Popular Music and Society

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Diasporic Music in Transition: Turkish Immigrant

Performers on the Stage of “Multikulti” Berlin

Serhat Güney, Cem Pekman & Bülent Kabaş

To cite this article: Serhat Güney, Cem Pekman & Bülent Kabaş (2014) Diasporic Music in
Transition: Turkish Immigrant Performers on the Stage of “Multikulti” Berlin, Popular Music and
Society, 37:2, 132-151, DOI: 10.1080/03007766.2012.736288

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2012.736288

Published online: 13 Dec 2012.

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 Popular Music and Society, 2014
Vol. 37, No. 2, 132–151, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2012.736288

Diasporic Music in Transition: Turkish

Immigrant Performers on the Stage of
“Multikulti” Berlin
Serhat Güney, Cem Pekman & Bülent Kabaş
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This article examines the dynamics of music production by German-Turkish youth in

Berlin. Taking into consideration the changes that globalism has wrought on the
conditions and form of migration, the study investigates how interaction between cultures
is transforming the ways in which new generations of Turkish immigrants produce music.
It identifies the emergence of Turkish youth within Berlin’s multicultural music scene,
especially in the 2000s, and documents the rise of electronic and rock music production in
addition to the more oft studied hip hop and homeland-oriented, traditional forms of
music. In comparison with the tone of the music of older immigrant generations, which
evoked a tenacious, diasporic spirit, the music of younger generations is more flexible,
open and integrated and accommodates rather than rejects differences.

The Changing Diaspora and the New Migrant

The idealization of homeland is a major factor in the collective imagination of diasporic
communities. Homeland idealism—a way of thinking which helps make the physical
separation from home more bearable—“credits the homeland as being the most
powerful motivator of diasporic behavior” (Lee 59). The central importance of the
homeland also implies a kind of “magical belief ” in the past that shepherds diasporic
communities through their current pathos by allowing them to reflect on the respected
characteristics of home, instead (Cohen 105). As a result, diasporic communities
become relatively more introverted with respect to social and cultural life because
individuals choose to perpetuate cultural codes appropriated from their homeland. In
turn, the purity myths and essentialist nationalism of the host country, which advance
the ideas of assimilation and integration of the diaspora, simultaneously create socio-
economic and cultural challenges that heighten migrants’ awareness of their essential
identities. Early research on Turkish immigrants in Germany generally focused on these
phenomena. In the early years of Turkish migration, immigrants were demographically
homogeneous, remained invisible in the public sphere, and considered their stay in the

q 2012 Taylor & Francis

 Popular Music and Society 133

host country temporary. Research on immigration focused on economics, on “culture

in particular,” and on the myth of return (Abadan; Castles and Kosack). When in the
1970s Turkish immigrants began to become more active in the public space of their
host country, the code words of research shifted to “cultural conflict,” “culture shock,”
“acculturation,” “in-betweenness,” and “identity crisis” (Abadan-Unat, “Identitiy”;
Kağıtçıbaşı). But the methodology remained unchanged. Researchers honed in on the
culture that Turkish immigrants brought with them from the homeland, largely
ignoring social and cultural differences and interaction between the diaspora and the
mother country (Kaya, “German-Turkish” 2 –3).
But by the end of the 1980s, the discourse of ethnic culture began to wane in research
on the diaspora. Following from the concept of “syncretism” put forward by Gilroy,
studies on migration began to acknowledge the mixed character of culture and reassess
migrant culture as a dynamic search for autonomy from essential identities. Today,
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given the changing, global conditions of immigration, new migrants and immigrant
generations are classified under the concepts of “transnationalism” and “transmi-
grants” (Schiller et al. ). According to Schiller et al., these new populations are
composed of people whose networks, activities, and patterns of life encompass the
cultures of both host and home countries, and many post-1990 studies of the Turkish
diaspora in Germany adopt this view. In these studies, the conceptualization of ethnic
culture is replaced by the notion of “German-Turkish transnational space” (Abadan-
Unat, Bitmeyen Göç; Faist), and the research field has broadened to include more facets
of the immigrant experience. Among them, youth culture is a popular one, especially
considering its cultural products such as a hybrid language, graffiti, dance, and music
(Çağlar; Cheesman; Soysal, “Projects”). These studies show that the diasporic identity
is in dialog with German society, a fact that becomes tangible in cultural production,
which is characterized by a critical and sometimes resistant attitude towards the host
country (Yurdakul).
Young members of the present-day Turkish diaspora in Berlin are even more
dynamic and have become yet more visible in the public sphere. They are searching for
ways to express themselves, and music is the medium of choice. The factors that
differentiate their circumstances from the more inward-focused, second-generation
immigrants gives them more room for maneuvering in cultural production fields like
music. Notably, Berlin has become a global culture center following the fall of the wall.
Kaya, in his study of Turkish hip hop youth, argues that the cultural identity of
Turkish immigrant youth is being constructed by globalization, which facilitates
transnational connections that enable easy and meaningful interaction between the
diaspora and the homeland (Berlin’deki). Indeed, many scholars point out that the
homogeneous identity of the diaspora is being supplanted by hybrid identities due to
emerging global conditions that have created new “travel trajectories” and “flow”
between cultures (Clifford 304, 306). The social atmosphere in Berlin is ideal for
facilitating the types of encounter that follow from this traffic.
The second factor is the removal of barriers between the host country and the
diaspora: the differences in language, education, and life-style that previously
 134 S. Güney et al.
aggravated cultural, social, and economic tensions. Papastergiadis stresses the
relationship between globalization and migration, drawing attention to the complex
structures of contemporary metropolitan society, which subvert the traditional,
nation-state policies of assimilation and integration that create cultural conflict.
According to him, some members of migrant communities “began to argue in favor of
new models of representing the process of cultural interaction, and to demonstrate the
negative consequences of insisting upon the denial of the emergent forms of cultural
identity” (Papastergiadis 3). These new tendencies result in immigrant populations
that are less prejudiced and more open to the cultures of their host countries. Moreover,
as Hall has pointed out, diasporic cultures never remain static, pure, or true to their
origin. They are invariably an amalgamation of home and host cultures, and this
presents an ideal atmosphere for cultural interaction.
Third, virtual technologies have paved the way for transnational communication
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and relationships more than ever before, providing new generations with alternative
media to create and distribute identity and culture. Of course, communication
technologies were important for forming and maintaining transnational identity in the
past, too. The transferring of cultural products via video and audiocassettes, satellite
television, and the broadcast media of the late twentieth century kept the homeland
image alive in the minds of immigrant communities (Appadurai). But according to
Appadurai, the “electronic billboard” of that period evolved into more meaningful
virtual neighborhoods with the advancement of technology (195). The era in which the
homeland image was imposed by traditional media and subsequently passively received
has been transformed into a more “active, simultaneous process of maintenance and
negotiation between the poles of an original home and a newly acquired host culture”
(Sinclair and Cunningham 15). Whereas homelands were once just a memory that
nurtured the myth of return, by participating in virtual communities, the mother
country can now be an intimate part of daily life (Hiller and Franz 735). As internet
usage has spread among the diaspora, broad collective needs and expectations have
become more individual, complex, and layered. Computer-savvy migrant commu-
nities are bypassing “traditional gatekeepers.” Their constituents tend to be “citizens of
the world” and are no longer constrained by a “space bound understanding of identity”
and “solid community formulation” (Anderson; Eickelman and Anderson; Rızvanoglu
and Güney; Santianni; Tsaliki).

Trace: The Distorted Voice of Homeland and the Emerging Song of Diaspora
Since the beginning of the first waves of Gastarbeiter (guest worker)] immigration,
which lasted from the 1960s through the 1990s, Turkish immigrant music in Germany
has mainly reinforced stereotypical diasporic reflexes: homesickness, homeland
idealism, and ghettoization. As such, the music followed trends in Turkey. Initially, the
most popular music genre was Anatolian/Turkish folk music, and it was produced in
the evenings by immigrant workers at their dormitories or coffee houses. Music was in
the company of other cultural codes imported from the rural homeland (Hazar).
 Popular Music and Society 135

By the end of the 1960s, the first original products began to come out of the Turkish
diaspora in Germany. These songs regarded immigration as a passing adventure rather
than as a permanent phenomenon. Irony and protest permeate the lyrics of musicians
such as Metin Türköz,1 who takes up the themes of the immigration journey, the
working conditions of the Turks in Germany, and cultural differences (Eryılmaz and
Jamin). As Gastarbeiter became settled and had time for leisure, music became an
entertainment market. Replicas of taverns in Turkey were established and provided
the first stage for semiprofessional and professional musicians. The market was
profitable for popular musicians from the homeland as well, and the reproduction of
homeland-oriented music was a longstanding norm. In the 1970s, a new genre of
music called “arabesque”2 erupted onto the scene in Turkey and soon became the
most popular genre among Turkish immigrants in Germany as well (Greve,
Almanya’da). Its popularity was challenged only slightly by politically driven music of
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the 1980s, which was produced largely by asylum seekers who moved to Germany
after the military coup in 1980. And though the two genres were dissimilar in almost
every respect, both were imported from the homeland and thus in line with the modus
operandi of music production for the diaspora.
The first notable change in the music culture of the diaspora accompanied
developments in the 1990s. Along with global changes in immigration patterns and
policies, the second generation of the diaspora was maturing, and cultural flow between
the diaspora and the mother country became bidirectional. Pop music from Turkey
influenced the second generation of immigrants, and the Turkish music market offered
career opportunities for some young musicians among the diaspora (Greve,
“Kreuzberg”). But the genre that really represented the 1990s was hip hop. An
authentic cultural form of the diaspora, hip hop significantly reversed the flow of
culture for the first time in the history of Turkish immigration to Germany. German-
Turkish rap groups sold hundreds of thousands of albums in Turkey and related
the unique experiences to a Turkish audience who had not really paid attention up
until then.
In these years, the cultural identity adopted by the Turkish hiphop community in
Germany was expressed concretely in the lyrics and discourse of Turkish rap artists.
Knowing that they had to live “on both sides of the river,” these young artists were
building up a “symbolic cultural bridge” between West and East (Kaya, Constructing
Diasporas). Parallel to this, hip hop became the standard bearer of a ghetto narrative
that emerged in tandem with the fall of the Berlin wall. Soysal divides the
transformation of the young generations of the diaspora that occurred together with
the rapid physical transformation of Berlin into three periods (“Rap” 68–70). The
“gang” phase represents a short but substantive outpouring of Turkish youth onto the
city streets (see McLaren). A language of violence predominated, motivated by a need
for protection against racist gangs. The second stage advanced in the early 1990s when
hip hop culture began translating the gang discourse into music, dance, and art.
The final “world culture” period is characterized by the decline of the ghetto narrative
(and hence hip hop), only to be replaced by a narrative of the metropolis. By 1996,
 136 S. Güney et al.
unified Berlin had become a center for global, cultural events and activities, and the
Kreuzberg quarter, once a ghetto comprised mostly of Turkish immigrants, was
transforming into a popular district thriving on cultural differences and alternative
lifestyles. Even in the more marginal areas of contemporary Kreuzberg, immigrant
youth are readily able to experience the cosmopolitan cultural life of Berlin. The
expectations of new youth subcultures no longer correspond with the typology of
second-generation immigrants; that is to say, they are no longer caught in between
nationalistic definitions of culture (Soysal, “Diversity” 10– 11).

Research and Methodology

By presenting an attitude of resistance and criticism towards the host society, music has
been a consistent and important component of diasporic identity throughout the
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history of immigration. The role of contemporary German-Turkish youth in Berlin’s

multicultural music scene, on the other hand, suggests a unique diasporic condition.
On the whole, research conducted since 1990 suggests that the cultural experiences of
the new generation of German-Turks are different from those of the preceding “lost”
and “disoriented” generations (Çağlar; Kaya, “Aesthetics”; Kaya and Kentel). Our
approach is in line with these studies, and we aim to get out of the analytical rut into
which the discourses of “cultural integration” and “cultural homogeneity” have trapped
research on immigrants. As such, we break free of the old conceptualization of a “one-
way” integration process. We treat young members of the Turkish music community as
“producers” rather than as static “consumers” or “reproducers” of homeland culture.
This shift in the conceptualization of immigrant experience allows us to see that, indeed,
a dynamic and transitional music culture has been growing among new generations of
Turkish young people. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, young Turks
emerged with varied musical tastes within Berlin’s multicultural music scene. Besides
traditional, homeland-oriented music and hip hop, electronic and rock music are
increasingly becoming popular among Turkish Berliners.
This study examines the dynamics of music production by German-Turkish youth in
Berlin and investigates how interaction between cultures, the transformation of the city,
and the narrative of migration itself are altering the diasporic condition, and as a result,
transforming the ways in which new generations of Turkish immigrants produce music.
Four cardinal music scenes are defined for comparative, qualitative analysis. The first is
a broad ethnic music scene, which includes all homeland-oriented musical forms:
Turkish folk, arabesque, classical Turkish music, pop, and fantasy (a blend of pop and
arabesque). The second is the rock scene, which may be characterized as a reproduction
of “Istanbul” rock. The third is the hip hop scene, a Berlin-based, immigrant music
genre. And the final category, the electronic music scene, is known as the music that
along with hip hop most evokes multikulti (multicultural) Berlin.
Apart from these mainstream music scenes, another category worth mentioning is
that of musicians who have migrated to Berlin for the purpose of study. The majority
are practitioners of western or classical music, and they perform all over the world as
 Popular Music and Society 137

transnational, professional musicians. We do not consider this category to be a part of

the diaspora per se, but they are assessed in our analysis in their interaction with local,
immigrant musicians and their participation within the aforementioned music
scenes. Our study is ethnographic: to converge on the cultural life and cultural
production of German-Turkish youth, we became involved in the everyday life and
experience of the music community in Berlin. Through semistructured interviews and
participant observation, we followed a cross-section of thirty musicians from the four
music scenes. We also attended performances ranging from concerts, wedding
ceremonies, rehearsals, and gala events. The data collected from the field are used for
comparative qualitative analysis.

The Ethnic Music Scene

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Ethnic music and the broad range of musical forms it encompasses, such as folk,
arabesque, fantasy, and pop, are the most popular genres among Turkish immigrants
in Berlin, both young and old. Aslı Erman, program director of the popular Berlin
radio station, Metropol FM, which broadcasts in Turkish, surmises that audience
trends have not changed significantly from past to present. They vary only with
respect to what subgenre of ethnic music is taking the lead:
We’re talking about a dynamic and cosmopolitan community today. Music-wise,
there are more choices than ever, so it’s hard to judge. Nevertheless, we know that
the most popular genre is Turkish folk. Arabesque is also popular and often
requested, whether by first or fourth generation audiences. Pop sells, too, since fans
of arabesque and folk listen to pop . . . it has continuity.

The ethnic music scene in general reflects the music market in Turkey, which has an
impact on the musical tastes of young immigrant Turks by means of radio, television
and the Internet.
Young musicians performing ethnic music in Berlin may be divided into two groups:
amateurs and semiprofessionals/professionals. Students or workers who become
interested in traditional folk music and its instruments (primarily the bağlama)3
comprise the amateur group. They enroll in music courses, a phenomenon that has
increased dramatically over the last decade. Bağlama teachers such as Nevzat Akpınar
and Özgür Ersoy see this trend as a departure from “being immigrant,” which had been
expressed through arabesque music for years. Akpınar argues that the fear of breaking
out from Turkish culture, a typical reflex among the first-generation diaspora, has
turned into an attempt to understand and recognize it among younger generations. For
him, homeland idealization—reflected in arabesque themes of longing, loneliness,
desolation, and in-betweenness—is increasingly being replaced by a sense of wonder
and exploration. Ersoy thinks that the defense mechanism of former generations
against “becoming other” has subsided among young German-Turks, and he correlates
it with the multicultural atmosphere of Berlin, which embraces difference rather than
rejecting it. Nonetheless, Akpınar and Ersoy regret that only few of their students have
become bağlama virtuosos, and that in time many adopt mainstream music.
 138 S. Güney et al.
Semi-professional and professional musicians typically perform at weddings and in
folk bars. Various immigrant societies hoping to promote homeland culture and keep
it alive among immigrants provide another platform for performing in the form of
music- or dance-oriented festivals and events. Wedding and bar musicians often
perform to supplement income from regular jobs, such as bartender, cashier, taxi
driver, or technician. They generally come from working-class families and often have
no formal musical training. Their motivations are the pursuit of family traditions,
personal enthusiasm, and making extra money. Among younger generations,
recording an album seldom seems to be a goal, and the few who have such a dream
model themselves after expatriate musicians such as Rafet El Roman4 or İsmail YK.5
Pop musician Ozan, who is preparing an album for release in Turkey, thinks that the
German-Turkish musicians who achieved success in the Turkish music market in the
1990s provided an alternative dream to soccer: “Their success in Turkey was vital to
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directing youngsters here toward music. Personally, as a pop musician, the Turkish
market is promising. Folk and arabesque dominate here.”
Amateur or semi-professional recordings and videos are important for these
musicians to be visible in the German market, which offers little else than wedding and
culturally themed concert events. These serve as advertising, especially on the Internet.
Wedding and banquet halls provide an attractive working environment for
professional bands. They also function as concert halls, where local bands and audiences
of homeland-oriented music meet and socialize. While they dominate the Turkish
music and entertainment scene, wedding orchestras are by and large reproducing
popular genres of ethnic music. Indeed, their repertoire is comprised predominantly of
covers of recent and popular songs from the Turkish market, but the depth of their
repertoire is impressive. The reason is that their cosmopolitan audience is formed of
immigrants from various different regions of Turkey, so they must be able to perform a
variety of regional folk songs. In Berlin, these banquet halls are a profitable business for
their German-Turkish investors. Located largely in Turkish immigrant neighborhoods,
the approximately forty halls in the city resemble one another in appearance, and their
design mirrors that of banquet halls in small cities or metropolitan suburbs in Turkey.
Occasionally, the halls are host to musicians or bands from Turkey, which draw excited
crowds. While the audiences fulfill a longing for the homeland, local bands earn extra
income and prestige playing warm-up for the popular artists from the homeland.
Because they pursue a genre that most closely relates to tried and true stereotypes of
the traditional immigrant experience, ethnic musicians seem to embody the classical
“in-betweenness” discourse. This type of analysis evokes the concepts of a forgotten
past, degeneration and the “we’re Turks in Germany, Germans in Turkey” cliché, but
these concepts do not realistically represent the situation of contemporary young
musicians. Though ethnic musicians are tied to the homeland in musical preference
and cultural inheritance, they do not identify with the myth of return. Group Rüzgar’s
vocalist, Engin, divulges that, while Turkey is nice for vacations, it has little significance
as a homeland:
 Popular Music and Society 139

We work here, save money and go to Turkey for vacations. We work so that we can
walk on the sand, swim and shop. But in a few weeks time, I get bored. I miss being
here, because we were born here . . . grew up here.

Bağlama player Ceyhan expresses a similar sentiment: “Our homeland is beautiful, we

like being there, but we can’t stay long. It’s a different lifestyle there. We’re used to
here.” Group Sırdaşlar’s vocalist, Serkan, comments on the diminishing significance of
physical distance: “There is no homesickness any longer. We can call our relatives in
Turkey . . . chat with friends. We have better channels . . . no more letters or
recorded cassettes.”
Increasing interaction between German and Turkish societies in the fields of music
and entertainment is another factor that contributes to the internalization of the host
country as home. Increasing numbers of marriages between Turks and Germans, for
instance, sets the stage for cultural encounters and cohesion. Experiences like Engin’s
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and Ceyhan’s are becoming more common: “We performed at a German-Turkish

wedding yesterday and enjoyed it a lot. They fancy our music. We danced together. We
witnessed the fusion of two cultures.” Indeed, Fatih from Group Şahanlar indicates
that German people are becoming more interested in Turkish music via weddings. At
ceremonies to which foreigners are invited, Fatih’s band also plays German and
English songs:
Yesterday, we were in Bremen, for instance. The Germans asked for our business
card and asked if we have an album. We gave them our card and told them they can
follow us on YouTube. We noticed that they were trying to accompany the music
even though they didn’t understand it. That was nice to see . . . so we added some
foreign songs to our lineup as a gesture. We sing a verse in English in the middle of a
folk dance, for instance, and that draws attention.

Such cultural encounters are not limited to wedding ceremonies and formal events.
Indeed, they are spreading to other areas of daily life. An amateur composer, İsmail,
recounted:
A few weeks ago we were in a park and there were lots of Germans there. When we
started to sing and play guitar, a German band that was playing trumpets and
drums, etc. nearby came and accompanied us. We sang the song “Akdeniz
Akşamları” [“Mediterranean Nights”] together. I was thrilled; their style created a
different ambiance for the Turkish music.

In addition to such happenstance encounters, another factor behind the interest in

traditional Turkish instruments and music in Berlin is the opportunity for collaboration
and musical montage: the city’s artistic reputation creates a fertile setting for
multicultural art projects. In recent years, bağlama instrumentalists have been the
frequent protagonists of such collaborations. Nevzat Akpınar, among them, emphasizes
his links to western music, arguing that his work spans from hip hop to classical: “I had a
Western musical education. I learned playing the piano. Western music and certain
composers, in particular, are part and parcel of me. Chopin and Bach are as close as
Aşık Veysel.”6
 140 S. Güney et al.
Musical projects that fuse traditional Turkish and Western music are particularly
popular, and Turkish and German musicians and those of other nationalities
frequently team up for festival performances. Such musicians are often motivated by
the belief that they are undertaking a cultural mission: bridging cultures that have
been alienated from one other throughout the history of Turkish immigration to
Germany. In the words of the lead singer of Anatolian Jazz Band, Sibel Eğilmez:
We’re happy to get a reaction from the audience, and especially, it gives us pleasure
to play our songs for Germans. We see it here in Berlin . . . that cultures can meet.
There are lots of opportunities to produce something here, no matter if you are
Turkish or German.

The band’s bağlama player, Özgür Ersoy, goes further: “Our orchestra’s mission is to
popularize the music for both sides . . . to introduce Turkish folk music and Turkish
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melodies to Germans . . . and to introduce Western music and jazz to Turks.”

In contemporary Berlin, the ethnic music scene reproduces the musical and cultural
codes of the homeland, on one hand, and exposes a current of change in the diaspora,
on the other. Comprised of popular music genres, it dominates immigrant society’s
entertainment life. At the same time—particularly in the case of folk music—it has a
wider appeal owing to the originality of the sound and universality of the content. The
genre appeases common musical tastes and is propagated in banquet halls, folk bars and
international festivals, but in the transnational context, the musicians are actually
performing a sophisticated, hybrid music.

The Rock Scene

Rock music has emerged among the genres of Turkish immigrant music only in the
last few years. The scene is made up of just ten or so groups that have not yet
distinguished themselves musically. Indeed, they typically play covers of Turkish rock
songs. Though the musicians are well aware of one another in the small community
of Turkish Berliners who have chosen rock music and its alternative lifestyle, no close
interaction is observable among them. The small market and lack of available stages
have led to competition and quarrels, which have been obstacles to solidarity. Rock
musicians are generally from the middle class and well educated. They are trying to
position themselves in the musical field following a recent rise of interest in rock
within Berlin’s music market, to which they credit the impact of the rock music
market in Turkey. They explain that the culture of new media and technology has
made newer generations more aware of what is going on in the homeland than
former generations. A sensational rock movement in Turkey over the last decades
has thus begun to echo in the diaspora as young people closely follow faraway
musical trends.
Another reason for the spread of rock among Turkish Berliners is its image as a
defiant alternative to homeland-oriented musical genres. Aslan, the drummer of the
rock band Panzehir, notes that their sound is distinctly different from folk or
 Popular Music and Society 141

arabesque and attracts a Turkish audience looking to escape from an environment

dominated by the ethnic music scene.
Two interrelated problems for Turkish rock groups performing in Berlin are the
scarcity of venues and the immaturity of rock culture among immigrant audiences.
The genre’s musicians can only engage with their audiences at festivals and at the city’s
single Turkish rock bar. The newly emergent musical form has had difficulties creating
an independent culture in an established market with practices deeply rooted in
ethnic music. Panzehir’s vocalist, Gökay, reasons that the recent upswing in the rock
market does not yet imply a consistent audience for bands:
There was just that folk-bar thing in Berlin for years . . . where they played folk
and arabesque. Rock offers an alternative, but only in the last two years. People like
it, but we can’t speak of a noteworthy following . . . five hundred people at most.
So we don’t have the chance to give a concert every week.
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Mokick’s guitarist, Timur, does not expect established attitudes toward music among
the diaspora to change anytime soon: internalizing rock culture among young people
and institutionalizing rock as an immigrant musical form are difficult challenges.
According to Panzehir’s bassist, Özgür, rock is not a musical preference, but an
attitude or standpoint:
No matter how well you play, the question is who listens? For me, it’s a bunch of
people who don’t really care for rock. You see them at a rock concert . . . the next
day 90% of them go to a folk-bar. A person has to have a passion. You’re either a
rocker or a folk fan. Rock is getting popular here, but they’re listening to it
haphazardly. But rock is a philosophy. It’s a stance.

The heterogeneous nature of the audience and the apparent popularity of “rock” in
the market have created enigmatic situations for bands trying to operate in the field.
Indeed, just such a conundrum led to the breakup of Berlin’s oldest Turkish rock
band, Stoneheads. One of its former members, Yalım, complains of being caught
between audience taste, market demands, and the group’s own style and form:
Stoneheads performed for 17 years in Berlin. Our music was hard back then. The
Turks here would not listen to it, of course. We had no Turkish audience; we were only
playing for Germans. They somehow fancied us. In time, following the rock boom in
Turkey, the craze reached here and we attracted a Turkish audience. Fine, but there
was still a problem: they didn’t like music that hard. We were hard and they preferred
something softer. And so we had to compromise. So we tried to play melodic rock this
time around, but the band gradually lost its soul, and finally we had to break it up.

Bass guitarist and instructor, Mustafa Sarışın, expresses similar concerns. He surmises
that rock will be diluted by established musical tastes rather than transform them:
A rock-bar opened here two years ago and called me up. It was a nice place and I was
hopeful. We sat and talked with the owner. I said I could play, but not folk-songs,
folk-dances, or requests. He said “okay.” He promised. But everything changed, the
rules were violated one by one, and I quit. It’s hard to change. They make you one of
themselves. It happens artlessly.
 142 S. Güney et al.
The scarcity of a loyal audience, the lack of chances to give concerts (which average
only once in two months for the bands with whom we talked), and the obstacles to
issuing albums in a production field geared toward a different kind of music have
made it difficult for German-Turkish rock musicians to professionalize. Most of the
scene’s young musicians are amateurs, and a large proportion are university students
who also work as bar and restaurant managers, bartenders, hairdressers, or guitar
instructors. Few make a living from music alone. Talat, a drummer who plays with
various groups, asserts that one needs a flexible, entrepreneurial spirit to play rock
music in Berlin: he must inevitably forgo his rocker identity if he wants to make a
living from his instrument. Despite these musicians’ attempts to provide an
alternative to the traditional diasporic culture, it seems they cannot exist in the market
without integrating to some extent. Panzehir’s Aslan says,
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One of us is a hairdresser, the other is a manager. For me, it’s different. I have to play
for everyone. I’m playing rock today, tomorrow you can see me backing a folk
singer, the next day a pop singer. I have to do it.

Whether otherwise employed or not, the music is a lifestyle and means for young
Turkish rock musicians to prove and express themselves. They stand outside of the
established diasporic identity and, as such, do not experience serious integration
problems. Their rocker lifestyle is generally reflected in their daily life—from their
attire to their behavior and relations—and so they are often regarded as westerners
who have been assimilated into German society. In addition, they are integrated into
Berlin’s multicultural art scene and are well received at the city’s musical functions as
both performers and audience members.
It is not uncommon for a young Turkish bassist to jam with a Jamaican harmonica
virtuoso and a German guitarist, or for a Turkish rock band to take the stage at
international festivals. In terms of musical experiences and encounters, their rocker
and musician identities extend far deeper that their ethnic identities. They do not face
difficulties with friends, schools, businesses, or entertainment circles, but there is
sometimes confusion when it comes out that they are Turkish and speak Turkish.
Betül, the vocalist of Mokick, recalls:

I guess it was at a festival . . . an English woman came to us after the concert and
asked what language our songs were. I said Turkish. She was amazed . . . my
pronunciation was so different. She couldn’t locate it . . . couldn’t associate it with
the language of the Turks here. At first sight foreigners usually don’t think we are
Turkish. They ask if we are Spanish, Greek or something else, but are astonished when
they learn I’m Turkish. The interesting thing is, sometimes Turks don’t recognize that
I’m Turk. They look at me as if I am . . . how can I say . . . an extra-terrestrial.

Though Turkish rock musicians do not conform to community norms in their lifestyle,
the prejudices bred by these norms have in the past hampered these musicians’ self-
expression. Stoneheads’ vocalist reminisced:
 Popular Music and Society 143

My father would break my guitar . . . preach to me to go to school . . . not to deal

with this nonsense. It was the same with our drummer’s father. He would hide his
sticks to keep him away from the drums.

Obstacles like this are less likely for younger rockers. Indeed, in a new phase of
German-Turkish rock, the most popular band in the German music market, Panzehir,
has given concerts at the “Hard Rock Café,” the leading global trademark of rock
culture. But there is a different threat: as the rock music scene evolves from an
introverted subculture into a more popular genre among the diaspora, it faces a threat
of losing its essential recalcitrant spirit and morphing into yet another version of
ethnic music. Turkish rock musicians are a community caught “in-between” more
than any other, not in terms of diasporic identity, but in terms of music.
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The Hip Hop Scene

Turkish hip hop music in Berlin may be the most original genre coming out of the
immigrant community. It is also the scene where the differences between the first and
second generations are most distinct. The German integration policies of the 1990s
instigated the formation of a cultural identity around hip hop: young people who
suffered from integration problems or felt left out expressed their views via hip hop
music.
The scene has roots in the immigrant gangs of the 1980s. Generational and
interfamily communication problems and conflicts afflicted many second-generation
Turkish young people, who were drawn to the streets as a consequence. There, they
faced exclusion and were compelled to protect themselves from racist, neo-Nazi and
skinhead gangs. A former Turkish gang member who is now a boxing coach, Muci
Tosun, makes note of the defensive nature of the gang movement:
In almost every neighborhood there used to be a small gang. You had to build one;
otherwise you wouldn’t be able to protect yourself when you were alone at the
school or on the street. Later, they were united under the name 36 Boys and became
powerful after skinheads killed our friend Mete Ekşi.7

By the 1990s, gang members began to explore hip hop culture. It enabled them to
express an identity and raise their voices against the hatred, discrimination, and
prejudice they faced. It was a conduit for thinking and producing within the public
sphere. Almost all of the original 36 Boys’ members have since taken up artistic and
sporting vocations: their voice turned to rap, pen to graffiti, and gesture to breakdance.
Until the middle of the 1990s, the Turkish music scene in Germany was consistently
shaped by projections about the musical trends in the homeland. But in 1995, for the
first time, immigrants broke into the Turkish music market with original hip hop
productions. In the homeland, this music provoked nationalist fervor owing to its
ethnic character and strong lyrics; but its mission in its place of origin was to be a
counterculture expressing protest. And, indeed, in this early period the hip hop
movement had sway in integration issues, compelling Germany to rethink its relations
 144 S. Güney et al.
not only with the Turkish immigrant community, but with other immigrants as well.
In fact, once they realized the potential of hip hop to alleviate the adaptation problems
of immigrant youth, the German state improved integration policies and began
organizing workshops of famous hip hoppers at schools and youth centers. Those
backing the Turkish hip hop culture, on the flip side, became leading actors within
youth organizations. Music producer and former 36 Boys member Fevzi Tuncer
underscores the societal significance of hip hop:
There are many immigrant communities here: Afghan, Indian, Arab, Croatian,
Greek . . . but Turks led in every way. Especially the second generation—born and
raised here—and those who’ve come after . . . we’ve done what German politics
couldn’t. Immigrants owe it to our struggle that they now live in such a comfortable
environment.

Rapper Volkan T. describes hip hop as not just immigrant music but a subculture as
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well. He considers integration a broader issue that is not limited to immigrants:

If there’s an integration problem, why is it the problem of immigrants alone? We’ve
been living in this society for so long and for many generations. . . . I wonder what
is it I am expected to integrate with? Or I ask whether or not a German homeless
person or a punk is integrated? I don’t get it.

The role of hip hop culture has not been restricted to the one-sided integration
problems of youth in the diaspora, but serves as a means of interaction between cultures.
Many words have even been transferred into German slang via Turkish hip hop: “lan,”
“valla,” “oha,” and others have become widely recognized and used by Germans. This is
hip hop’s unifying feature, according to Mustafa Tuncer, a producer for the music label
36 Beats, the name of which is derived from 36 Boys: “The Turkish youth speak a
mixture of Turkish and German. Oddly enough, German youth speak like them.
Turkish hip hop had a big influence. Just as blacks made their language acceptable in
America, we have done the same.” As a result of hip hop’s symbiotic countercultural and
universal characteristics, Turkish followers have the opportunity to experience their
ethnicity, homeland, and religion as a cultural bricolage rather than as a category of
exclusion. Hip hop performer Aziza-A’s song “Bosphorus Bridge” reminds immigrant
youth that they live in a cultural climate in which the importance of borders is shrinking,
center and periphery meet, East and West unite. The mix of cultures has also been a
determining factor in the transformations that have played out in the history of the hip
hop music experience. The dynamic, adaptable nature of the music has allowed the
Turkish hip hop youth of today to position themselves differently from those of the gang
era, who focused on cultural conflict.
The most significant difference is the receding discourse of violence, protest, and
struggle. The marginality of the movement is falling away as former gang members
have moved on to become respected producers, artistic managers, and coaches. In
addition to being role models for the new generation of hip hop musicians, they
actively sponsor new performers. There are fundamental changes in the outlook of the
movement, but they have not been accompanied by conflict between generations.
 Popular Music and Society 145

Ozan, vocalist for the band 36 Boys—the name of which is also taken from the name
of the gang, of course—explains the dynamics of the change:

We inherited something . . . but the artistic side is what’s critical for us, not the
violence. Our elders support us in every respect. Fevzi is our producer; Muci is our
manager. There are a few who still emulate the previous generation . . . playing at
being gangsters . . . but that time has passed.

An influential figure in the community, musician DJ İpek, remarks on the changing

times: “There is no need for a homophobic, racist, sexist, transphobic, antihuman
hip-hop any more. . . . What we need is a wise, social hip-hop that seeks democracy,
individual rights and human rights.”
The taming of hip hop is not limited to its content and attitude, and hip hop has
naturally not been exempt from the processes of commodification and globalization
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that appropriate countercultures. In terms of the culture of consumption, Turkish hip

hop is being aggressively marketed, and 36 Boys has even given its name to a clothing
brand. The shop, which sells a variety of rap fashion products, is run by some of the
gang’s former members and functions as a meeting place for the Turkish hip hop
community.
This transformation of the Berlin hip hop scene is also apparent in interaction with
more widely popular music genres and has paved the way for fusion musical
approaches. Indeed, hip hop has a ready-made amenability to synthesizing and
intermingling other musical forms and structures via sampling, which has pushed it to
the forefront of fusion styles. Indeed, Volkan T. observes a general trend toward fusion
among Turkish hip hoppers, and DJ İpek, in referring to her own work, makes the intent
clear: “I made an album called Import/Export à la Turka: Turkish Sounds from Germany.
The lyrics are in Turkish, Kurdish, English, and German. I tried to blend folk songs,
Kurdish music, electronic, rock and pop with hip hop.”
Not only hip hoppers like DJ İpek, but also musicians from other fields are
contributing to the trend. Present-day Turkish hip hop appears under many guises:
oriental hip hop, oriental rapnroll, alaturca mb, and rapbesk. Metropol FM’s director,
Aslı Erman, affirms that a new genre called Rnbesk—arabesque with German lyrics—is
gaining popularity in Berlin: “It’s ‘in’ nowadays among young people. Although it
speaks mostly to Turks, Germans follow it, too. Muhabbet and Alpa Gun are two
popular singers. Muhabbet has even made it onto the German music charts.”
Sinem Altan, a member of Olivinn, studied classical music in Berlin and stresses the
entertainment factor when explaining the group’s “Operap” project, which blends rap
and opera. “Young people are more interested in projects that combine artistic forms
and elements of entertainment. Although it is inconsistent for us as musicians, we try
out these syntheses in order to reach the masses.”
Finally, the emergence of Turkish youth in Berlin’s lively electronic music scene may
be interpreted as directly related to hip hop’s growth out of the boundaries of the
diaspora. This phenomenon is discussed in the following section.
 146 S. Güney et al.
The Electronic Music Scene
While Berlin is one of the music capitals of the world and electronic music is at the center
of the city’s multicultural production, it is not a genre widely adopted by German-
Turkish youth. One common motive for the few who are involved in the electronic
music scene is that it offers a universal culture and experience in which immigrant
identity is almost irrelevant. They commonly describe the genre as “universal . . .
where questions of language, race, religion and gender are not raised.” For DJ Yavuz Ak,
the genre’s most impressive aspect is its general appeal:
It has no religion or language. Some people like to listen to it, others do not. We
don’t play to a certain audience, we just play our music . . . and it forms its own
connections. When you go to a party . . . people might not be speaking the same
language, but you share the same feelings when you dance on the floor.
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Electronic music event manager Bahattin Çınar believes that the music offers a chosen
lifestyle that eliminates prescribed identities: “It’s enough for us to share the same
music, the same lifestyle.” According to DJ Seymen, the genre is valuable precisely
because it brings different people together and makes otherwise unlikely encounters
possible: “You see people from many different cultures when you enter a club. When
you get to know them, you change your mind about your prejudices.”
In a music scene in which ethnic identities are unquestioned, German-Turkish
musicians do not feel a need to bring their culture to the music. DJ Seymen explains:
We don’t care to express Turkish identity through our music except that we use a
few “oriental” samples. We’re not different from others in musical terms. Perhaps
we differ in our daily routines, a bit. Germans drink beer in the production studio,
we make tea.

Yavuz Ak, on the other hand, realizes that being Turkish might be advantageous in a
cultural atmosphere where differences are appreciated, as they are in Berlin. But he
stresses that ethnicity is no longer an issue in an artistic environment where authentic
cultural identity is affirmed and recognized for its essential significance:
One can find music and musicians of every type in Berlin. And so, being from a
different culture and living here together among many other cultures is important
for us. Besides, I think ethnic motifs could be well applied to our music, and that
might help Turkish musicians become better known.

As with the rock music scene, Turkish young people have become visible in the
electronic music scene only in the last few years. They meet at the same Berlin clubs,
concerts and events that are the hub of the whole of the German electronic music
community. Musicians report that their initial interest in this traditionally unfamiliar
genre was mere entertainment; the idea of producing original electronic music
developed only in time as more young Turkish people began to frequent the clubs.
Encounters with the broader electronic music community helped German-Turkish
musicians to develop self-confidence and an original identity. DJ Demir is among
 Popular Music and Society 147

those who believe the time has come to talk of a distinctly Turkish electronic music
community:
A few years ago you could count the Turks in a club on the fingers of one hand. In
the last couple years, we’ve taken the stage with Seymen at many parties. We’re
seeing Turks participate more. And many producers and DJs have made names for
themselves in Berlin. The scene is maturing. We plan to organize a festival called
TechnoTurk this year, if we can find sponsors.

The members of the scene are generally well-educated university graduates and post-
graduates, mostly born in Germany, and have no significant integration problems. Since
their social environment is composed of musicians from all around the world, the
“TechnoTurks” are exempt from the exclusion and “othering” that is often part of the
day-to-day experience of other Turkish youngsters. Moreover, they are generally not
perceived as members of the Turkish community within their social circles. They
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perform to audiences in which it is rare to find Turks outside of the small, recognized
circle of electronic music enthusiasts. Even the production of electronic music differs
significantly from that of the ethnic and hip hop forms: notions of adopting, protecting,
transferring, or bridging an identity are not meaningful for Turkish electronic
musicians. Because the music is not rooted in ethnicity or protest, the diasporic
experience and its chronic problems seem far removed for electronic music’s
practitioners.
DJ Yavuz Ak argues that integration issues spring primarily from traditionalist
fears. Cultural patterns need to be broken to eliminate such worry-mongering:
I don’t think there’s an integration problem, but then again, the Turks here are
generally not extraverts. Fear of assimilation is a big factor . . . though it’s almost
been overcome in the third and fourth generations. But for many Turks, it’s still a
problem. I think such worries are baseless, especially in a city like Berlin.

Especially in the electronic music scene, the phenomenon of in-betweenness—so

peculiar to the second generation—is not observed. DJ Demir notes that the
community is not much concerned with the question of being double-rooted:
Personally, I say that I possess the best of two cultures. After all, I am neither a pure
German nor a pure Turk. . . . I am a mix. If you ask me how I define myself, I say
I’m a “Deutsch-Turk.”

Remarkably, electronic music has strong ties with the old hip hop scene, and there is
even a hybrid genre called “techno hip hop.” Moreover, a strong cooperation between
Turkish electronic and hip hop musicians is still observable today in Berlin’s
techno/hip hop music market. While hip hop, which started as a form of immigrant
protest music, is susceptible to market conditions and demands, it couples easily with
techno. In the marketplace, there is a reciprocal benefit to their coalition. Almost all
Turkish electronic music production takes at Dual Studios and is published by the 36
Beats label, both founded by the members of 36 Boys. Moreover, most of the
musicians in the electronic music scene have hip hop pasts, as Yavuz Ak explains:
 148 S. Güney et al.
We’ve all grown up with hip hop. What it meant for blacks in America, it meant the
same for the Turks here in the ’90s. Hip hop was the most effective and almost the
only way of expressing the problems of our youth.

There are still major ideological differences between techno and hip hop. Resistance
and defiance play heavily in the hip hop subculture, whereas the electronic music
scene is arguably hedonist in its outlook, taking up themes such as dance, drugs, sex,
leisure, and partying. But members of the two genres are increasingly overlapping in
terms of their lifestyle and daily lives, and the emergence of a Turkish electronic
music community seems to have influenced the hip hop music scene. Given the
atmosphere in Berlin, which offers ample opportunity for youth subcultures to
flourish peacefully, there is the potential for the Turkish techno movement to take
advantage of immigrants’ waning interest in protest. The warm waters of a hedonist
culture await.
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Conclusion
While they may differ in social and class structure, lifestyle, and musical perspective,
the Turkish young people who are taking the stage in Berlin’s music and
entertainment scene have much in common. The younger generation holds fewer
prejudices towards the host country and does not subscribe to the myth of return. As
producers and consumers in a transnational field, they are more cosmopolitan and
open to the influence of worlds outside the immigrant community. This new outlook
has allowed youth to transform the music culture and relationships forged by former
generations of musicians. The phase wherein music sustains ethnic identities and a
particular take on the immigrant experience has passed, and it is taking on new
functions and roles. A significant outcome of this change is the fusion of musical styles
apparent in the many hybrid genres like Turkische Rock, Anatolian Jazz, Rnbesk, and
Operap. These reflect the complex and multifaceted nature of youth in the diaspora,
who grow up juggling multiple identities. According to Nevzat Akpınar, who
correlates this trend with the general, current state of the diaspora, “a fusion cannot
not be created for the sake of creating one: real musical fusions are produced only if
the creator is himself a ‘fusion.’” These fusions led by Turkish musicians are
resounding among the German-Turkish community in Berlin, which is indicative of
the multidimensional identity structures in which the new generation of Turks find
themselves embedded, at least in terms of cultural production.8
We observe three developments that are enabling the new forms and meanings of
musical production in the diaspora. The first is that Berlin is itself a world city that
welcomes difference. It is an ideal atmosphere for spontaneous cultural encounter and
exchange. Second, language is no longer an obstacle to adaptation for younger
generations, and the idealization of homeland no longer factors into their thinking
owing to the ease of transportation and communication. And, finally, technology has
changed the culture: the internet provides a new platform for cultural products like
music to become visible and valuable. Younger German-Turks grow up interacting in
 Popular Music and Society 149

this global space where traditional formulations of the immigrant experience seem
passé.
Turkish musicians embedded within the musical genres outlined above are among
the communities that most strongly experience and drive these transformations. Being
active in universal fields of cultural production enables them to express and distinguish
themselves in a broader public sphere. In turn, they overcome the limitations of static,
diasporic identities and take on more productive, dynamic, multidimensional ones.
The general tone of the music of older generations ridiculed German culture, kept alive
the myth of return, stressed the discrimination and exclusion felt by immigrants and
thus nurtured a tenacious, introverted diasporic spirit. The stance of music today
toward German society can no longer be characterized as “othering.” The immigrant
music of younger generations is more flexible, open, and integrated and accommodates
rather than rejects differences. It is now serving as a medium for originality,
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entertainment, and cultural interaction.

Acknowledgements
Authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Galatasaray University. This research is funded by
Galatasaray University Scientific Research grant 11.300.003.

Notes
[1] Metin Türköz, one of the first representatives of the Anatolian ashik (minstrel) tradition in
Germany, recorded thirteen albums and sevety-two singles during his career. His lyrics
recounted the cultural differences between Turks and Germans in an ironic way.
[2] Arabesque is a genre of music native to Turkey. It is a blend of classical Turkish and folk music
mixed with Arab melodies. Arabesque became popular as a product of domestic migration
from rural to metropolitan areas that occurred in Turkey in the late 1960s. Addressed by and
large to the urban poor, the lyrics are often pessimistic, referring to themes such as impossible
love, endless problems, despair, and disappointment.
[3] Bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern
Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia. It is one of the key musical instruments of
Anatolian folk music and the ashik tradition.
[4] Rafet El Roman, a second-generation German-Turkish musician, was born in 1968. After
starting his career with stage performances in Germany, he returned to Turkey in 1995 and
released his first solo album. The album was a huge success, and his popularity increased along
with successive albums in the 1990s.
[5] İsmail YK (İsmail Yurtseven), a Turkish pop singer and composer, was born in Germany in
1978. With the Yurtseven Kardeşler (Yurtseven Brothers) he released two amateur albums in
Germany, in 1985 and 1987. He became famous in Turkey in 2004 after the release of his first
solo album, which sold more than a million copies.
[6] Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894– 1973) was a Turkish minstrel and highly regarded poet in the
Turkish folk tradition. He is considered the most important exemplars of the Anatolian ashiks
in the twentieth century.
[7] Berliner Mete Ekşi was killed in a street fight in 1991 when he was 19 years old. He became a
symbol in immigrant communities of the struggle against racism and discrimination.
[8] Bahar Kızıl (winner of Popstars Germany in 2006), Rnbesk vocalist Muhabbet (who rose to
number 15 on the music charts), and the fusion band Olivinn (recipient of the jury’s special
prize at “Junge Ohren” in 2011), are but a few examples.
 150 S. Güney et al.
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Notes on Contributors
Serhat Güney has worked extensively on radio listenership, immigrant media, and
music. His PhD thesis from the Marmara University, Istanbul (2007) is an
organizational study focusing on radio producers and DJs in terms of their
relationships with listeners. He is lecturing on broadcasting history and music use in
media. Dr. Güney (Assc. Prof.) is currently lecturing at Galatasaray University.

Cem Pekman is a professor at the communications faculty of Kocaeli University. He is

lecturing on broadcasting history, broadcasting systems and media policy. He is the
author and editor of three books, Private Television: The Transformation Process of
European Broadcasting, The Music of Image, The Image of Music, and Ertem Eğilmez: A
Film Man; and author of several book chapters. His articles are mainly on
broadcasting history and policy in Turkey and Europe, film music, advertising and
product placement.

Bülent Kabaş is a research assistant at Marmara University, Istanbul. He is studying

on youth subcultures in the context of cultural globalization. His PhD thesis is an
ethnographic research on the popularization of youth subcultures. He is recently
working on ‘Apache Music and Culture’, a popularized subculture among suburb
youth in recent years.