ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces some of the transitions of Kurdish popular music texts and their contexts, including global trends such as world-beat and hip-hop. Following the First World War, the majority of Kurdish speaking lands (Kurdistan) were divided between the states of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The chapter suggests that the conflict acted to propel some Kurdish musicians into political and cultural activism. This process is manifested in the songs, composed, performed, and disseminated from the late 1990s. The chapter examines significant trends in the diversification of Kurdish music from the 2000s to the 2010s. It argues that proliferation encourages the decentralization of music production and distribution while underlining that traditional sales mean little in assessing the popularity of given records. The diversification of music production serves to reduce the political control previously exercised by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
