Rereading Turkey’s recent history through the lens of rock music: how rock has lost its socio-political edge in neoliberal times

Abstract

In presenting the historical development of rock music in Turkey from the early 1960s to the present within a socio-political framework, this study provides (1) a rereading of Turkish politico-economic changes and (2) a correlative cultural critique of rock musicianship and songwriting in the neoliberal age. Two related hypotheses are tested through a content analysis of 67 rock acts, 426 releases and 3452 songs from 1963 to 2019. First, it is argued that as Turkey moved from import substitution industrialisation between 1960 and 1980 to 1980s neoliberalism, the content of rock music lyrics changed from being overtly socio-political to having no relation to such matters or to adopting implicit and indirect language in mentioning them. Second, it is proposed that this lyrical unresponsiveness to social matters grew so powerfully as part of the neoliberal economic rationale that it put individuation, self-realisation and market demands ahead of other forms of social relations. So, today’s rock artists are unequipped to respond through their lyrics to grand events, such as the Gezi Park protests of 2013, the failed coup attempt of 2016, or a two-year state of emergency, terrorism and femicide, in contrast to the rock music of the 1960s and 1970s.