University the most friendly and uplifting work environment; I follow your success with pride and excitement. A special thank you I direct to Birgit Schlyter from Stockholm University for giving me the opportunity to work with her in numerous projects at the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul. She has given me great freedom to discover my own capacity in an academic work environment, at the same time as being an invaluable mentor. My mother Aynur, my brother Berk, and my best friend Elin, professionals from very different fields than mine have read and commented on drafts of this thesis, an effort and a perspective for which I’m forever grateful. My vast gratitude to my partner in crime, Rodin for all his support and for putting up with 160 songs about love and loss, playing on a never-ending loop in our castle. And finally, thank you to my supportive friends and family who always remember and celebrate all my tries and triumphs. I dedicate this thesis to my mother for giving me her confidence and tenacity to do things my way, to my father for creating a world of minor scales and second-hand nostalgia for me to question, and to my brother for always being on my side. Azize Günes 18 May 2017 3 Table of contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 3 Table of contents ........................................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 7 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 7 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 9 1.1 Aims of this study .............................................................................................................. 12 1.2 Disposition ......................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2. Background ................................................................................................................ 14 2.1 Defining pop music ............................................................................................................ 14 2.2 The emergence of song remakes in 20th century Turkey ................................................. 15 2.3 Importation and translation in Turkey .............................................................................. 17 2.4 Previous studies on song remakes .................................................................................... 18 Chapter 3. A cognitive semiotic framework ................................................................................ 20 3.1 The song and its meaningful components ........................................................................ 22 3.1.1 Language ..................................................................................................................... 22 3.1.2 Music .......................................................................................................................... 23 3.1.3 Voice ........................................................................................................................... 24 3.1.4 Language, music and voice working together ........................................................... 24 3.2 The mind and access to musical meaning ........................................................................ 25 3.3 Cultural communication .................................................................................................... 27 3.3.1 The product ................................................................................................................ 29 3.3.2 The producer .............................................................................................................. 30 3.3.3 The consumer ............................................................................................................. 30 3.3.4 The market ................................................................................................................. 31 3.3.5 The institution ............................................................................................................ 32 3.3.6 The repertoire ............................................................................................................ 32 3.3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 33 3.4 Cultural transfer ................................................................................................................ 34 4 3.5 Translation ......................................................................................................................... 34 3.6 Song remakes .................................................................................................................... 35 3.6.1 Song translations ........................................................................................................ 36 3.6.2 Song adaptations ........................................................................................................ 36 3.6.3 Replacement texts ...................................................................................................... 37 3.7 Motivation of this study .................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 4. Research questions ...................................................................................................