TURKISH WORLD MUSIC: MULTIPLE FUSIONS AND AUTHENTICITIES A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY KORAY DEĞİRMENCİ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2008 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Sencer Ayata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Kayhan Mutlu Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdo ğan Yıldırım Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Hasan Ünal Nalbanto ğlu (METU,SOC) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdo ğan Yıldırım (METU, SOC) Assist. Prof. Dr. Nedim Karakayalı (B İLKENT,ADM) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç (METU, SOC) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Samet Ba ğçe (METU, PHIL) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last Name: Koray De ğirmenci Signature: iii ABSTRACT TURKISH WORLD MUSIC: MULTIPLE FUSIONS AND AUTHENTICITIES Değirmenci, Koray PhD. The Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Yıldırım September 2008, 270 pages This dissertation investigates the case of world music in Turkey as an illustration of the discursive mechanisms involved in the production of a global cultural form from what the globality has defined as the ‘local’. The study attempts to show the complicated nature of the process by examining how the musical forms and themes supposedly belonging to the ‘local’ are incorporated into and appropriated in the discourses associated with world music and into the corresponding strategies of the actors. The discursive compilations, articulations and dislocations taking place in the subspecies of the commercial category of world music in a particular locality are investigated by mapping the discursive topographies on the imaginary continuum from theglobal to the local. This study views locality as a space where a repertoire of discourses are contested and articulated in the production and consumption of global cultural commodities. In line with this understanding, this dissertation also investigates what is the local as it is produced through the particular brand of world music in Turkey. The study also aims to contribute to the theoretical discussions in the literature on the interaction between the global and the local by looking at the production of aglobal cultural form in a particular locality. Keywords: World Music, Globalization, Local, Global, Culture, Discourse iv ÖZ TÜRK DÜNYA MÜZİĞİ: ÇOKKATLI SENTEZLER VE OTANTİSİTELER Değirmenci, Koray Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Erdoğan Yıldırım Eylül 2008, 270 sayfa Bu tez Türkiye’de dünya müziği örneği aracılığıyla belirli bir küresel kültürel formun küresel olan tarafından yerel olarak tariflenen ve inşa edilen alanda hangi söylemsel mekanizmalar aracılığıyla üretildiğini incelemektedir. Yerele ait olduğu düşünülen farklı müzikal formların ve de temaların belirli bir dünya müziği kategorisi içerisinde nasıl eklemlendiği ve bu kaynaklara el konulduğu ve de aktörlerin farklı piyasa stratejileri incelenerek yerellikte küresel kültürel formların üretim süreçlerinin karmaşık yapısı anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Küreselden yerele uzanan kurgusal süreklilikte konumlanan söylemsel topografyaların tespiti ile, bu ticari kategorinin belirli bir yerellikte ortaya çıkan farklı alt türlerindeki söylemsel derlemeler, eklemlenmeler ve de yerdeğiştirmelerin dinamikleri kavranmaya çalışılacaktır. Bu çalışma yerelliği, küresel kültürel metaların üretiminde belirli bir söylemler dizgesinin rekabet içinde olduğu ve eklemlendiği bir mekan olarak görmektedir. Bu anlayışla koşut olarak tez Türkiye’de dünya müziği kategorisi aracılığıyla üretilen yerelin ne olduğunu araştırmaktadır. Çalışma aynı zamanda belirli bir yerellikte bir küresel kültürel formun söylemsel üretim süreçlerini inceleyerek literatürdeki küresel yerel etkileşimine dair kuramsal tartışmalara katkı sunmayı amaçlamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Dünya Müziği, Küreselleşme, Yerel, Küresel, Kültür, Söylem v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Any work, despite bearing primarily the author’s stamp, is a consequence of multiple resources. These resources not only involve the academic sources or relationships but others that may seem to have nothing to do with the course of the dissertation writing process. Each work bears the traces of events, noises, sounds, music pieces, films, spaces, cities, etc. Thus, this thankful writing leaves many persons and things anonymous, although many would not expect or need anygratitude. I owe a real dept of gratitude to Erdoğan Yıldırım, who is counted here not only as an advisor but as a friend. This dissertation would not have been possible without his clever ‘interventions’ and our long conversations. I cannot help mentioning here my appreciation for his patience with my never-ending questions and oftentimes obscure inferences. He has always been an inspiring figure to me for his non- conformist academic attitudes and his alternative ways of thinking. I also owe him thanks for his prompt phone responses to my phone calls and for being able to be ‘here’ with his voice when he was in the U.S. during the last year of writing my dissertation. He always trusted in me and taught me to believe in myself. Hasan Ünal Nalbantoğlu has always been an inspiring figure for me as for the other scholars of social sciences. I feel very lucky to be able to benefit from his works and ideas. Even if he never played a formal role in my dissertation process, I would owe him gratitude. He has never withheld his constructive criticisms and close interest from me. I also thank Nedim Karakayalı, whom I will remember as a person talking less but saying much. I do not know how, but I always felt him with me during the course of writing this dissertation, although we had limited opportunity for vi discussion other than the occasions of monitoring committee meetings. I also thank Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç for her meticulous reading of my dissertation and her valuable comments and Samet Bağçe who was very helpful at the final stage of the process. I want to thank all the informants in my fieldwork. Some of them did not remain as only informants. Arkın Ilıcalı, alias Mercan Dede, Hasan Saltık, and Okay Temiz deserve special thanks since they helped more than an informant could. The interviews with Mercan Dede and Hüsnü Şenlendirici especially made me question again and again the main assumptions in my dissertation, my findings and my theoretical position. Özgür Devrim Akçay deserves special thanks since he helped me find the right persons and map the networks during the fieldwork. My parents, Ali and Meliha, and my brother, Özgür, not only supported me in moral and material terms; because of their belief in me they considered my work valuable and important even though they mostly did not understand it. I owe them special gratitude not only for this process but also throughout my life. Thanks to Oltan, primarily for being a real friend, let alone for the other things he has done for me. I also want to thank my friend Metin Bal, who remained a friend through all these years. Eylem Akçay, my long-lasting friend, has been with me in the some of the most depressed days of the writing process and he again did not surprise me with his clever ideas and criticisms. He also provided valuable assistance with the fieldwork. And finally I owe something very special to Esra who has almost lived every moment of this writing process. Her attitude cannot be understood as merely an understanding or even emphathetic one; she has almost become me. She really suffered from the pains that I felt during the process. Gracias Esra in the realest sense of the word. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... iv ÖZ....................................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.......................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................................... viii LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………... x LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………… xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………1 1.1. The Setting…………………………………………………….. 1 1.2. The obscure waters ofglobalization and theglobal/local talk…. 6 1.3. Chapter organization and outline……………………………… 13 1.4. Methodology…………………………………………………... 16 2. WORLD MUSIC: WHOSE WORLD IS IT?.............................................. 21 2.1. The rise of world music……………………………………...... 21 2.2. Sonic tourism, authenticity, and exoticity……………………… 29 2.3. “Bringing it all back home”: The ‘world musicians’…………… 36 2.4. Concluding remarks…………………………………………… 47 3. WORLD MUSIC, PLACE AND (IN)AUTHENTICITY……………. 52 3.1. Homegrown sounds of Istanbul: Doublemoon and the