The Role of Television at the Gentrification of Arabesque Music

• Main Author: Ersoy Soydan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Marmara University 2015-11-01
• Series: Marmara İletişim Dergisi
• Subjects: Arabesque Music; Popular Culture; Gentrification; Television; Dilber Ay
• Online Access: http://dergipark.gov.tr/download/article-file/206428

Before television became so popular in our daily life, sub-cultural groups could have survived without any contact to mainstream lifestyle. Until the 1990s there were only state controlled radio stations and one television channel on which broadcasting arabesque music was prohibited. It’s after privately owned broadcasting began that arabesque music -by gaining a hybrid identity- has become mainstream. Thanks to privately owned television channels arabesque music were started to be listened by masses and its singers have become popular TV icons. In this paper the term gentrification which is a trend in urban neighborhoods, which results in increased property values and the displacing of lower-income families and small businesses, will be used to stress the integration of mainstream with arabesque music. The purpose of the paper is to point the role of privately owned TV channels on gentrification of arabesque music. In the paper, after the literature review, the relationship between popular culture and arabesque music, the historical background of arabesque music and the role of TV on gentrification of arabesque music will be expressed on an example: Dilber Ay. A popular TV show for arabesque music named “Kadere Mahkumlar” will also be mentioned. The fact that Dilber Ay who has been an icon in the arabesque music realm for forty years, becoming a popular culture figure after she has stood in mainstream TV channels in 2012, shows the role of TV on gentrification of arabesque music.