ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sketches a rough picture of popular music in Turkey by defining the historical turning points since the social and cultural dimensions of specific popular music practices are well-presented by the contributors. It focuses on popular music studies, from their emergence in the mid-1980s, which reflects complex mediations on these turning points. The book argues that popular music is both subject and object in the restructuration and transformation of relations between dominant and popular culture, which continuously reshapes the "Republic." It presents a collection of Ayhan Erol articles, either published in journals or presented in symposiums, showing his wide range of interdisciplinary interest in popular music studies, ranging from semiology to folk music, from theoretical issues to rock. The book provides an alternative reading of the history of popular music in Turkey.
