Like many other countries, Turkey was hit by the first global wave of Anglo-American pop-rock music in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Pop-rock music in its various forms was absorbed in Turkey, but it was not so much simply copied as productively transformed into numerous different hybrids of diverse local and global Anglo-American elements. The special quality of these hybrids seems to be rooted in the special situation of the musical field in Turkey. It is distinguished from that of other countries by a higher and more exciting complexity as well as by more independent musical solutions. This is not least due to the diverse actors in the field, who came together in different ways and – quite astonishingly – across sociological boundaries to form musical hybrids or even multiple hybrids in unexpected combinations and with surprising twists.
With the help of musical examples, the lecture examines the actors in this field, which include, in addition to Anglo-American pop-rock music and Anatolian folk music, the hybrid forms Arabesk, Anatolian rock, and belly dance music. The hybrid forms each address quite different audiences, yet combinations between them have occurred. The key question is: Why could such paradoxical cross-stylistic and cross-milieu hybrid alliances occur? Why could music-sociologically incompatible things be united, combined, and hybridized in actual musical events? The answers to these questions lead to the relationship between style(s) and society.