The way to explore a nation’s identity is through a country’s music, its singers and the intimate connection they establish with their fans, advocates Martin Stokes, a lecturer in Ethnomusicology at Oxford University and the writer of The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music.
Stokes is a renowned academic studying music and music theory with a particular emphasis on contemporary Middle East. He is no stranger to examining Turkish music as his first book The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey was published in early 1990s.
Stokes’ second book, The Republic of Love has recently been translated into Turkish by Koç University Press. The book dissects Turkey’s recent history and its conflicting national identities through three musicians. Zeki Müren, the flamboyant singer who single-handedly normalized the concept of queer in Turkish culture, Orhan Gencebay, the father of arabesk music, and Sezen Aksu, the diva and queen of Turkish pop music, stand at the core of Stokes’ book. Through these public figures, Stokes visits Turkey’s history from the 1950s to today, and questions alternative conceptions of Turkishness as opposed to identities imposed by state ideologies. The music and public personae of these three figures help shine a light on the history of Turkish politics, a constant source of civil unrest. Stokes looks at music and pop culture in general as a major player in cultural change and as a reflection on turmoil.
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