Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-339-32897-3
Ph.D.
Cinema Studies
New York University
2015
Arabesk, initially a musical form in Turkey that was almost immediately taken up by the film industry (Yeşilçam), had its hybrid roots in emotional Arab-influenced melodies. Instigated by the increasing popularity of arabesk songs/singers in the 1970s, and their incorporation of the familiar structures of melodrama, arabesk music and cinema became almost indivisible. From the onset, the popularity of arabesk music and films, predominantly associated with migrants, instigated one of the most heated debates among the intellectuals in the history of Turkish Republic. The manner in which the defenders of values of a secular, modern nation questioned identity was ironically not very different from the anxieties that arabesk singers voiced through their songs and films. Especially due to the strict state control over music until the 1990s, cinema in Turkey remained a relatively free stage allowing arabesk to flourish.
Film studies
Communication and the arts;Aesthetics and politics;Cinema;Film genre;Music;Turkey;Urban culture