Anatolian rock
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Anatolian rock (also known as Turkish rock, is a fusion of Turkish folk and rock music. It emerged during the mid-1960s, soon after rock groups such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Status Quo and Omega became popular in Turkey. Examples of this style include Turkish musicians such as Cem Karaca, Barış Manço, Erkin Koray, Fikret Kızılok, Cahit Oben, Selçuk Alagöz, Edip Akbayram alongside bands such as Moğollar, Silüetler, Kurtalan Ekspres, Grup Çığrışım, Grup Çağrışım, Mavi Işıklar, Apaşlar, Kaygısızlar, Haramiler, Modern Folk Üçlüsü and Kardaşlar. Today, Anatolian rock includes music derived from both traditional Turkish folk music and rock.
History and development
In the late 1950s, Turkish singers such as Erol Büyükburç began to release English-language cover versions of American songs, as well as their own songs. By the early 1960s, Turkish groups began to perform instrumentals such as those by The Shadows and The Ventures. Although often locally popular performers, these Turkish groups were rarely recorded. The first original Turkish-language pop song was "Ayrılanlar İçin", released in 1964 by Timur Selçuk. Other singers also emerged, including Barış Manço, who first recorded in the early 1960s before later spearheading the growth of Turkish rock music in the 1970s with albums such as 2023 (1975). At the same time, Turkish society began to undergo significant cultural changes, including the growth of multi-party democracy in the region.
Turkish musicians also regularly performed at competitive European music festivals. In 1964, Tülay German performed the song "Burçak Tarlası" at the Balkan Music Festival, in a bossa nova style, and became immediately popular. As a direct result, the newspaper Hürriyet organised a "Golden Microphone" (Altın Mikrofon) competition, to encourage the development of popular Turkish music either by new compositions or by using domestic sources. This helped identify a new generation of musicians, including the groups Mavi Işıklar and Silüetler, and musicians Cem Karaca, Selçuk Alagőz and his sister Rana Alagőz.
The domestic rock music scene in Turkey expanded rapidly in the mid- and late 1960s. From 1968 to about 1975, psychedelic rock became popular in Turkey, notably the work of guitarist Erkin Koray, regarded as a "hugely influential figure on the Istanbul music scene". The band Moğollar are credited with "changing the landscape of Turkish rock by incorporating elements of Anatolian folk music," and, after recording in France as Les Mogols, named their musical genre Anadolu Pop. Another pioneer, Fikret Kızılok, combined the style of Anadolu Pop with overtly political lyrics, and experiments with electronic music.
Large-scale rock festivals (past and current)
- Rock'n Coke
- Masstival
- Radar Live
- Unirock Open Air Festival
- Rock Station Festival
- Barışarock
- Sonisphere Festival
See also
