ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the meaning and importance of a song contest in Turkish popular music history. It was organized by and with the sponsorship of the Hurriyet Daily News, one of the most prominent newspapers of Turkey, and known as the Hurriyet Golden Microphone, and also the Golden Microphone Award. The Golden Microphone Award contest started in Istanbul with a preselection process made by a jury consisting of famous musicians chosen by the Hurriyet Daily News. The chapter attempts to analyze the Contest in accordance with the social, economic, political, etc. factors that shape a certain moment in Turkish popular music history, and analyzes the dynamics of these factors through the Golden Microphone. Stuart Hall, who places the analysis of mass media in the realm of social, political, economic, and cultural transformations as a whole, is concerned with the role of media in the circulation and enhancement of hegemonic ideological definitions and representations.
