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Istanbul sounding like revolution: the role of music in the Gezi Park Occupy movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2018

Raffaella Bianchi
Raffaella Bianchi*
Affiliation:
REDESM, International Research Centre on Religion, Law and Economy in the Mediterranean Area – Università degli Studi dell'Insubria, Como, Italy E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article focuses on the role of protest music in the biggest social movement of recent Turkish history. It is the result of three years of fieldwork triangulating musical and cultural analysis with ethnographic methods. Motives of the protest, strategies of the movement, agency of musicians and participatory performances are investigated and contextualised in an analysis of Turkey's cultural changes. The function of music shifted from framing the protest to encouraging political action and fostering a sense of belonging to the collective identity of the Gezi Park movement. Music even became political activism. By underlining different functions played by music in the case of the Gezi Park movement, this article problematises the relevance of music for social movements.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , May 2018 , pp. 212 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

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